Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
not contradict its creator. To him the bond between faith and reason was as close as that
between God and Christ.
Saint Augustine stands out among early Christians who wrestled with such questions.
Born in Roman Africa in 354
AD
to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine was
educated in Carthage, where he became familiar with classical knowledge, Latin literature,
and pagan beliefs. A brilliant intellect who lived a hedonistic lifestyle as a youth, he rose to
become professor of rhetoric at the imperial court in Milan, the most visible academic post
of his day. His worldly experiences before converting to Christianity in his early thirties
helped frame an attitude of belief in what one could see firsthand. In his view, nature didn't
lie. He interpreted fossil shells and bones entombed in the fabric of the land as natural evid-
ence that verified the story of Noah's Flood.
Remarkable for the clarity of his thoughts about the relationship between rational and
spiritual life, Augustine warned of the danger in embracing biblical interpretations that con-
flicted with reason. Fearing that Christians could lose faith when confronted by evidence
contradicting sanctioned interpretations of scripture, Augustine wrote:
Let no one think that, because the Psalmist says, He established the earth above the water, we must use this testi-
mony of Holy Scripture against these people who engage in learned discussions… . Ignorant of the sense of these
words, they will more readily scorn our sacred topics than disavow the knowledge they have acquired by unassail-
able arguments or proved by the evidence of experience.
3
Secure in his faith that Scripture and the natural world shared a common author, Augustine
advocated flexible biblical interpretation that could be adjusted in light of what one learned
about the natural world. He advised Christians to avoid endorsing biblical interpretations
contradicted by what they could see for themselves.
Augustine also defended the idea that Noah's Flood covered the whole planet by employ-
ing explanations based on the knowledge of his day. When critics argued that floodwaters
could not have risen higher than the lighter clouds surrounding Mount Olympus, Augustine
countered that Olympus itself towered over the clouds despite being made of earth, the
heaviest element. Why, therefore, could not water rise as high for a brief time? While this
argument seems rather silly today, it sounded rational at the time and shows Augustine's
