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To: HamiltonJay
The betrayal lies in the fact that it is not the role of the Church to make judgements on the truth of scientific theories, nor is it supposed to. The role of the Church is to make assesments on matters of faith and morals and these bishops and Jesuit priests have clearly out-stepped their bounds by demanding Catholics adhere to a theory of science in order to not disuade true "intellectuals."

That is the betrayal.
84 posted on 02/07/2005 8:27:10 AM PST by mike182d
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To: mike182d

I think you really need to find out what the Church actually has actually said on evolution. The church has NEVER declared the theory of evolution to be fact, it has declared however that it is NOT IN CONFLICT WITH THE FAITH.. which is indeed exactly in the Church's realm.

I don't ready what you are taking from this article, there are giant intellectuals in the faith, and always have been. There are great intellectual arguments for faith, FAR MORE than there are for Atheism. Unfortunately the Church has indeed done a very poor job getting those intellectual arguments out there and articulating them to the masses.

I don't see anything in this article, or in any posting of the Vatican that says the theory of evolution is fact... So if you as a Catholic choose to not believe in the theory of evolution, no one says you can't be a Catholic.

What blows my mind about this whole damn debate is that Charles Darwin himself was Catholic if I am not mistaken... nothing in his theory remotely dismisses the existance of God. The Church itself has never dismissed the theory of evolution as contrary to the faith. And evolution in all things is one of the very much long time accepted evidence that God exists.

The only folks who are jumping ugly over this whole thing are far right fundamentalists and the far left aethiests. So if you think the bible is absolute literal, with no symbolism then you have a problem with evolution in terms of your faiths compatibility with it (which BTW the CATHOLIC faith has NEVER taken the bible as 100% literal, it has always understood there are symbolic and other meanings and not simply the exact word. If you doubt that please go read up on the matter) you have an issue with evolution conflicting with religion.. or if you are die hard aethiest who doesn't believe in God anyway.. you think that Evolution proves there is no God.. of course this is a completely illogical and unreasonable stand... even if you take the theory of evolution at full face value, you cannot get any item, without having a previous item act upon it... if you take this chain back to its beginning you wind up with something from nothing.... and that something is God.


100 posted on 02/07/2005 8:42:07 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: mike182d
"The betrayal lies in the fact that it is not the role of the Church to make judgements on the truth of scientific theories, nor is it supposed to. The role of the Church is to make assesments on matters of faith and morals and these bishops and Jesuit priests have clearly out-stepped their bounds by demanding Catholics adhere to a theory of science in order to not disuade true "intellectuals.""

The person interviewed in the article, David Byers, is not a bishop or a Jesuit priest. He is speaking his own opinions. No one else is quoted in the article. Notice that his term on the science committee ended in 2003. (I looked up the "America" magazine article noted, but it's pay-per-view.) You are getting upset over one lay person's opinion.

125 posted on 02/07/2005 8:58:19 AM PST by LibFreeOrDie (A Freep a day keeps the liberals away.)
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