Astronomy, geology, geography, anthropology, chronology, and indeed all the various departments of human knowledge, were made to conform to it.
ST.AUGUSTINE.As the doctrines of St.Augustine have had the effect of thus placing theology in antagonism with science, it may be interesting to examine briefly some of the more purely philosophical views of that great man.

For this purpose, we may appropriately select portions of his study of the first chapter of Genesis, as contained in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth books of his "Confessions." These consist of philosophical discussions, largely interspersed with rhapsodies.

He prays that God will give him to understand the Scriptures, and will open their meaning to him; he declares that in them there is nothing superfluous, but that the words have a manifold meaning.
The face of creation testifies that there has been a Creator; but at once arises the question, "How and when did he make heaven and earth?
They could not have been made IN heaven and earth, the world could not have been made IN the world, nor could they have been made when there was nothing to make them of." The solution of this fundamental inquiry St.Augustine finds in saying, "Thou spakest, and they were made." But the difficulty does not end here.

St.Augustine goes on to remark that the syllables thus uttered by God came forth in succession, and there must have been some created thing to express the words.

This created thing must, therefore, have existed before heaven and earth, and yet there could have been no corporeal thing before heaven and earth.