Paul Poulton reports

Paul Poulton

Hello, this is Paul Poulton, war correspondent for the 'bewildered, puzzled and caught in the cross-fire', reporting, with the latest updates on the longest war in the history of the world. Recent headlines have suggested that the Church wants to end its war with Science. One Anglican spokesman has even stated that the Church should admit it wronged Charles Darwin. Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, who is the Church of England's Director of Mission and Public Affairs wrote to the deceased author of "On The Origin Of Species" saying, "The Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still". Charles being unable to respond on this earthly plane, his great-great grandson, Andrew Darwin did the responding for him. Andrew didn't take kindly to the apology calling it "pointless".

It must be admitted that there have been some bitter battles between the Church and Science. In one of the early skirmishes it's fair to say that the Church drew first blood, (if you'll excuse the pun) by refusing to bleed patients. In 1163AD a Church edict by the Council of Tours forbade monks and priests to practice bloodletting. It took a while for the Church to come to this conclusion but it came to the right decision in the end and Science suffered a severe blow at the hands of the Church. Centuries later Science was still cutting poor ill people and draining their precious blood, when their blood was the thing they needed the most. One British medical text recommended bloodletting for acne, asthma, cancer, cholera, coma, convulsions, diabetes, epilepsy, gangrene, gout, herpes, indigestion, insanity, jaundice, leprosy, pneumonia, scurvy, smallpox, stroke, tetanus, tuberculosis, and some one hundred other diseases. So common was the practice of cutting that even barbers were called upon to slice into people and pour out their haemoglobin. Ever wondered why a barber's pole has red stripes? In 1736 Methodist Church pioneer John Wesley was called to the house of a young girl called Miss Bovey who was feeling unwell; Wesley said she had prickly heat, something he had seen before because it was so common. Wesley comforted the family and left their house. In the mean time the local physician, Dr Talser turned up and proceeded to bleed the girl, she promptly collapsed. When Wesley heard the news he rushed to the house and tried to revive the girl who he hoped was only in a swoon, but it was too late, Miss Bovey was dead. Wesley commented that "I never saw so beautiful a corpse in my life. Poor comfort to its late inhabitant!"

If we are to take a comprehensive approach though, it's probably fair to say that Science has reigned down more bitter blows on the Church and won more battles than the Church has dealt to Science. When hostilities first broke there was a battle about a flat earth, the Bible spoke of the corners of the earth, the pillars of the earth, the ends of the earth and some early believers held on to these scriptures tightly. Augustine (354-430) a big influence on the Church stated, "But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is on no ground credible." Science won this battle with skill and aplomb but even so, some sections of the Church held on to this belief for some time; the battle took a while to settle down. Wilbur Voliva (1870-1942) lived in Zion, 40 miles north of Chicago; Wilbur declared that the Bible was his entire scientific library. Astronomers were 'ignorant fools'. The Church schools in Zion taught the flat earth doctrine. His 100,000 watt radio station broadcast his diatribes against round earth astronomy.

Copernicus (1473-1543) who was himself a canon of the Church, upset the Church by writing that the Earth orbits the Sun. This was a contentious conflict at the time, even Martin Luther called Copernicus "a fool who went against Holy Writ" and an "upstart". Today we all take the solar system as common knowledge even though the Bible tells us that the sun rises and the sun sets, we've adjusted our view of the way the Bible teaches us things, as the apostle Paul says, in malice be children, but in understanding be men. We still believe the Bible but have a bit more light than our medieval brothers and sisters and for some of the light we have to say thanks to Copernicus and others who stood firmly on the side of truth. There is a list of well known scientific names who have not coexisted easily with the Church. I won't go into those who were reputed to have been threatened with torture or execution for their beliefs, maybe when the state of affairs between Church and Science is called a war, it's no mere label.

More recently Associated Press published a headline stating "Vatican wants to end battle with science". A Vatican project has been set up to help end the "mutual prejudice" between religion and science. The Vatican project was inspired by Pope John Paul II's declaration that the Church's 17th-century denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." Galileo was condemned for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the earth revolved around the sun; Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the centre of the universe.

Calls for a truce in the war seem to be a step forward but a history of mutual distrust, name calling and bias on both sides make an end to hostilities look unlikely. Sceptics of the Church these days like to point out that in the eighteenth century English theologians were eloquently represented by the Rev Edward Massey, who preached and published a sermon entitled, The Dangerous and Sinful Practice of Inoculation. Inoculation is of course now an acceptable health-care practice. Today's church cinema goers have recently been watching a film called "Expelled". The movie is reputed to uncover a rather serious conspiracy in the scientific community. It may be with a note of relish that believers point out the journalist uncovering the plot in "Expelled" is a non-Christian. The film is a welcome bedfellow to a theme that some quarters of the Church seem to hold, namely that Science has an agenda to discredit the scriptures. It may be true to say that there are some scientists who do in fact look for evidence to discredit Christ and the Bible, but it seems likely that the majority of scientists are not trying to match their science up to anything other than truth. Scientists in turn accuse the Church of also having an agenda, it is the Church after all that has a prerequisite script to follow, whereas the scientists point out they themselves have no agenda save seeking out the truth of the physical universe we all live in. Science finds it hard to take the Church seriously when they sound like dodgy conspiracy theorists that resort to scaremongering to score points for their cause.

Commentators point out that God can use both the Church and Science. God can teach the scientists something through the Church and teach the Church something through Science. Maybe Science can teach about physics because that is the skill God has given them and the Church can teach about metaphysics because that is the gift given to them. Science teaches about the natural domain and the Church teaches about the supernatural domain. It's possible that Scientists go beyond their boundaries when they hypothesise about why things have happened and the Church goes beyond its boundaries when it tells us how things have happened. Maybe it's Andrew Darwin's job to tell us what he has found out about how the universe works and the Church's job to teach Andrew why he should receive an apology with grace.

Fox News reported on a news conference set up for détente between the warring factions, saying Cardinal Paul Poupard said the faithful should listen to what science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into fundamentalism if it ignores scientific reason.

It's probably not helpful to any kind of ceasefire when parts of the Church get upset because Science comes up with some new theory; the Church's track record with 'Science versus the Church' is not good. In turn it's fair to say that Scientists are not always right and are on a learning curve just like the rest of us. Accusing scientists of having a "no-God" agenda, and using scientific evidence to promote their beliefs seems a serious, if not judgemental step. The man in the street probably thinks this is simply not true; it's most likely the majority of scientists turn up for work each morning genuinely trying to find out facts about the universe we live in and don't doctor their evidence to suit.

So for the 'bewildered, puzzled and those caught in the cross-fire' what are we to make of it all? Do we have to align ourselves with one side or the other? Will current scientific understanding prove to be out of step with reality, the answer is almost certainly yes to some of it? But how about the Church, will the Christians in successive generations look back on us like we look back on the Church era that believed the earth was the centre of the solar system and fought tooth and nail for their position? I don't know, maybe. What are we to make of the young earth/old earth and all the other hot current topics that get banded about on church/scientific web sites and magazines? Do we have to tell our mates that unless they believe the earth is young they can't be Christians? Do we have to know all the arguments about the Big Bang, Intelligent Design and Hubble's Law? Well the answer I would give is "probably not", the Christian's faith is not in Science or in the Church, it's in Jesus. Each of us needs to have our faith squarely in Him, and the war seems like a good opportunity for taking our eyes off Him. Whatever our thoughts are of how the bible teaches us about the world around us, one thing that is not open to conjecture is that we should take our eyes off Christ. It may not be good for us to bury our heads in the sand but, as King David said, neither is good for us to concern ourselves with things too wonderful for us.