Seeking the World’s Origins Today

Once during a lecture I was giving, a participant asked me why the church did not produce an alternative version of the story of creation since the biblical story was encased in an ancient view of the world’s origins which could no longer be considered realistic in terms of current views of the origin of the universe. It is a good question which opens up one of the aspects of the new era into which we are moving.

In the Middle Ages and for many people in the centuries following them, the only version available to explain the origins of the world was that offered by the Bible. Some scholars even tried to work out the date of creation by following back the generations of people mentioned in the Scriptures.

As we are well aware we are now living in a time when the origin of the universe and of living creatures is being investigated by serious scholars and scientists who are producing explanations of the origin of things which are based on the best evidence they can glean. And they do not claim that these are definitive but are the best that can be achieved at this stage.

My answer to the man who asked the above question was that it is not the Church’s job to produce explanations of how the world began or how living creatures developed, that is a task to be left to those who are competent to do it – those who are experts in such matters.

Our approach to the world is that its living source is God; its very existence and inner creativity arises from God’s presence and action at a level which is divine and so is not in conflict with the causes and forces which are part of the world’s working out of itself.

So it is for the scholars and scientists involved in such matters to keep seeking to present images of the world’s beginnings and functioning; such is not the Church’s task.  We need to acknowledge that we have to learn from the achievements of those involved in such areas of study. 

This is a crucial element in the role of faith and of the Church in the new age into which we are entering. 

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin