Because, beginning at the very latest in the fifth century (with Saint Augustine, the bishop of Hippo), the position of the Church with regard to the so-called conflict between science and religion can be articulated like this (from Augustine’s De Genesi ad Litteram): “In matters that are obscure and far beyond our vision, even in such as we may find treated in Holy Scripture, different Interpretations are sometimes possible without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such a case, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it. That would be to battle not for the teaching of Holy Scripture but for our own, wishing its teaching to conform to ours, whereas we ought to wish ours to conform to that of Sacred Scripture.”