I have not been a fan of Augustine. His influence over theology is much greater than it should be. But even this old saint long ago offered some pertinent wisdom that our current strident anti-science creationists may need to hear.
Usually,
even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the
other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even
their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun
and moon, the cycles of the years and seasons, about the kinds of animals,
shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain
from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an
infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture,
talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such
an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a
Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant
individual is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think
our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for
whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected
as unlearned men.... Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture
bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in
one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by these who are
not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their
utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon
Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they
think support their position, although they understand neither what they say
nor the things about which they make assertion. (pp. 42-43)
St. Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, translated and annotated by John Hammond Taylor, S.J., 2 vols. In Ancient Christian Writers 41-42 (New York: Newman Press, 1982). The page references above refer to pages in volume 1.
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