Posted on 10/28/2014 9:44:29 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Evolution is not inconsistent with God, said Pope Francis during an unveiling of a bust of his predecessor, Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI, at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Monday.
"Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation," Francis said. "The scientist," he continued, "must [nevertheless] be moved by a trust in the idea that nature hides, within her evolutionary mechanisms, potentialities that it is the task of intellect and freedom to discover and actuate, in order to achieve the [kind of] development that is in the design of the Creator."
The pope, who backed the Roman Catholic Church's openness to evolution, added that scientific advancements can be used for the benefit of people.
The bust of Benedict XVI was unveiled during the course of the Academicians' Oct. 24-28 plenary meeting dedicated to evolving concepts of nature, Vatican Radio reported.
Francis praised his predecessor, and said the he "[was] a great Pope: great for the power and penetration of his intellect, great for his significant contribution to theology, great for his love for the Church and of human beings, great for his virtue and piety."
The Vatican leader encouraged science and scientists to continue working on "happy" theoretical and practical initiatives for the benefit of human beings.
Brother Guy Consolmagno, astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory, said earlier in October that he finds Young Earth Creation theories that run contrary to science "almost blasphemous" in nature.
"It's almost blasphemous theology," Consolmagno said. "It's certainly not the tradition of Catholicism and never has been and it misunderstands what the Bible is and it misunderstands what science is."
The Vatican astronomer added that although literal interpretations of the Bible could suggest that the Earth is of a young age, scientific evidence to the contrary has shown that such a belief is "bad theology."
The Catholic Church's acceptance of evolution stands contrary to other Christian views of the origins of the earth, such as creationism, which supports a literal interpretation of Genesis.
The question of human origins remains a divisive one in the U.S. especially, where a Gallup poll from June found that more than four in 10 Americans, or 42 percent, believe that God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago.
Another 31 percent of those who responded to the survey said that they believe in evolution, but with God guiding the process, while 19 percent said that God had no part in the process. Gallup noted that these figures have changed little over the past three decades.
“God calls that human philosophy...And he wasn’t silent on the issue...”
I reject your view of a God who gave humankind the gift of reason, setting him apart from the rest of His creation, then says that it is a sin to use it.
And frankly, I find it chilling that I share the planet with so many young earthers and biblican literalists. The degree of self delusion required for you to maintain your world view are astounding. One wonders how you are able to operator a car, or raise a child.
You're right. The Bible is written in many different literary styles---historical narrative, poetry, metaphor, parable, genealogies, letters. For believers, we have the ability to clearly understand when Jesus was speaking in parables, and we recognize metaphor and poetry when we see it. Genesis is written as straightforward history.
Later Biblical authors referred to Genesis in a literal manner, and Jesus twice mentioned the first male and female as being made in the beginning, which is the opposite of evolutionary teaching.
"To me, the slow unfolding of billions of years of creation through evolution sounds awesome and majestic - something only God could put into motion. Not un-Biblical at all."
Well, it would be if He had chosen to do it that way, but He clearly didn't. And I don't understand how creating everything in six days is any less awesome and majestic...to me, it's much more so.
Psalm 33 says "He spoke and it was done."
You read my mind from yesterday...I was going to post just that.
We wholly accept and believe in the virgin birth, in resurrection from the dead, and we think God couldn’t have created in six days?
Further, the fact that He created the heavens, the earth, and everything in them is the original and most amazing miracle, isnt’t it? Why would anything after that be a problem for Him?
The mind reels.
Do you think Jesus was literally saying that He was a footpath when He said that “I am the way, the truth, and the light.” ?
Scripture abounds with allegory.
The concept of democracy came from Greek paganism.
See my post #122, just two posts up.
Yes, and republicanism from Rome to a degree. The leftists love democracy.
I posted enough scripture that anyone can see that God's not too impressed with intellectual humanist philosophy when it comes to understanding God...
Pro_3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
I didn't say it was a sin to lean on your own understanding...It's just not very expedient...
Sure, God gave us the ability to reason to be able to get along in the world...He also made it crystal clear that it's going to take a different kind of understanding well outside the scope of human reasoning and logic to understand the things of God...
And frankly, I find it chilling that I share the planet with so many young earthers and biblican literalists. The degree of self delusion required for you to maintain your world view are astounding. One wonders how you are able to operator a car, or raise a child.
And I find it just as chilling that there are so many religious people who reject what God says...
Reading and believing the scripture is self delusion??? You deduced that from your God given gift to reason??? It's pretty clear to me that from reading and believing the scriptures, God does not agree with you...
Sorry, you lost me.
I don't think His message was to tell people whether or not Genesis was literal or not. His message was that God created everything.
Later Biblical authors referred to Genesis in a literal manner, and Jesus twice mentioned the first male and female as being made in the beginning, which is the opposite of evolutionary teaching.
I look at it like this: Jesus healed the leper. Now, with the gifts of wisdom, intelligence, and through hard work, we can heal lepers. We can heal fevers and can even sometimes make the lame walk. Jesus could have just explained how antibiotics, aspirin, and autologous stem cell transplants work, but humanity was not ready for that.
Well, it would be if He had chosen to do it that way, but He clearly didn't. And I don't understand how creating everything in six days is any less awesome and majestic...to me, it's much more so.
Humanity was not ready for what we'd eventually come to know about the Earth - that it is not 6,000 years old, and that it took much longer; in the same way explaining those things above. Genesis is true, because God doesn't lie, but who knows what God's days are like?
We were given intelligence and the desire to learn by God. Rejecting science is like rejecting medicine and doctors, and demanding that Jesus heal us. Sometimes, he uses doctors. Sometimes he doesn't, but it isn't our place to deny the gifts of intelligence and wisdom that He gave only to humanity.
We have vestigial traits like the Plica Semilunaris and muscles behind our ears that serve no purpose, except in lower species. God isn't in the business of fooling us, and He isn't in the business of being told what He can and cannot be or do.
Six Days would have been awesome, but scientific evidence doesn't point in that direction. My belief in evolution has never, not even once made me question my belief in God or Jesus or the Holy Ghost. Not for a second. The idea that Creation unfolded over eons and ages, and that God knows everything, every grain of sand, every cell, every creature, since the dawn of time, leaves me in awe of His majesty and love for us.
Psalm 33 says "He spoke and it was done."
But He also said that all would not be told to those who couldn't understand.
Matthew 13:10-13:
10 And his disciples came and said to him: Why speakest thou to them in parables?
11 Who answered and said to them: Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven: but to them it is not given.
12 For he that hath, to him shall be given, and he shall abound: but he that hath not, from him shall be taken away that also which he hath.
13 Therefore do I speak to them in parables: because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
If you aren’t Christian, why would you believe it?
“Sorry to burst your bubble.”
Don’t be sorry for me; it’s no skin off my nose.
” I truly believe in freedom of religion.”
And?
Does an individual firm faith in Christianity somehow translate, in your mind, to being against freedom of religion? Can you explain?
BTW, welcome to Free Republic.
Yet you seem to believe His message was to not take it literally. Genesis reads in a straightforward manner. There's no need to root around and try to dig some hidden meaning out of it. If God can create everything out of nothing, surely doing it in six days isn't beyond Him. Right?
"I look at it like this: Jesus healed the leper. Now, with the gifts of wisdom, intelligence, and through hard work, we can heal lepers. We can heal fevers and can even sometimes make the lame walk. Jesus could have just explained how antibiotics, aspirin, and autologous stem cell transplants work, but humanity was not ready for that."
That response completely ignores the fact that, as I posted, Jesus referred twice to male and female being made at the beginning. Just read the words. Did Jesus lie?
As for what you posted, are you saying that Jesus's healing powers weren't divine, that He just had advanced skills we're now attaining?
"Six Days would have been awesome, but scientific evidence doesn't point in that direction. My belief in evolution has never, not even once made me question my belief in God or Jesus or the Holy Ghost. Not for a second. The idea that Creation unfolded over eons and ages, and that God knows everything, every grain of sand, every cell, every creature, since the dawn of time, leaves me in awe of His majesty and love for us."
I feel like a parrot repeating myself here, but you can't believe both. Either you believe evolution's ages of suffering and dying, and the recent arrival of man, or you believe that pain and death came after the fall, and man was created at the beginning---as Jesus twice confirmed. The two are completely contradictory.
The fact that God created everything in six days in no way lessens His infinite knowledge, and for the life of me, I don't understand that way of thinking. It makes no sense.
Evolution was, and still is, celebrated among atheists as a way to explain our existence without bringing God into the equation. Yet some Christians fight on the same side as the atheists.
"13 Therefore do I speak to them in parables: because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand."
Not applicable. Genesis wasn't written in the style of a parable. The principle people and events in Genesis are referred to throughout the Bible as real people & real events, by the prophets, and by no less than the Lord Himself.
Unless Genesis is an account of historical events, then much of the Bible is meaningless, including Christ's redemption of the human race. If there was no Adam, no fall, no entrance of sin into God's perfect paradise on earth, then there's no need for atonement.
Paul knew it. He wrote:
'For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous'
Romans 5:19
And:
'For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive… And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit' 1 Corinthians 21-22; 45.
One man's ---Adam's---disobedience.
Adam---the first man, by whom came death.
It's clear.
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