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... II. The Framework ...
values
paradoxes
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Despite, or maybe because of unanswered questions, Pope Benedict XVI’s
2006 Christmas message to thousands of people in a rainy St. Peter’s square resonates:
“Today we can marshal vast material, but the men and women in our
age risk becoming victims of their own intellectual and technical achievements, ending up in
spiritual barrenness and emptiness of heart. The modern age is often seen as an awakening of
reason from its slumbers, humanity’s enlightenment after an age of darkness. Yet without the
light of Christ the light of reason is not sufficient to enlighten humanity and the world.”
2.1
One of the most graphic examples of modern “spiritual barrenness and
emptiness of heart” is represented by both sides of the on-going debate regarding “evolution” and
“intelligent design.” This is particularly true in the United States and more specifically in
the southern states. There are regular articles about this topic in newspapers, popular magazines,
and even in professional magazines. To illustrate the depth of the emotion and prejudice accompanying
this discussion, the 32 letters written in 2005 to the editor of the AAPG’s Explorer (American
Association of Exploration Geologists), and one article in the same monthly magazine, have been
included as a fifth appendix to this book (Appendix V: AAPG Reader’s
Forum). An important part of introducing frameworks is to acknowledge the depth and width of
the divide between science and religion, and to suggest one way to bridge this gap is through the
development of common frameworks. This process starts with a common language which allows
reconciling “E=MC2” (energy = mass times the speed of light squared) with the power
of “the light of Christ.”
It should be obvious to the reader this book is based on both a belief
in God and a belief in science. Personal reconciliation of God creating man in His own image with
the scientific basis behind evolution will be discussed in Chapter III, Section 1.C., and more
completely in Chapter IX, Sections 1 and 2. In addition, before a more detailed review of the
frameworks of time, and space, and location, three other frameworks which also cut across
the science-religion matrix will be reviewed. These concepts,
each of which effect both science and religion, are probability, holography, and ego.
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