Catholic Fundamentalism has been used successfully to explain that The Church and Her teachings are not as bizarre and unbelievable as might otherwise be thought.
When we explain to the lost or strayed why we don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe that the earth is ten or twelve thousand years old, we may begin with our own explanation: “I used to believe that the universe was twenty billion years old. Then, I understood that God had, and has, the ability to program on a much higher level than ours. He can program even the tiniest particles, which we may crudely visualize as 3-D pixels. And He can program energies. Then, He compiled what He had programmed into systems and beings which He downloaded to make the vast Creation Program in which we live. He programmed everything as He did simply to give free will to us human beings. We are His greatly beloved, and incredibly complicated, free will programs.”
We may be asked “Can you prove any of that?”
One response is, “We aren’t supposed to be able to prove that God should be believed and obeyed so undeniably that a person is forced to believe in Him and His Church. We merely point out what He could have reasonably be understood to have done and pray that people will choose to obey Him and His Church rather than be ruled by their own desires. What does seem reasonable is that God doesn’t waste time. If He could have downloaded the previously written Creation Programs in six days, why wouldn’t He?”
A common reply: “But there are layers of fossils, carbon-14, and layers of rock, seams of coal, and all kinds of things that seem to have been here for billions of years.”
We might answer: “Yes, and every one of those things is absolutely vital in providing the free will that we free-will programs need to be able to freely choose to believe in Him, or not. Such structures were programmed and provided to provide free will for modern “intellectuals”. Everything of which we’re aware is part of The Creation Program, the entirety of which exists to see whether or not you and I will choose to believe and follow He Who lovingly programmed us within that immensely larger Program.”
