Galileo, the Genome and the Survival of Christian Dogma

Tweet

In the time that Galileo lived he represented a serious threat to the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. The church at the time considered itself to be the ultimate arbiter of reality and incapable of error. Galileo's findings echoed the work of Nicolas Copernicus and flew directly in the face of the infallibility of the Church. The Church maintained that the earth was the center of creation and the contradiction of this represented a direct challenge. Today's conservative Christians are facing what is a similar challenge. The facts support an evolutionary view of human development which directly contradicts the teachings of the church that the Bible is literal truth and what it presents is not subject to contradiction by facts. The controversy swirls around Genesis and the myth it presents concerning the evolution of the human species. More specifically the facts contradict the idea of the sacred couple, Adam and Eve. The study of the human genome points to the impossibility of the story of Adam and Eve having any basis in fact. Mainstream Christianity at this point has pretty much accepted that the Genesis story is an allegory that teaches a moral lesson but is not a literal history. The fundamentalist Christians absolutely refuse to accept the point of view. They consider the Bible to be infallible and not subject to interpretation. When you step back and look at it this really represents a more fundamental threat to Christian mythology then it seems to on the surface. It's the story of Adam and Eve is a myth it rocks basic foundation of Christianity. Central to the story is the idea of original sin. If the idea of original sin is removed from the story rest of the story starts to fall apart. The whole idea of Christianity revolves around the fact that Jesus died to absolve humanity from its sin. If the whole concept of original sin falls out of the story then there is no need for a redeemer and no need for salvation. Do you think Christianity can survive this Galileo moment or is this in fact the killing blow to Christian mythology?