Saturday, April 4, 2009

The Retired Life of Priest Scholar

There was an article in the recent Catholic Paper about Father O Kyeong Hwan ,a retired priest of the Incheon Diocese, who has in his seventies started a new life. He has always been a scholar but in the last 4 years he has begun the study of Science and Religion. He spends from 5 to 6 hours a day in the study of the relationship between the two.He feels somewhat frustrated that no Korean scholar or priest has entered this field to give us a lucid explanation of the relation between the two. This is the reason he has begun the study.


Fr. O thinks that the deeper we get into the study of the Natural Sciences there are many who are beginning to face many doubts. A great number of the scientist and intellectuals who rely on Science are denying the 'Existence of God'. The famous biologist Richard Dawkins puts forward evolution to deny the 'Existence of God.' The Catholic Church back in 1633 condemned Galileo for his holding the heliocentric theory. There has been from that time a conflict between the two fields of study. Fr. O feels very strongly this is no longer necessary and mentions this is also the direction of the Vatican. Evolution and Religion are both compatible and compliment each other. There is no conflict between the Church's idea of Creation and Evolution.


Father has his own website which is in Korean but he also has links in English to Theology and Natural Science, Vatican Observatory, and the International Society for Science and Religion. For those who are interested they may enter his website by going to:http://ohkh.net/

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