OTHCC Chapter 16: items 301

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The account of Creation tells us that you are governed by

a.   a purely random set of accidents.
b.   a set of fixed, deterministic laws.
c.   a transcendent, intelligent, and good being called ''God.''

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Beware! If the universe is governed by a purely random set of accidents, or by a set of fixed, deterministic laws, then

a.   it is possible that you are, also.
b.   that does mean that you are, also.
c.   that does not mean that you are, also.

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In the Catechism [CCC 295] the Holy Father and bishops united with him profess that the universe and everything in it is

a.   not even partially the product of necessity, or of blind fate or chance.
b.   partially the product of necessity, or of blind fate or chance.
c.   the product of necessity, or of blind fate or chance.

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In the world as it is now, you may meet ''spiritual'' people who may not be Catholic or who may even detest the Catholic faith, and yet they believe that ''miracles'' are as common as the flowers in spring. You may also meet learned Catholics who tell you that the ''miracle stories'' in the Bible are just special literary forms of expression, and that Catholics certainly do not have to believe that miracles literally occur.

Until a few hundred years ago, nearly everyone, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, believed that miracles occurred. By 1870, however, the situation was much changed, so in its ''Dogmatic Constitution concerning the Catholic Faith'' the First Vatican Council solemnly affirmed that anyone who says that miracles are not possible is damned, or at very least is excluded from full union with the Catholic Church (the two meanings of ''anathema''):

''If anyone shall have said that miracles are not possible, and hence that all accounts of them, even those contained in Sacred Scripture, are to be banished among the fables and myths; or, that miracles can never be known with certitude, and that the divine origin of the Christian religion cannot be correctly proved by them: let him be anathema.''

These days the Church typically defines miracles as events with no scientific explanation that occur to help men move closer to Christ: for example, a miraculous cure that strengthens the faith of believers. Miracles are works of God that always have the purpose of drawing men nearer to Christ. Something can not be a miracle if it does not help men move closer to Christ.

Strictly speaking, miracles are events that occur without ''rhyme or reason.'' That is, no miracle repeats, or is predictable. There is no ''rhyme'' to miracles, no predictable recurring pattern, so therefore in human terms no ''reason'' for any miracle can be found. Each miracle is a one-of-a-kind event. As such it can have no scientific explanation, for science can only measure and explain events that ''rhyme,'' that recur and are predictable. Any scientific search for miracles is silly, by the very definitions of the words ''science'' and ''miracle.'' However, the fact that science by definition can not measure or explain one-of-a-kind events does not prove that one-of-a-kind events can not occur.

As soon as we say, ''I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth,'' [Apostle's Creed] we are already professing that God can perform one-of-a-kind deeds in which we can see his wisdom and that have a true purpose, but which will never have a scientific explanation. In CCC 295 the Holy Father and the bishops teach that ''God created the world according to his wisdom. It is not the product of any necessity whatever, nor of blind fate or chance.'' CCC 296 says: ''God creates freely 'out of nothing.''' >>

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It is important to understand that creation ''out of nothing'' not only means creation from no prior material, it also means creation from no prior reason. Even the laws and principles of existence, which manifest his wisdom, were created by God out of nothing. No pre-existing law or principle prompted Creation or makes Creation understandable in human terms.

The world itself is full of rhyme and reason: beautiful, wonderful, and highly understandable, yet everything came to be for absolutely no rhyme or reason that we can ever understand, but purely out of God's love. All of creation is a sheer gift from God. To be Catholic is to know that the existence of absolutely everything is utterly dependent on a completely free act of God's love. The entire world exists purely because God ''wanted to make his creatures share in his being, wisdom, and goodness.'' [CCC 295]

The gospels recount that Jesus worked many miracles. The gospels call them ''works'' or ''signs,'' which are not limited to but do not exclude miracles as we define them today. Certainly, his multiplication of the loaves and fishes, his cures of the sick, his expulsion of demons, his raising of Lazarus from the dead are sheer gifts of God, events with no scientific explanation that occurred to help men believe in Christ and move closer to him.

Especially for the last several hundred years, the Catholic Church is very reluctant to call an event a miracle. It does so only after ruling out every other explanation. Contrary to the thinking of some ''spiritual'' people of the present, events with scientific explanations, not miracles, are the ones as common as the flowers in spring. Yet to be Catholic, even a little bit, is to know that miracles are real. One-of-a-kind events can by definition only be sheer gifts from God himself, yet they are real. Existence itself comes from a reason forever beyond scientific explanation - from God's completely free love.

Most people never personally witness a miracle - but some people really do personally witness a miracle. A Catholic can not remain Catholic and reject the possibility of miracles, nor can a Catholic say that miracles stopped occurring a long time ago. Miracles, beginning with Creation itself, are real. Moreover, every time the Church canonizes a new saint, in effect she assures us that miracles continue to occur, since evidence of miracles associated with prayer to the saint is required for canonization.

Some of the things in the Bible may indeed just be stories. However, many things in the Bible are accounts of genuine miracles. They are accounts of events that are sheer gifts of God, with no scientific explanation, that occurred to help men move closer to Christ. <<

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An ''oral tradition'' is

a.   a conscientiously applied program of oral hygiene and regular professional care.
b.   written words spoken orally at special occasions for generations.
c.   words spoken and remembered over generations, and not written down.

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Modern biblical scholars think that some of the Old Testament, and the gospels, began as

a.   oral traditions.
b.   vague traditions.
c.   written traditions.

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According to the Holy Father and bishops in communion with him, thinking that some of the Old Testament, and the gospels, began as oral traditions

a.   by itself moves you farther from Christ.
b.   does not by itself move you farther from Christ.
c.   may by itself move you farther from Christ.

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Wait a minute. Do the Holy Father and bishops in communion with him understand that, by the nature of oral tradition, the tradition is told, re-told, elaborated, cut, changed, by many different people over many years, even over centuries, maybe even for a thousand years, before some version of it ever gets written down?

a.   Maybe.
b.   No.
c.   Yes.

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Wait a minute. Do the Holy Father and bishops in communion with him understand that, by the nature of oral tradition, different versions of the same tradition may have been passed on at different times, or were being passed on even at the same time, before some version of it ever gets written down?

a.   Maybe.
b.   No.
c.   Yes.

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Wait a minute. How can the Catholic Church profess that the one particular version of an oral tradition that was eventually written down in the Old Testament is the true, inspired Word of God, when so many other oral versions may have existed?

a.   What a silly question. It was a simple question of power. The people with power liked one particular tradition, and suppressed the others.
b.   What a silly question. There isn't any one ''privileged'' version of the oral tradition. It was just an accident that one was chosen over the others.
c.   What a silly question. God ''waited'' for the inspired authors to decide the ''name'' of the true tradition. Once they had, ''that was its name.''

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Wait a minute. What about any people who innocently listened to and passed on a version of an oral tradition that did not end up in the Bible? Weren't they automatically moving farther from God when that happened?

a.   Maybe.
b.   No.
c.   Yes.

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Wait a minute. Do the Holy Father and bishops in communion with him understand that, from time immemorial, there have been many other stories about the universe's origins, including the one told by modern science, many of which flatly contradict the Bible's account? [CCC 283-285]

a.   Maybe.
b.   No.
c.   Yes.

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Modern biblical scholars think that many parts of the Bible were compiled from diverse oral and written traditions. This means that more than one tradition, perhaps even regarding similar or even identical subjects, was included in the Sacred Scriptures. At times, these diverse traditions were even placed near each other, even side by side, in the Bible. Read Gen 1:20-26, in which God plainly creates the animals before man. Now read, in the very next chapter, Gen 2:18-19, in which God plainly creates the animals after man and sees what man will name them.

It's a lot more complicated than this, but from this inconsistency, as well as many other technical considerations, modern biblical scholars conclude that

a.   the book of Genesis is unreliable and has no real meaning.
b.   the Catholic Church can not find the literal sense of Genesis.
c.   two separate traditions were placed side by side.

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Gen 1:20-26 states that God created the animals before man. Gen 2:18-19 states that God created the animals after man. Forget about the fact that, from time immemorial, there have been many other stories about the universe's origins, many of which flatly contradict the Bible's account. Here is plain evidence that the Bible flatly contradicts itself! So, what are you going to do about that?

a.   Leave the Catholic Church and stop receiving the sacraments.
b.   See that two traditions may have been placed side by side.
c.   Understand that absolutely everything is equally true.

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Somebody comes up to you and patiently explains that science, not a collection of moldy old stories from some pathetic desert tribe, will give us the answer to the origins of the universe. After thanking him (remember, the generic him) for his patience with you, you reply, ''I think you may be missing the point here.''

a.   ''Genesis is a collection of stories that can have any meaning you want.''
b.   ''God tells us that we can ignore scientific evidence if it's inconvenient.''
c.   ''Science may tell us what happened, but it can not tell us why.''

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OK. We have:

- a large number of contradictory accounts of the universe's origins.
- contradictory traditions of the universe's origins even in the Bible.

We would not have any strong reason to care about these contradictions except for one thing: we really do want to know the true meaning of existence. Man's questions about the origins of the universe are at root stimulated by his permanent and universal need to know the meaning of existence. Strictly speaking, the physical sciences can not help man with this question, because they can only study what happened, but not why. [CCC 284]

As many scientists themselves recognize, it is not a question of some sinister Vatican bureaucrat ''not allowing'' the physical sciences to study the meaning of existence. The physical sciences are set up purely to study what happens, not why. Forcing the physical sciences to study something else besides that is just bad science, like forcing a bicycle to be a boat - and it has similar consequences.

So, men permanently and universally ask questions like the following: ''Is the universe governed by chance, blind fate, anonymous necessity, or by a transcendent, intelligent and good Being called 'God'? And if the world does come from God's wisdom and goodness, why is there evil? Where does it come from? Who is responsible for it? Is there any liberation from it?'' [CCC 284]

Now here's a question for you. How can we sort any of this out - at least enough to be on the right track?

a.   Due to the fact that all truly intelligent people agree about the true meaning of existence, we know that a committee of very smart people with university degrees will find the true meaning of existence every time.
b.   Even though history shows that we do not necessarily find the true meaning of existence on our own, Christ himself continues to give man what he needs to study the true meaning of existence through the sacraments.
c.   Since people have been disagreeing about the true meaning of existence for thousands of years, we can't ever really be certain who is right when people disagree about the true meaning of existence.

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Modern biblical scholars think that the first three chapters in Genesis

a.   consist of stories compiled from diverse traditions.
b.   should be read as ''newspaper truth.''
c.   were written at the same time by one human author.

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According to the Holy Father and bishops in communion with him [CCC 289], thinking that the first three chapters in Genesis consist of stories compiled from diverse traditions

a.   by itself moves you farther from Christ.
b.   does not by itself move you farther from Christ.
c.   may by itself move you farther from Christ.

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Thinking that the first three chapters in Genesis consist of stories compiled from diverse traditions does not affect your union with Christ, and it certainly solves a lot of problems that crop up if you assume that those chapters come from a single source.

However, for some people, thinking that the first three chapters of Genesis are a compilation of different traditions actually reinforces their unbelief, their lack of faith. Essentially their reasoning is, if God did not literally whisper the words of Genesis in Moses's ear, then Genesis can not be God's literal Word. There are a lot of origin stories, from all over the world. This fact proves to some people that none of these origin stories are true. So for them, the ''true meaning of the Bible'' is that the Bible is not true.

Here's a familiar question: But how can we tell who is right? For instance, how can we really be certain that the first three chapters of Genesis are not merely one more compilation of origin stories from traditions, but are special, unique, more than just that, and the true Word of God?

a.   Due to the fact that all truly intelligent people agree about what the first three chapters of Genesis mean, we know that a committee of very smart people with university degrees will find the true meaning of the first three chapters of Genesis every time.
b.   Even though history shows that we do not necessarily find the true meaning of the first three chapters of Genesis on our own, Christ himself continues to give man what he needs to study the first three chapters of Genesis through the sacrament of Holy Orders.
c.   Since people have been disagreeing about what the first three chapters of Genesis mean for thousands of years, we can't ever really be certain who is right when people disagree about the true meaning of the first three chapters of Genesis.

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