The Skeptic risk

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. (Robert Jastrow)

Consider however that apart from these band of theologians are countless more scattered across mountain ranges of blind faiths. It would be a lovelier sight to pull the final rock and see my idols in the end with smiles - "I told you so" rather than be torn from dogma to dogma.

Two nights ago, I was reading through Q 71 of the Summa, and found out several peculiar things:

1. Creation is not against Evolution. Well, I know this already but, it is good to note that Augustine mentioned that God created the "power" to be, and not merely the actual things themselves. Hence, he finds no reason to doubt that God may have created things imperfectly and gave them the power to be perfect:

Augustine differs from other writers in his opinion about the production of fishes and birds, as he differs about the production of plants. For while others say that fishes and birds were produced on the fifth day actually, he holds that the nature of the waters produced them on that day potentially. (Summa, I, 71, 1)

2. Aquinas used the science of his day to reason for the things of Philosophy. It is a wonder why the philosophers of today still use the Aristotelian concepts that are not based on the science of today. For example, instead of taking the existence of fundamental particles as an axiomatic princiiple in the composition of things, they ignore them completely and remain fixated with the Aritotelian notions of matter and form.

3. Genesis said that "Let the waters bring forth creeping creature....etc." Q71 of the Prima Pars of Summa Theologiae answered objections regarding the production of fish and birds for example from the waters. Aquinas reasoned, using the science of his day, in order to find sense in the words of Genesis. Now, eight centuries after, we can truly say that life indeed came from the sea as Genesis says. If we follow evolution theory, life indeed came from its elementary forms from the waters. And yes, the theologians sit there on top of the mountains smiling again.