Expert: Marco - 11/7/2008

Question
i would like to know how long the earth has had humans. id also like to know why we keep finding dinasaurs and how that connects with the bible. i saw a tbs special on how the bible is scientificaly true and have more questions that relate.

Answer
Dear Connor,

catholics do not intepret all the verses of the Bible literaly.
I do not think that the Genesis is to be interpreted literally and I think that in the beginning God created the laws of physics which give origin to all natural phenomena.
I believe that God inspired the authors of the Bible with the purpose to teach us the spiritual and moral Truth, and not with the purpose to teach us science or history.

I would like to quote a verse from the Bible:

Ti 2:15  And because from thy infancy thou hast known the holy scriptures which can instruct thee to salvation by the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16  All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice:
17  That the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work.

In these verses Paul says that Scripture is profitable to teach in JUSTICE, and not in science or history.

The official teachings of the Catholic Church are given in the Cathechism. I report here a verse from the Cathechism

136 God is the author of Sacred Scripture because he inspired its human authors; he acts in them and by means of them. He thus gives assurance that their writings teach without error his saving truth.

Observe that in this verse points out that the Bible teaches without errors "the saving truth"; since history, geography or science has nothing to do with the saving truth, there is no reason to expect that the Bible cannot contain scientific errors.

I hope this may help you,

Your brother in Christ,

Marco

PS I think that faith cannot come only from logic, because to have faith in God means to trust and love God.
I think however that logics and science prove the existence of our soul and the existence of  God and that there are many rational arguments strongly supporting the christian faith.
The explanation of these aguments is rather long and Allexperts allows only to give short answers. You can find such arguments  in the following site

http://xoomer.alice.it/fedeescienza/englishnf.html

where  I analyse the incongruencies of the materialistic conception of the mind, on the basis of our present scientific knowledges about brain and matter.
This analysis points out how the laws of physics  prove that the   brain cannot generate consciousness, which existence implies  the presence in man of a unbiological/unmaterial element. The problem of consciousness is then strictly connected to the one of the existence of the soul and, consequently, the existence of God.
In the first article entitled “Mind and brain...” you can find a general discussion of the mind and brain problem from a scientific point of view.
In the second article entitled “Scientific contraddictions in materialism”
you  can find an explanation of the fundamental inconsistencies of  the  typical arguments used by materialists, such as the concept of emergent, macroscopic or holist property, complexity, information, etc.
In the section called “FAQ: answers to  visitors' questions” you can find the answer to many typical questions, such as "Are there any scientifically proved miracles?", "Does the existence of the universe imply the existence of God?", "Can science explain God?", "Can science establish which is the true religion?", "Can science explain consciousness in the future?", and many others.