Post Vatican II

POST VATICAN II I recently read an interesting book by Philip St. Romain, CATHOLIC ANSWERS TO FUNDAMENTALISTS’ QUESTIONS, published by Liguori Press with the imprimatur of Edward O’Donnell, Vicar General of St. Louis.

One question was: WHY NOT USE AS OUR MODEL THE THEORY OF SCIENTIFIC CREATIONISM? Mr. St. Romain replied:

“Space does not permit a comprehensive response to this question. Suffice it to say the following:

“1. The Genesis account of creation should not be taken literally, owing to its mythical-literary nature. It is therefore unnecessary to look for scientific confirmations of its six-day account.

“2. The theory of evolution is supported by data from a number of scientific disciplines, although many questions remain unanswered.

“3. Scientific creationism is based upon weak and even erroneous bits of data, and it neglects numerous facts which contradict it.

“4. There is nothing in creation that suggests that the world was created by only one God, as scientific creationists contend. Nature religions are generally polytheistic, which points up the indebtedness of scientific creationism as an a priori conclusion based on Genesis. This is, at best, very sloppy science!”

CHRISTIAN COMMENT While the statement by Philip St. Romain might sound at first to be an avowal of polytheism, it probably is not. He is probably saying that since primitive religions are mostly polytheistic (which is what he contends), we must look somewhere else for facts about the beginning of the Universe. Genesis contends a monotheism which is not consistent with historical data from natural religions. He is trying to point out a possible dichotomy between historical scientific creationism and historical religion.

This theory explodes when one realizes that polytheism is a aberration introduced by Satan in his attempt to dethrone God.