Posted on 11/07/2005 12:05:04 PM PST by Mikey_1962
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Ex 20:11 -
" For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
How much clearer could it be?
BTW, according to the original Hebrew, the world was created in sheishet yamim (six days).
This probably explains why the most prominent Christian-fundamentalists in our societies today more closely resemble the uncompassionate and doctrinally strict, incorrect, and hard-hearted Pharissees of Christ's time with their fancy televangelist programmes, million dollar budgets, and overly theatrical presentations, than they do resemble Christ Himself
Thanks for the compliment! I've long thought J*sus was a liberal and that Fundamentalist Protestants would do well to jettison him and accept the original Fundamentalist religion. Do you suppose between the two of us that we could persuade them?
Yet, the Word also says that Moses talked to God, face to face. Now how do you interpret that?
Beware of any interpretation of Scripture that contradicts reality.
That doesn't weaken my point. If anything, it strengthens it. Do you expect papyrus to survive a year-long submersion.
Secondly, what papyrus? What are you talking about?
We have examples of writings on papyrus used by the Egyptians going back to close to 4000 BCE.
The Egyptians were prolific record-keeper. We have more or less an unbroken series of writings from around 4000 BCE until today. It is interesting that the Egyptians never mentioned the occurence of a global flood.
Are you talking about the Torah Scroll from which the story of Creation and the Flood come?
Does that Torah Scroll still exist and how old is it?
"Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
"
Wow! We're third on the list. Amazing. We're almost as many as the Muslims. And a larger group than the Roman Catholics. I guess we're mainstream, then.
I begin to suspect dishonesty on your part. I keep pointing out that mankind's initial immortality contradicts Darwin, not Genesis. And you keep dodging the issue.
It's not all herds of cats. Churches merge as well as split. There never was a promise that, before the end, everyone (or even anyone) would get the bible totally figured out. Some of it, like the Revelation, is like the promos for a movie that hasn't been released to the theaters. The great evangelical call is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as the ticket in; God will work out the other details later. There is wide inter-church recognition of this even as there is disagreement on details.
Sorry, neither. Explosions neither create nor destroy, they merely re-arrange.
Hey Mineral...I give up....what's your gig? You a Christian or an Athiest?
Yeah Vatican!
I went to Catholic school K-12, and we were taught actual science, not the luddite crevo crap.
You are spot on. We have no physical record of all the buffalo slaughtered in the Plains because they turned to dust because they weren't covered. Things happen a lot more quickly than what many of our scientists say they do.
Catholics may be the largest Christian sect, but they are not the majority.
Note: the BEGINNING of creation is when a day was created and defined, not when God created man.
"You do not have to be a scientist to know that evening and morning equals one literal day. If Chapter one of book one is not true, then none of it is true."
That's just silly. Genesis came about from oral tales, and was written a very, very long time after any of the events that take place in it happened.
Moreover, it was written for a small group of nomadic shepherds. How would you tell such a group a creation story? You don't start talking about millions or billions of years to people who can't count past 20. You put it in terms they can understand.
Never forget the audience of the Pentateuch. It was not a modern audience. Most people could not read at all. These were stories told around the campfire, not preached in a church.
It's not literal. It never was.
It's not Evolution that is the problem, it is Darwinism.
I'm not trying to pick a fight. We simply disagree that each human life represents a miracle of God. I don't even remotely view such a disagreement as anything more than a curiosity. I was merely looking for more insight into your original statement. You gave it to me. Thank you.
Part of the 1.1 billion, even though the Catholics still count me as one of them (see post above). I also enjoy studying religion, despite being of the secular humanist bent.
Do you think God has genitals, a spleen, has to eat and expel waste etc.?
Or does "made in God's image" really mean that human beings are thinking creatures with free will?
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