2022-08-18 Thursday meeting

Creation Thesis Study August 18, 2022
Thesis pp. 35-38
Etienne Gilson
1884-1978
Gilson was a Catholic French “great commentator and historian of philosophy,”1 and “possibly
the most renowned medievalist of his generation” (see n. 2 below). Below is a glossary of his
terms in the Thesis, and an explanation of his statements. Let me “pose to myself” some FAQs,
as to why I chose Gilson:
Why did I chose Etienne Gilson?: For the same reasons I also included here: 1, the ancient and
medieval Fathers of the Church (St. Augustine, St. Anselm, etc.); 2, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce;
and Louis Agassiz. I needed two sources: theological, and scientific. My Thesis mentor sug-
gested that I include specifically Anglican authorities [e.g., Bp. Wilberforce], especially because
Thesis chap. 3 would feature a very well-known modern Anglican scholar, and a theological evo-
lutionist; and 3, Gilson, (see below). In order to develop a workable thesis [Dictionary definition:
“a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.”], I wanted to
have excellent references.
But why did I especially pick Gilson? He is a writer well known both within the Catholic and
Anglican churches.
Is he a creationist? Perhaps we can’t ally him “with us” as a full-fledged creationist. But it is ob-
vious that he had real doubts about darwinism. Read the following quote from his address in
1948 to a group of French Catholic bishops: The Terrors of the Year Two Thousand,2 just three
years after WW II. He mentions 1000 AD, when many had been expecting Christ to return. This
entire lecture is absolutely gripping:
[Speaking almost jokingly of St. Irenaeus’ (c. 120-c.200 AD) attempt to predict Antichrist] “Why
should the world last exactly six thousand years? It is because creation lasted six days and since a
day of creation is worth a thousand years, the world will come to an end after the six days of creation
have run their course. The answer is perfect! But here we stop smiling and an uncomfortable doubt
slips into our mind. Six thousand years? But how old was the world at the time of Christ? Suppose
the six thousand years of the world were not finally to have expired until around the year Two Thou-
sand? The scourges which have struck us, the menace of the blows which await us, do not favor
abandoning this hypothesis. If the drama which we live does not announce the end of the world, it is a
rather good dress rehearsal. Shall we see worse than Buchenwald. Lydice and Oradour-sur-Glane?
Perhaps it is not impossible, but it is difficult to believe. At this point in our reflections, we cast our
eyes about and ask anxiously: ‘But where is Antichrist?' And behold, he is right there!” [Note: Bu-
chenwald and Lydice were Nazi concentration camps, where countless multitudes died; Oradour-sur-
Glane was a city destroyed by a Nazi SS company, where 643 women and children were also slaugh-
tered.]
1 From the foreword from From Aristotle to Darwin and Back Again: A Journey in Final Causality, Species, and
Evolution, originally published in 1971.
2 Link: https://archive.org/stream/terrorsofyeartwo00gils/terrorsofyeartwo00gils_djvu.txt
2
The Thesis includes more quotes from Gilson. His book (see n.1) contrasts the Greek philosopher
Aristotle (whom St. Thomas Aquinas made much use of) and Charles Darwin. Aristotle, al-
though not a God-believer, still understood that the marvelous order surrounding him had some
logical beginning and ending, whereas Darwin (and his ever-increasing atheistic disciples) have
never believed either in a personal beginning nor ending to the universe, or to the world.
Below is a glossary of Gilson’s terms:
Fixity: All species are in the same place as their origin [with certain allowances, all of which
are subject to the marvel of their own genetic structure].
Transformism: All species are subject to complete change, either through many untold years,
or through the extinction of competing species, or chance, or random mutations, or the
progress of species from unknown sources.
Teleology: A purpose for everything toward a definite end [without necessarily giving a
source] (For the Christian, it can only be the Creator. For others, it may be Nature, or Gaia,
or Fate, or Destiny, or . . .)
Causality: A final meaning or purpose to its origin or to its end [without necessarily ascrib-
ing all to a Creator] (For the Christian, the origin and final end are through the Creator. For
others, it may be the “Big Bang,” or the universe, or this-is-the-way-things-are, with no ex-
planation.)
The terms above separate creationists from evolutionists, to this very day!