Vatican acknowledges evolution theory

skinnyboy

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17162341-13762,00.html

Evolution in the bible, says Vatican

From: By Martin Penner
November 07, 2005 THE Vatican has issued a stout defence of Charles Darwin, voicing strong criticism of Christian fundamentalists who reject his theory of evolution and interpret the biblical account of creation literally. Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's theory of evolution were "perfectly compatible" if the Bible were read correctly.

His statement was a clear attack on creationist campaigners in the US, who see evolution and the Genesis account as mutually exclusive.

"The fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim," he said at a Vatican press conference. He said the real message in Genesis was that "the universe didn't make itself and had a creator".

This idea was part of theology, Cardinal Poupard emphasised, while the precise details of how creation and the development of the species came about belonged to a different realm - science. Cardinal Poupard said that it was important for Catholic believers to know how science saw things so as to "understand things better".

His statements were interpreted in Italy as a rejection of the "intelligent design" view, which says the universe is so complex that some higher being must have designed every detail

jstalin

They take the reasonable view.

Nate Merit

I would have asked at one time "Can anything good come out of the Vatican?" yet this intelligent admission on the part of Rome makes me smile. There is yet hope that Christians will embrace reality.

Nate

DanTheMan

Nice to see at least one religious institution encouraging a reality-based worldview.

ithinkisee

Although I have no desire to be Catholic, and I think the pedophile stuff really was disgusting, I have learned to admire some of the leader's sincerity ... and now their ability to use critical thinking skills.

-ithinkisee

tetrapod.sapien

ironically, the catholic church is the most highly evolved of all religions, but certainly of the xian religions, memetically speaking.

a few months back, GBL asked people what xian sect they would choose if someone had a gun to their head. i thought this a reasonable question, and my answer straight up was catholics. evolution plays a large roll in that for me. but i also like that you can pretty much do whatever you want, but they have this scary and rich history.

TS

Nate Merit

Hey TS !

The RCC is definitely not the RCC of my youth. This embracing on their part of science is a grand development.

However, I would join the Eastern Orthodox Church, whether Russian, Greek, Romanian, etc. The Liturgy is much more beautiful, confession is not mandatory, the people tend to be better educated, more affluent, and lacking in fanaticism. As you said, you can pretty much do as you please.

But, since there is no gun to my head, I'll stay unaffiliated, just as you are.

Nate

the_classicist

This article is misleading. The Pontifical Council for Culture and the documents issued by it are not reflective of the official view of the Vatican.

Golf

Why now? Didn't they recently changed their view about the earth rotating around the sun and not the other way around?

Midget-Sasquatch

Well even about 15 years back or so, we were taught at catholic school that the genesis creation story was to be understood symbolically. The Church has held that position at least since 1950 or so after an encyclical by Pope Pius (some roman numeral I can't remember). Mind you, in it he was very cautious about evolution (didn't dismiss it outright though - the attempt at least at objectivity is sorely lacking among the GB). The Pope then said that whatever is eventually learned about the manner in which the human body has come about, it is only God who creates the human soul.

Vatican acknowledges evolution theory

Evolution in the bible, says Vatican

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