"No Admixture of Error" -- (Trent, Vatican I, Prov.Deus)

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Michael Baker, and others like him, who deny that Genesis 1-11 is Divine Revelation, has God as the Author "in all its parts...with no admixture of error."
 

It is true, that in only one place, are the Six Days of Genesis One, specifically mentioned as worthy of belief and that is the ruling of the Pontifical Biblical Commission in 1909 - which ruled that one may believe either in the word "yom" of Genesis One as a natural - 24 hour day - or - a certain indefinite period of time. The former, natural day is termed the proper sense whereas - the indefinite space of time is the improper sense. Exegites have been given permission to discuss this question freely. Unfortunately, however, a survey of the history since 1909 - will reveal no such free discussion - except on the part of Protestants who have been ignored on account of their unacceptable literalism. But it is the Protestant scholars, like John Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris, who have provided the Biblical evidence for the literal use of "yom" in Genesis One. Rigorous....(M. Baker is particularly partial to this word - rigorous - when it comes to scientific evidences) ....rigorous statistical evidence reveals that whenever Holy Scripture uses the word "yom" - qualified by a numeral, it means a literal - 24 hr. day. And so it is carefully qualified in Genesis One.

 

 

Exodus 20, where the Six Days are specified, would stand in glaring contradiction - if the Days of Genesis One were not literal. Finally, real literary form requires the Six Days of Genesis One to be literal - because as literary form, not genre, Genesis One, from all internal and external evidences is strict and pure in the truest sense - an historical narrative. But by both form and genre - Genesis One is historical narrative. Form designates the structure of the meaning - whereas genre designates the nature of the meaning. Although most people, including scholars and high-ranking Prelates, such as then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, have confused form and genre - structure and thematic meaning, form and content -- the distinction between structure or form and the genre or nature of the meaning is not as subtle as one might suspect - because apprehension or perception of the structure is non-conceptual - whereas the nature of the meaning is conceptual. Therefore, the structure of any form is best described by analogies or by adjectives. Thus, the structure of Milton's Paradise Lost – is best described as architectonic. It resembles a Gothic Cathedral in its multiplicity of gargoyles and saints – only Milton’s are classical figures, including the Nine Muses, brought to life – as it were – in language. And the structure of Genesis One is best described as an eye-witness account – a day by day – word by spoken word of God account. And so it is. As for Michael Baker’s “rigorous scientific observation” – which he repeatedly banks on – the modern method for dating the age of the earth – radiometric – is far from being in any sense rigorous – because it is based upon more than one unproven and improvable assumption. The first one is that there were no daughter-elements to start with. Please check me out on this - those of you who know.

 

 

Another is that the rate of atomic decay has been constant. Another is that there has been no interference in the process of decay, such as contamination. Since the decay of the radioactive elements is a process of the past - these assumptions cannot be proven by testing. But there is one very stunning process of decline that has been measured since the mid-1800's and that is the decline and decay of the Earth's magnetic field. Check this out. See first - the truly rigorously scientific study of Thomas Barnes on the ORIGIN AND DECLINE OF THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD, an ICR monograph, available, I am sure, from ICR on the internet. Catholics have been far too ready to accept the evolutionary model and world view of an earth - millions of years old and a universe - some 13 to billions of years old. How can Divine Revelation be so easily discarded and denied? The Biblical chronology, even allowing for the maximum number and length of gaps in the geneological records, cannot possibly be more than 10 thousand years old. What gives the appearance of age are the effects left by the Universal Deluge -- effects such as the separation of the continents, the Grand Canyon, and the fossils - especially the great fossil graveyards and polystrate fossils - not to mention the fact that all fossils are readily classifiable as belonging to some known family - order or class of creature living today! Evidences, rather of a young earth, with catastrophes.

 

 

Rigorous science is being done today, but NOT by those who believe in and promote the evolutionary world view. Rigorous science is being done by the scientists of the Institute for Creation Research, (ICR) - published in their journals and the popular ACTS AND FACTS.

These men do the best and most rigorous science possible. Trust them. It is the evolutionists who are not just a danger to our divine Catholic Faith but who seem intent upon destroying it.

 

 

Just a note of caution.

 

 

The Protestant Creationists are trustworthy - but only on the purely empirical level, which is Michael Baker's rigorous - most rigorous science. But when it comes to Galileo, Kepler and Newton, the Catholic Galileo and the following non-Catholic and anti-Catholic (Newton) - the ICR men unfortunately - are not to be trusted. Their bias shows. Someday, though, I feel certain that their very scientific RIGOR, will bring them not only to geocentricity - but also to a fully Catholic cosmology - as I have tried to outline in my recent papers. See especially my TEXTBOOK FOR THE SCIENCES and my LITANY OF THE CREATOR.

 

 

In this latter work, please substitute the Body of the Universe - wherever I have used the ethereal susbstance. This latter term was an attempt to incorporate Lord Helvin's ether and Aristotle's Quintessence, the aether.