Theos-Talk Archives (May 2006 Message tt00293)

Yahoo crashed as I sent this, a bit spoooky
Cass

Creationism dismissed as 'a kind of paganism' by Vatican's astronomer

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=674042006
 
Creationism dismissed as 'a kind of paganism' by Vatican's astronomer
IAN JOHNSTON 
 
BELIEVING that God created the universe in six days is a form of
superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno claimed
yesterday. 
 
Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and
as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a
"destructive myth" had developed in modern society that religion and
science were competing ideologies. 
 
He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools
alongside evolution, as a "kind of paganism" because it harked back to
the days of "nature gods" who were responsible for natural events. 
 
Brother Consolmagno argued that the Christian God was a supernatural
one, a belief that had led the clergy in the past to become involved
in science to seek natural reasons for phenomena such as thunder and
lightning, which had been previously attributed to vengeful gods.
"Knowledge is dangerous, but so is ignorance. That's why science and
religion need to talk to each other," he said. 
 
"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it
close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of
the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god.
And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know
that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing
to do." 
 
Brother Consolmagno, who was due to give a speech at the Glasgow
Science Centre last night, entitled "Why the Pope has an Astronomer",
said the idea of papal infallibility had been a "PR disaster". What it
actually meant was that, on matters of faith, followers should accept
"somebody has got to be the boss, the final authority". 
 
"It's not like he has a magic power, that God whispers the truth in
his ear," he said.