A couple of weeks ago, the Chicago Tribune website posted a news article entitled, "Some Catholics seek to counter Galileo." The article describes a small group of Catholics in the Chicago area that believes science is wrong when it teaches that Earth revolves around the Sun because, they claim, certain passages from the Bible "prove" that it is the other way around. They promote, that is, a "geocentric" view of the universe based on a few cherry-picked Bible verses. Other news outlets picked up the article including a Florida news site, The Ledger, which prompted a letter from one of its readers headlined, "Geocentrism Among Ideas That Don't Deserve Attention." The letter raises the question of why did The Ledger would give attention to such a story, esp. when just the day before it had published news about the space shuttle Discovery's final trip into space, which event shows how untenable geocentrism is anyway.It's a good question especially in light of the huge political battle going on in Washington regarding raising the debt ceiling. Everybody knows that it has to be raised, but the radical right wing Tea Party faction in the House of Representatives is attempting to take the political process captive to achieve its ends virtually at gun point. Polls cited in the Wikipedia article, "Tea Party movement," indicate that only about 15% of Americans actually identify with the movement, yet it has gained a voice in our national political life powerful enough to drive us to the brink of defaulting on our national debt. We seem to be giving massive amounts of attention these days to the fringes including the outlandish views of a few residents of Chicago.
Being new to this blogging thing, I'm still trying to figure out what it is that deserves your attention attention and mine. Rather than lament the fact that our attention is more and more fixed on extreme (and extremely loud) voices, it seems increasingly important that in this tiny, tiny corner of the Web I work on something more constructive. As I continue to reflect on the relationship of science and faith, for example, it is time to leave the biblical literalists and the so-called new atheists to their battles and to think more constructively about how scientific thought and findings can shape contemporary theology and Christian practice. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but what I am increasingly sure is that it is time to walk out of the hot sun of other people's battles and rest for awhile in the "shade of grace" (rom phra khun).
