What the Heavens Declare

Science in the Light of Creation

 

 

LYDIA JAEGER

 

Translated by Jonathan Vaughan

Foreword by Cyrille Michon

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT THE HEAVENS DECLARE

Science in the Light of Creation

Copyright © 2012 Lydia Jaeger. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

isbn 13: 978-1-61097-034-1

eisbn 13: 978-1-62189-356-1

Cataloging-in-Publication data:

Jaeger, Lydia.

What the heavens declare : science in the light of creation / Lydia Jaeger, with a foreword by Cyrille Michon.

xxiv + 202 p. ; 23 cm. Includes bibliographical references and index(es).

isbn 13: 978-1-61097-034-1

1. Religion and science. 2. Creation—Biblical teaching. 3. Law—philosophical concept. 4. Philosophical theology. I. Michon, Cyrille. II. Title.

BL240.3 J3313 2012

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

To Henri Blocher,

my teacher, colleague, and friend,

on his seventieth birthday

Foreword

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The first words of Genesis, intended to describe the origin of the world, are themselves the origin of a central belief shared by the monotheistic religions. Over and above the matter of a temporal origin for the universe, its beginning in time, it is the radical dependence of all that exists with respect to God that forms the basis of this belief. Christianity has placed at the heart of the faith it proclaims the doctrine of creation: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” Theological reflection over the last century has sometimes relegated this affirmation to a position of secondary importance, because it is not fundamentally Christian, because it apparently does not have crucial implications that are as obvious as the teachings found in the Gospels, or even because it could be more than just a matter of faith—since as concerns the universe, it could be a proposition open to philosophical, or even scientific, argument. Although the founders of modern science (Galileo, Descartes, Newton) adhered wholeheartedly to the biblical doctrine of creation, the theories that they developed say nothing about the universe’s beginnings. Ironically, the more recent conception of a universe that is expanding after an initial explosion brings the idea of creation to mind, even if the scientific community is largely indifferent, if not hostile, to the latter. Modern atheism, even if only taken as a methodological principle, is the attitude adopted by the majority of academics today. And even if physicists seem more inclined to a form of mysticism when faced with the order of the universe, the approach that inspired Darwin—explaining ...