A valued commentator on the Catholic Fundamentalism Facebook page has serious doubts about believing in God. He frequently, and very intelligently, sums up beliefs and opinions that are found among many well-educated people of an intellectual bent.
Chris Pollard is intelligent, well-read, and was kind enough to send a book, The Inner Fish, by Neil Shubin. It is a scientific explanation of evolution.
Mr. Shubin analyses various parts of human and animal bodies. He very intelligently explains how they are related to similar structures that appeared in earlier and later creatures, many of which are now extinct. He makes as reasonable a case for evolution as I have seen. What the Mr. Shubin and those with similar views may not realize is that, in the very same book, he makes a strong case for Catholic Fundamentalism. Evolution or creation? You pays your money and you takes your choice.
How could this be? Catholic Fundamentalism visualizes God as The Loving Programmer. We believe that He and a vast host of Angelic Sub-Programmers wrote, compiled, and downloaded The Creation Program and its myriad of sub-programs.
Catholic Fundamentalism sees the very same things that evolutionists like Mr. Shubin see. We recognize the very same stages and similarities in structures. We differ by believing that they may just as easily be seen as remnants of sub-programs that were compiled, downloaded and modified to serve other purposes. Between The Download and the Flood, some of those sub-programs were erased. They remain only in the “archives of stone”, where they are still being found. Other sub-programs were modified and usefully re-downloaded within other beings that had different needs and requirements. The Loving Programmer is efficient. He recycles and modifies sub-programs whenever possible.
Reading Mr. Shubin’s book certainly gave me a much better idea of God’s programming ability. I am grateful to Mr. Shubin for writing it and to Mr. Pollard for his kindness in sending it.
The problem with the “fossil record” is that there is no proof that it wasn’t all laid down, amidst 360 layers of sedimentary deposits that fell in layers and turned into rock during and after The Flood. To Catholic Fundamentalists, the “fossil record” is only a record of which animals sank first. The implicit logic therein provided some with reasons for believing in an ancient beginning.
What caused the layers of sediment? During The Flood, at least one huge tidal wave raced around the earth. The Big Wave had immense weight. It twisted, distorted, raised and bent the layers of hardening stone as silts dropped out, were compressed, and sometimes baked. In some places, magmatic activity shoved the hardening layers of sediment high into, and even above, the waters.
Mountain chains rose into the sky, ocean floors sank deeper, volcanoes erupted, and Noah and his family enjoyed the most spectacular displays in history from their lawn chairs on the deck of the ark. At the same time, magma and hydrocarbons were programmed to be formed in such a way as to provide both energy for future generations and difficulty in obtaining it.
Why would The Loving Programmer write and download so many sub-programs in such a way that some people could analyze them and think them to be very old? Catholic Fundamentalism suggests that He wrote a special code into The Creation Program: “Each accessible sub-program must be downloadable so that every human program can believe it occurred naturally or that it was programmed and downloaded by The Loving Programmer.” Evolution or Creation? You pays your money and you takes your choice.
We are perfectly free to believe that the cosmos came into being by accident. Some freely choose to believe that God took a very, very, very long time to get it done. The god in whom such people believe is the deified equivalent of a person who’d take fifty years to build a simple birdhouse.
We are also perfectly free to believe that our God was able to write and download The Creation Program in six days. And, that He did. Wow! Now, that’s a God!
There is a reason that people do not believe in a God powerful enough to write and download The Creation Program, erase part of it with The Flood, and download a whole new program of selected sub-programs upon the earth. That reason is vanity. Those who reject the existence, let along the immortality, of their soul and of the Loving God Who created it are numbered among those to whom the eternal joy of Heaven must be denied.
How can we help those who have been led astray? We can love them and ask The Loving Programmer to reveal His higher truth to them so that they may exchange human vanities for salvation.
