RE: Physicist creationist
May 1, 2015 at 11:29 am
(May 1, 2015 at 11:15 am)robvalue Wrote: Hmm, I see. So this "created the earth in 6 days" business happened billions of years ago according to them?
Do you mean the official Catholic doctrine, or what individual Catholics actually believe? They need not be the same thing. The last I heard, the Catholic church still officially endorsed transubstantiation, the idea that the wine and bread of the eucharist ceremony literally turn into the blood and body of Jesus. In other words, the official doctrine of Catholicism involves cannibalism (as opposed to merely symbolic cannibalism among most protestants).
But back to your question, I do not know the current official Catholic explanation in adequate detail to definitively answer your question, and suggest you look up the issue on an official Catholic site if you are interested in that. But I think that they regard the creation story as not quite literal, but being about the beginnings of the universe rather than the earth per se, so, if I am correct, then the answer to your question would be "yes."
(May 1, 2015 at 11:15 am)robvalue Wrote: And God at some point got a little sponge creature or something going, and waited for it to evolve into us?
Not a sponge, but whatever it is that scientists say people evolved from. But, essentially, yes, if my understanding of their current position is correct.
(May 1, 2015 at 11:15 am)robvalue Wrote: I dunno. I suppose they just make it up as their argument requires.
Yes, that is my understanding as well.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.