Dr.Santosh Helekar wrote: >" According to the prevailing scientific hypothesis > there was no "BEFORE" before the Big Bang. Time itself > began with the Big Bang. Space, time, matter/energy > emerged at the moment of the Big Bang. This is > currently the most parsimonious explanation from the > available data and the mathematical formalism of > general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics".
Dear Santosh, Your basic error is not to admit the limits of empirical Science, which you are absolutizing. 1.Mathematical-scientific methods are limited, particularly in respect of the ever-greater reality. 2.Scientific theories are models that can be revised from time to time. 3.God cannot be empirically verified and analyzed like other objects. 4.Bible does not contradict Science. 5.You need not try to substitute belief in Science for belief in God. 6.The God of the Bible is not identical with the God of the ancient world picture, with that of Hindu faith, or with the God of the Greek philosophy... 7.I am for critical rationality, but against an ideological rationalism, or absolutization of the rational factor. Ideology, as a system of "ideas", concepts and convictions, and interpretative actions, distorts picture of the reality of the world. Even Religion can degenerate into an ideology, to which we are opposed... 8.Both scientists and theologians must constantly seek the truth afresh, each according to their own different methods. "Reflection" and "discernment" are key-words in Theology. 9.Modern empirical Science employs its methods, such as quantifying, formalizing, mathematicizing. But they are not adequate for the understanding of the world of the qualitative and of such specifically human phenomena as smiling, humour, music, art, suffering, love, faith, in all their dimensions. Questions of the human psyche and society, questions of law, of politics, of history, questions of aesthetics, of morality and religion, must also be treated according to the methods corresponding to their object and in their own style. 10.You should not overlook the hypothetical character of the theories and laws of the natural sciences, and regard their conclusions as absolute. Empirical sciences have their own limitations. Remember that there is no mathematical-scientific criterion in the light of which metaphysical-theological statements can be described as senseless (or pseudo-problems)... Ivo da C.Souza