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 ...
I forgot all about the feces-flinging. =:-O
You still believe that evolution violates the second law?
You aren't seriously suggesting that science is democratic process, are you?
A gross and even malicious misstatement of the central ideas behind intelligent design.
Lies are the weapons of the vicious and the desperate.
Have you stopped beating your wife?
Anyway, it's well known that the fossils of sea creatures are found on the tops of many mountains, yet these mountains are known to have been formed by tectonic plates squeezing them upward. So my question is, how old is Mt. Ararat?
Genesis is neither a history book nor a science text. The libraries are full of those.
Exactly. It does not matter whether the universe and the creatures in it came about all at once or slowly. The miracle is that the universe did happen. If there is evolution it is God directed. There is NO contradiction between evolution and the bible.
Is it absolutely wrong to rape babies? If it is, then moral absolutes exist and we can continue from there.
In a sense, that is rather what many in Science would recommend; but to their way of thinking, the only ones that get to vote are the ones that think a certain way. Thus our entreatment to what "the majority of scientists" think on a regular basis. Pretty convincing when that majority got there by agreeing to think the way they do and knowing that if they didn't, they'd never amount to anything - kindof an intellectual bribery that allows one to stuff the ballot box in advance. Welcome to the intellectual version of communism. If you don't vote for the party candidate, you'll be sent to an assylum. And thanks for voting..
I'm suggesting that science doesn't belong to a select few people pretending to be something because they have a degree and an opinion. The world was full of degree holding opinion makers over the matter of flight; but, it was a pair of bicycle makers that proved the concept. Bicycle makers.
I'm sure that wrinkled a lot of noses behind the doors of "polite" society.
Science doesn't belong to biased ideologues either. It belongs to the World. Status, however, has been used to abuse the world with one ideological bias after another.
Science is not supposed to be about ideology. It is supposed to be about what we can KNOW as differentiated from "interesting sounding fictions". Instead it has become about what men wish to postulate as interesting sounding fictions. Tribal lore, a scientist would have it, has been replaced with tribal lore - only smarter people are the ones
imposing the lore. That isn't science. If you want to sell fiction; but, down your credentials and go compete with Stephen King. If you want to sell science, put down the fictions and start reporting what can be KNOWN. The learn the phrase "I Don't KNOW". Conjecture may be useful in problem solving; but offering it as fact is the height of dishonesty.
"Most of those fundies never liked Catholicism anyway."
Having been raised as a Catholic, I remember the church referring to the Bible as an allegory. Just simply symbolic not literal.
Well, I began to read God's Word. According to God's Word, the Bible is not an allegory...it is literal.
I began to study church history and devote greater observation to church practices. I then compared that history and those practices to scripture. They were not compatible with the Word.
I am no longer a Catholic.
Compare the history of the Reformed Churches to scripture.
You might decide to turn to Judaism.
I appreciate your insights.
If true, there are more idiots in Indiana than I thought. The Dover trial is likely to set a sound precendent that ID is religion and mandating it in science class an unconstitutional endorsement of a particular religion by the state.
Although the number of violations of the second law seem to be of the order of the null set, it would not be much of a law describing the universe if it was only of use in descriptions of closed systems.
Congratulations. You have stated the argument against ID quite clearly.
ID doesn't proffer a religion, nor does it mandate one. It would seem your'e blindly punching at a wet paper bag.
Way to go. I am no longer a Deist.
I never heard mention of it in the Bible...
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