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Church needs better evolution education, says bishops' official
Catholic News Service ^ | 2-1-2005

Posted on 02/07/2005 7:30:07 AM PST by mike182d

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Catholic educators need better teaching programs about evolution "to correct the anti-evolution biases that Catholics pick up" from the general society, according to a U.S. bishops' official involved in dialogue with scientists for 20 years.

Without a church view of human creation that is consistent with currently accepted scientific knowledge, "Catholicism may begin to seem less and less 'realistic' to more and more thoughtful people," said David Byers, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Science and Human Values from 1984 to 2003.

"That dynamic is a far greater obstacle to religious assent than evolution," he said in a bylined article in the Feb. 7 issue of America, a weekly magazine published in New York by the Jesuits. The article discussed the value of the dialogues with scientists organized by the bishops' committee.

"Denying that humans evolved seems by this point a waste of time," he said without mentioning specific controversies in the United States.

(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bishops; catholic; church; creation; evolution; god; schools; science
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To: John_Wheatley
" Such concepts as the theory of gravity or theory of electricity or atomic theory. If it was up to you we would not have nuclear power and would be reading with gas lamps. "

LOL. Your conclusions about me are laughably typical of someone who would call evolution a proven fact!

You are a caricature of an evolutionary zealot! Based on scant evidence you make huge conclusions.

You state "facts" about me based only on evidence of a few words in a post on a public forum. You are all about emotional suppositions.

LOL. You prove my point.

Evolution to you is all about emotion wrapped around some set of internal religious presuppositions that make you feel good.

I have been involved in research and development for decades. I have designed and devloped many products that happily rely on theoretical principles. I have done research in evolutionary algortihms (genetic programming) and make them work! I have designed pattern recognition systems and studied neural processes. My products work because they operate within the constraints of the theories that model their behaviour. [Accepted theories are validated but always operate within narrow limits.]

LOL.

I am still laughing at your conclusions about who I am, based on 1 or 2 sentences on a public forum!

yes, your personality would certainly drive you to accept evolution as fact, simply because you wished it to be so.

Keep praying. Evolution may come true. I will accept it should it be true because God only has the power to make it true, just as God created the entire reality of this universe.

Truth exists, no matter what a few pounds of human biochemical processes may otherwise conclude.

101 posted on 02/07/2005 8:42:12 AM PST by Mark Felton (We are free because we are Christian. There is no other reason.)
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To: PatrickHenry

Ping.


102 posted on 02/07/2005 8:42:51 AM PST by Junior (FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC)
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To: MineralMan

Do you believe humans have souls? Do you believe primates have souls?


103 posted on 02/07/2005 8:43:28 AM PST by mlc9852
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To: John_Wheatley

No, and the Catholic faith has recognized that from the earliest days... only the radical branches of fundamentalist christianity that broke off from the church much later hold the belief that every word in the Bible is exactly and completely literal.


104 posted on 02/07/2005 8:44:29 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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Comment #105 Removed by Moderator

To: mike182d
Since when is theory accepted fact?

Organisms evolve. That's a fact. The Theory of Evolution attempts to describe the reason(s) for that fact. It's not really that hard to comprehend.

Darwinian macro-evolution is filled with so many holes I'm amazed that it even made it this far as a legitimate scientific theory.

Really? Name a few. I'm very nearly certain you cannot come up with any that have not been refuted half-a-hundred times on this very forum.

106 posted on 02/07/2005 8:45:05 AM PST by Junior (FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC)
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To: WildTurkey
Obviously at birth since that was what the first Christians believed.

No. When in evolutionary time did the soul become implanted in the first acceptable offspring to be considered human?

Does an ape have a soul?

Does a fish?

Does cyanobacteria?

107 posted on 02/07/2005 8:45:07 AM PST by Mark Felton (We are free because we are Christian. There is no other reason.)
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To: Junior

I saw this, but it's probably more of a religion thread than it is science.


108 posted on 02/07/2005 8:45:14 AM PST by PatrickHenry (<-- Click on my name. The List-O-Links for evolution threads is at my freeper homepage.)
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Comment #109 Removed by Moderator

To: Emmett McCarthy

I'm always a bit amazed at those defending the Christian version of the beginnings of life when they talk, in a somewhat negative way, about "a leap of faith way too far for the evidence to sustain" when referencing evolution, while having no issue with making their own leap of faith that "God did it", requiring no evidence at all.

Check out the behavior of the northern snakehead. It picks itself out of one body of water, crawls to another, and can live out of water for several days. http://www.invadingspecies.com/Invaders.cfm?A=Page&PID=23




110 posted on 02/07/2005 8:46:28 AM PST by dmz
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To: kittymyrib

> Jesus said, "At the beginning of creation, God made them male and female." (Mark 10:6)

Uh-oh. I guess the hermaphrodites are Satan's projects?

Evolutionists can explain hermaphrodites: genetic errors. But the Creationist view would be that they were intentionally made that way. And since God made only males and females...


111 posted on 02/07/2005 8:46:41 AM PST by orionblamblam
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To: MineralMan
Natural selection doesn't assume any intelligence in the process. It is based on the random process of genetic changes through natural mutations.

Once again, if I'm walking through the woods and come across a book laying on the ground, is it more reasonable to assume that an intelligent being created a book full of information or that the book naturally came into being after "random" genetic mutations over millions and millions of years.

The basis of life is information, it's what seperates the inanimate (i.e. rocks) from the animate (i.e all life). Life moves and does so with a purpose as is explicit within its fundamental molecular structure, DNA. DNA is the building block of life and contains all the necessary information for an organism's continued existence and replication. The claim that the proteins necessary for life naturally came together in the beginning in the exact proper order with the needed information and data from which life could reproduce by mere random acts is statistically absurd. You might as well believe a book possessing the information on how to build a house came together by "natural" mutations too.
112 posted on 02/07/2005 8:47:31 AM PST by mike182d
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To: mlc9852

"I think people refuse to believe our ancestors were monkeys."

Humans and chimpanzees share 98.4% of there genetic DNA makeup....not a 100% but quite a lot.


113 posted on 02/07/2005 8:47:57 AM PST by Smartaleck (Tom Delay TX ..."Dems have no ideas, no agenda, no solutions.")
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To: mlc9852

"Do you believe humans have souls? Do you believe primates have souls?"

The concept of the soul is a religious one. I have consciousness, obviously, or I would not be writing this message. My belief is that that consciousness will cease to exist when I die.

Having worked for a short time with chimps, I can guarantee that they have consciousness, too, as do other primates, in my opinion.

My cats possess consciousness, as well, and have very different personalities.

Soul is not a word I use.


114 posted on 02/07/2005 8:48:31 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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Comment #115 Removed by Moderator

To: mike182d
Wrong. He would say a being that possessed intelligence built it, not necessarily God...

Space aliens? That is what ID is all about, right?

116 posted on 02/07/2005 8:48:37 AM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: Mark Felton
Obviously at birth since that was what the first Christians believed.

No.

Then when did the first Christians believe ...

117 posted on 02/07/2005 8:49:58 AM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: Mark Felton

My cat lies less than the creationists on this board.


118 posted on 02/07/2005 8:50:55 AM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: mike182d

"Once again, if I'm walking through the woods and come across a book laying on the ground, is it more reasonable to assume that an intelligent being created a book full of information or that the book naturally came into being after "random" genetic mutations over millions and millions of years.
"

When books begin to reproduce themselves, then we can talk again. This is no better than your automobile analogy.


119 posted on 02/07/2005 8:51:44 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: trebb

Exactly. It's amazing how even Christians get duped by what is probably Satan's most successful campaign of lies ever. To be clear, there is no conflict between real science and the Bible, but even if there was, I'll take the Word of an everlasting God EVERY time over the speculations and conjectures of ever-shifting mankind. If it weren't so incredibly tragic in that it causes countless lost souls, the notion of twisting what God said with perfect clarity, to make it fit the silliness of evolution would be utterly laughable.

The Bible never changes. Evolution changes constantly. Every time a new piece of evidence comes to light that disproves some long-held tenet, a brand new series of conjectures is whipped up and put into place to make it fit once more.

It's still sad, but it's also understandable when unbelievers fall for it. After all, the Bible prophesied ages ago that truth would sound like foolishness to those who are blind in unbelief. As long as they choose to remain in that state, their minds are incapable of seeing the truth of the Bible. But for Christians to join the secular world in the destruction of scripture in order to look "enlightened," in order to fit in and be thought "smart," is purest tragedy.

It's as if they're saying, "Sure, God, I know you're timeless and omnipotent and all-knowing and all that good stuff. And I know you wrote down your version of what happened and all, but sheesh, God, your version just doesn't match up with what this old man came up with 150 years ago when he looked at some bird beaks, so I figure you either mis-remembered what really happened, or that old goofball Moses wrote it down wrong or something. So, thanks for all that torture and dying stuff You went through for me, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go with what the really smart people say on this issue."

MM


120 posted on 02/07/2005 8:52:02 AM PST by MississippiMan (Americans should not be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.)
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