Recently a Creationist (Ken Ham) debated with a sensible person (Bill Nye) about the merits of Creationism. The full debate can be found online :-
However it can all be summed up by a response to a simple question: “What would make you change your mind?” :-
Bill: “Evidence”
Ken: “Nothing”
So what is this about St Augustine? It turns out that Christians have known they’ll look stupid if they get too literal about the story of creation, for a very long time. St Augustine had this to say about the likes of Ken :-
“Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience.
Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.”
St Augustine of Hippo, from “The Literal Meaning of Genesis”, appx 400 C.E.
So I guess St Augustine is busy rolling his eyes and cringing at the sight of christians like Ken.