Letters

Science and Christianity (letter)

Scot Chaston

Contents - Mar 2001 - Buy a copy now Editorial: ACU theology: prompt action needed - Peter Westmore New cardinals to continue John Paul II's agenda - AD2000 Report News: The Church Around the World Seminary numbers up in orthodox US dioceses - Michael S. Rose How Archbishop Pell will implement Statement on Women in the Church Elizabeth Anscombe, R.I.P. - Robert P. George ACU theology: how orthodox, how accountable? - Michael Gilchrist Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter ordinations How monastic life can reinvigorate the Church - Fr Peter Knowles OP Cardinal Ratzinger on 'Third Secret' of Fatima What we must teach our children: Archbishop Chaput - Archbishop Charles J. Chaput New Catholic radio program to start in WA The surprise Cardinal: Fr Avery Dulles SJ - Zenit News Service Letters: Euthanasia in S.A. (letter) - Errol P. Duke Letters: Science and Christianity (letter) - Scot Chaston Letters: Enneagram workshop (letter) - Br Con Moloney CFC Letters: Church doctrine? (letter) - Frank Mobbs Letters: Anti-Catholicism (letter) - Frank Bellet Letters: Old liturgical books (letter) - Frank Carleton Letters: Latin (letter) - Karmenu Attard Letters: Supernatural order (letter) - Fr G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Misguided compassion (letter) Letters: G.K. Chesterton (letter) - Nancy McKelson Letters: EWTN tapes (letter) - John Lovegrove Letters: Vocations and orthodoxy (letter) - John Schmid Letters: Third Rite in Toowoomba (letter) - Mark Power Letters: Poem to Our Lady - Marion Craig Letters: Appeal from India (letter) - Kevin L. Fernandes Letters: Catholic education (letter) - Daniel Bryce Letters: Boredom? (letter) - Josephine Landsberg Books: Come To The Father: An Invitation to Share the Catholic Faith, Aidan Nichols OP - Christopher Quinn (reviewer) Books: Streams of Living Water: Autobiography of a Charismatic Leader - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: Why the hopes of the Council Fathers of Vatican II are yet to be realised - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: Why I Am A Priest: Thirty Success Stories, ed. Boadt, Hunt - Katie Lindorff (reviewer) Books: The Pange Lingua Hymnal, compiled by Paul Newton - Fr Gregory Pritchard PP (reviewer) Reflection: Liturgy in the true spirit of Vatican II - Ralph McInerny

I would like to comment on Carol Phillips' "Science and Christianity" letter (February AD2000). The principles of mutation and of natural selection are well established in molecular biology. Our immune systems operate through mechanisms of natural selection, such as vaccinations. These are some aspects of the Darwinian Theory of Evolution that are here to stay. Evidence, at the molecular level, of mechanisms of natural selection in the maintenance of species stability is overwhelming.

However, these discoveries have made the problem of discovering life's origins even more difficult according to the Nobel Prize winning biologist Jacques Monod in his book Chance and Necessity. His book does not mention a "missing link." The antecedents of the emergence of human life are still a mystery.

Monod says further that "the epigenic building of a [living] structure is not a creation; it is a revelation." Each living structure is a revelation of what is "contained in posse" in the dust of our solar system.

Acts of God happen spontaneously under the right conditions, such as lightning, etc. Human life begins at the cellular seed level. The very first virgin human seeds that propagated successfully would have formed spontaneously within their appropriate physical/biological conditions. Natural selection conserves these conditions.

Consciousness, cells, seeds, life, etc, are just as likely to evolve as are our Sun, Mars and the Earth under our feet. God created all of these imanent possibilities and a multitude more within the dust of our solar system. Though Monod's biases are anti- Christian, his evolution biology does no harm to our beliefs in God's continuing revelation, and in the virgin birth of Jesus.

SCOT CHASTON
Page, ACT
(schaston@hotmail.com)

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 14 No 2 (March 2001), p. 13