Friday, March 23, 2012

St. Thomas Aquinas and Rick Santorum couldn't disagree more.

Thomas of Aquino aka St. Thomas Aquinas lived way back about 750 years ago in the 13th century. He was perhaps the most influential philosopher in the history of the Catholic Church and is still considered the model teacher for those studying the priesthood. He has serious cred in the HRCC.

The self-labelled Christian politicians on the scene today should be so wise on the subject of faith and reason as St. Thomas Aquinas was so many centuries ago. This following sentence sums up his philosophy about the relationship between faith and reason. Timely because it applies perfectly to the current political fight between evolution and creationism.
Supernatural revelation (faith) and natural revelation (reason) are complementary rather than contradictory in nature, for they pertain to the same unity: truth. 

Natural revelation is something that any human would know regardless of their faith.  Everyone has access to natural revelation, its called science.  Supernatural revelation is the faith that the believers in Jesus and the Gospels possess, granted by the Spirit.   Aquinas said the two must coexist.  So then as science changes over time, the faith might have to also change over time lest the two become other than complementary and St. Thomas Aquinas be wrong and the Catholic Church be wrong for supporting this philosophy for centuries.

Even with 750 more years of mankind's accumulated knowledge at 4G speed on his i-Phone, Santorum is less enlightened on this topic than a man who lived before printing presses were invented.  


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