He had me until there. I, too, think that evolution is very real and also consistent with a world created according to The Plan. But micro-evolution, in which existing creatures undergo Darwinian pressures and the fittest survive and pass on their genes and characteristics. How one justifies macro-evolution, wherein new body parts like wings or eyes spontaneously spring into existence - fully functional, with the appropriate neural wiring - I don't know and cannot accept.
But the Earth does not have a voice (it makes sounds, but without any conscious direction, so the sounds ain't a voice). What's he smoking?
Perhaps you should study what the theory of evolution actually says.
With comments like the one above, you are just looking foolish.
>> He had me until there. I, too, think that evolution is very real and also consistent with a world created according to The Plan. But micro-evolution, in which existing creatures undergo Darwinian pressures and the fittest survive and pass on their genes and characteristics. How one justifies macro-evolution, wherein new body parts like wings or eyes spontaneously spring into existence<<
I agree the idea of one species changing into another but the progression of fossils shows clearly that new species did appear and they always are similar to another existing species. It would probably be easier for us if humans could better comprehend how long 10,000,000 years is.
In any case its much like the earth orbiting the sun. It doesn’t feel right and it doesn’t match what our ancestors thought but it matches all the available evidence and nothing else does.
Because evolution is successfully used to predict where to find new species and where to find oil and coal we need to think of it as the only good working theory - it needs refinement but the basic principle that modern species developed from older much more similar species is clearly true -it was just a lot slower than your description.
>>But the Earth does not have a voice (it makes sounds, but without any conscious direction, so the sounds ain’t a voice). What’s he smoking?<<
Yeah, that did sound kind of new-agey but this Pope is not new age at all. It makes me wonder if there was an idiom problem in the translation from Italian or Latin or whatever he was speaking.
Biblically, man was given dominion over the earth. Likewise I was given dominion over my cat and dog. But I do have responsibility for them and I do listen to their complaints and look out for their welfare. I just wouldn’t use the phrase “voice of the earth” because of its connotations. But the Pope probably didn’t either - he said something in some other language that got translated.