I found it very interesting that St. Augustine in writing on the Literal interpretation of Genesis warns Christians to be very cautious in making the bible say something that it doesn’t really say, and then looking foolish in the light of common reason that disagrees.

I used to believe in a 7 day literal interpretation of Genesis (I was also a young-earth enthusiast) – however, the more I study of evolution and the big bang, the more I at least see, in my own mind, that taking that position may not be the best exegetical approach to Genesis (in fact, there are interpretive reasons as well – but I won’t get into them).

Just to go hand and hand with this conversation, here is the quote that I was referencing from Augustine.

“Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up their vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn (Augustine, 1982).”

References

Augustine, S. (1982). The Literal Meaning of Genesis Vol 1. New Jersey: Paulist Press.

I am surprised to find out how many people have quoted St. Augustine as saying: “What was God doing before He created the World”, “He was creating Hell for people who ask questions like that”.  I was doing some research tonight, and I was surprised to find so many people quoting Augustine as saying this (both in theology books and secular writings alike). 

Being a good student (and learning my lesson the hard way of quoting things without checking the source), I pulled out my Confessions to find this quote and read it for myself, before I quoted it. However, as I pulled out my confessions I found that Augustine did not actually say what everyone is quoting him as saying (I’ve also checked the Penguin Classics translation against my Oxford World’s Classics to verify that I wasn’t reading a translation error).

In fact, Augustine said that he would never choose to answer such a question with such a response.  Here is the exact quote from my translation (Penguin was a bit different but said essentially the same):

This is my reply to anyone who asks: ‘What was God doing before he made heaven and earth?’  My reply is not that which someone is said to have given as a joke to evade the force of the question.  He said: ‘He was preparing hells for people who inquire into profundities.’  It is one thing to laugh, another to see the point at issue, and this reply I reject.  I would have preferred him to answer ‘I am ignorant of what I do not know’ rather than reply so as to ridicule someone who has asked a deep question and to win approval for an answer which is a mistake.  – The Confessions, Book 11, Section 14, Oxford World’s Classics – translated by Henry Chadwick.

I think this quote can still be used for a humorous ice breaker for either side of the discussion, to get people’s attention – making sure of course, to word the introduction to the quote in such a way as to not attribute to Augustine himself.

I was just surprised that so many intellectuals have misquoted him, that I just thought I would pass this along!

In the first century A.D. the Philosopher and Theologian St. Augustine said “… you have made us for yourself [God], and our heart is restless until it rests in you (Augustine, 1998).

Back in the 1500 to 1600 hundreds the child prodigy, mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal (Blaise Pascal, 2008) said “Man tries unsuccessfully to fill this void with everything that surrounds him, seeking in absent things the help he cannot find in those that are present, but all are incapable of it. This infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite, immutable object, that is to say, God himself (Pascal, 2008).”

The great apologist and linguist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter to Mr. Vanauken in the 1950’s in which he said; “If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is it you don’t feel at home there? Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or w[oul]d. [sic] not always be, purely aquatic creatures (Lewis, 2007)?”

As recently as 2007, the neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Newberg has identified areas of the brain that he believes may be hard-wired for responding to religious activities (Gajilan, 2007).

I believe the continued interest in Astrology, despite its lack of scientific basis is a manifestation for a desire to know and understand and seek something to fill a void that we all have as humans. We want to know where we come from, why we’re here, and where we are going. I believe that the interest in astrology provides at least the positive benefit of keeping people open minded, understanding that not everything can be simplified to a mathematical equation (e.g. how does one describe love with numbers), I think the negative impact of Astrology is how much money people actually spend on it; and how much some people actually schedule their lives around it – in that respect, I believe that people would be much better releasing themselves from a belief that has no evidential basis.

References

Augustine, S. (1998). Confessions. New York: Oxford University Press.

Blaise Pascal. (2008, October 14). Retrieved October 14, 2008, from WikiPedia.Org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_pascal

Gajilan, A. C. (2007, April 5). Are humans hard-wired for faith? Retrieved October 14, 2008, from Cnn.Com: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/04/04/neurotheology/

Lewis, C. (2007). The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Pascal, B. (2008). Pensees and Other Writings (Oxford World’s Classics). New York: Oxford University Press Inc.

I found the quote by Christiaan Huygens very interesting. I’ve recently finished reading a few books written by qualified and well known scientists in the field of astronomy, physics and biology discussing how these fields of science can and do work together with religion to build a single cohesive worldview.

The quote especially reminds me of the most recent book that I am nearing the end of. The book is written by Frank Tipler, who is a Mathematical Physicist at Tulane University, and is titled The Physics of Christianity. Tipler also views science as a form of religion and states “… since His [God’s] laws [of science] are His direct creation, studying His natural laws is as pious an act as studying the Bible (Tipler, 2007).”

Indeed if there is a God, and He created all things, than the study of His creation (science) is as much of an act of trying to understand Him as opening up a bible and reading His word.

There is so much hidden in the recesses of space and time and the multiverse waiting to be found. This information has and will continue to help describe our origins and will help us understand our meaning and purpose.

References

Tipler, F. J. (2007). The Physics of Christianity. New York: Doubleday.