Six geese a-laying: The six days of creation described in Genesis
Sometimes a blogger posts a tidbit so precious that a fellow blogger cannot help but use it. So, with a courtesy to Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish, I would like to post the following quote from Pope John Paul II:
"The Bible itself speaks to us of the origin of the universe and its make-up, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise, but in order to state the correct relationships of man with God and with the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God, and in order to teach this truth it expresses itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the writer."
In other words: Don’t take the biblical account of creation literally. But where should Catholics look for information about the origin of the world?
I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the Vatican’s Observatory, one of the world’s oldest astronomical institutes which has been conducting research since 1891 on the nature of the universe and seeks to “be a bridge between Science and the Catholic Church.”
Among recent research topics at the observatory is ‘Dark Matter,’ which at first glance may seem to be a way of examining Satan’s tempting power throughout the cosmos. NASA (and the observatory) has a different definition:
If the information in that quote has sufficiently bent the mind, then on to Vatican astronomer Father Chris Cormally’s pacifying take on why his work matters:
"The meeting place of God and science is the whole universe, because that's where God is active."
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