THE CATHOLIC CHURCH EMBRACES EVOLUTION!!!!

MuscleHead Revolution ^ | 11.14.2005 | Kevin McCullough

[jodiluvshoes]

In a remarkably odd statement this past week, the Vatican has issued a stout defence of Charles Darwin!

In fact Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture said that "if the Bible were read correctly" that the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's theory of evolution were "perfectly compatible."

"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".

He went on to advocate that the idea of creation is a theological one, while the substance of origins is a scientific one and that Catholics should "know" how science sees such things so as to "understand better."

[little jeremiah]

Okay, maybe "random" is not the politically correct scientific evo-fundie term. How about "chance", or just purposeless and planless? Accidental?

My particular god. Heheh. You guys are funny. Clinging on the dead corpse of the TOE as it slowly sinks.

[swain_forkbeard]

Save your breath. I'm going to. He has identified the TOE as the godless enemy, and by God, he WILL WITNESS against it. There's no thinking going on there, no willingness to converse. His last post to me just repeated his earlier, unsubstantiated assertions and then moved to the ad hominem stage. Useless.

[attiladhun2]

Like I said on another thread, folks don't carefully read these threads. I never said gunpowder was discovered by monks. Allegedly, it was invented by the Chinese. The formula was actually improved by Bacon.

[blowfish]

If the TOE is correct, everything is random, iow meaningless and planless.

Much like your posts. Perhaps you don't really write them, just let them evolve?

[SoothingDave]

The formula was actually improved by Bacon.

There are few things in life that aren't improved by bacon. Mmmmmm bacon.

SD

[Zionist Conspirator]

No story here.

I hate to see this happen. I think it may be the beginning of a large rift between evangelicals and catholics on the culture war, and we need each other to stay involved.

It was inevitable. Catholics are good when it comes to morality, but lousy on the Bible.

[Zionist Conspirator]

The Catholic Church has never believed in a literal translation of the Bible.

Since their whole raison d'etre is based on de-literalizing messianic prophecies, how could they be otherwise?

[attiladhun2]

I believe a lot of people on FR could benefit greatly from a course in critical reading. If you would have read what I actually said, you no doubt would have understood that I was not attributing the invention of gunpowder to monks, Chinese or otherwise. I was only indictating that the Middle Ages were not bereft of progress, as many assume.

[little jeremiah]

LOL.

Carry on, you'll convince no one but your fellow evo-fundie cultists.

[aNYCguy]

You're right, thanks. Moving right along.

[SoothingDave]

Please answer post 227, repeated here for your convenience. Failure to answer will be the final indicator of your unwillingness to consider an argument.

Do you believe God could use a process of creation that appears random to us, but is, in fact, an elaborate plan?

Or can't God do that?

Note, I add, that the question does not say whether you believe God did, in fact do this. The question is hypothetical. Could God use such a plan, could He make it appear to us to be "random," or is this outside of His powers?

SD

[joseph20]

In the creation account in Genesis, the language clearly indicates six literal 24 hour days. See my post #142 and the link it contains.

Six 24 hour days for God is not necessarily the same thing as six 24 hour days on Earth.
It may have taken God six 24 hour days (in his own time), but in our time that would translate to millions or billions of years.
I think your position has a built-in assumption that time for God is the same thing as time on Earth.

[todd1]

Ask God what he did before he created earth and he would reply "Nothing, there was not enough time in the day". (o:

[ContraryMary]

Contrary Mary:"The Catholic Church has never believed in a literal translation of the Bible."

Sensei Ern:Yes, otherwise they would not disregard Jesus' command to "call NO man your father."

LOL! You've certainly made the case against a literal interpretation.

[curiosity]

Reconcile the resurrection and water to wine with science.

Gladly. There's no scientific evidence that they did not happen. Nothing in science rules out the possibility that there is a God who on relatively rare occaisions does things that violate the laws of nature.

And just for fun explain why these events are any more scientificly "reasonable" than a 6 day creation.

Gladly. There are mountains of physical evidence that rule out a literal, 6 day creation, wherein days are literal 24 human hours. There is no evidence that rules out the miracles recorded in the Gospels.

[The Cuban]

Rhetorical. I agree with you.

[curiosity]

I can't tell you how many times I read in some text book that most people thought that the world was flat before Columbus's voyage.

Not that it has anything to do with evolution or Christianity, but there's some truth to that. In Columbus's day, lots of uneducated people thought the earth was flat, along with lots of other wildely superstitious nonsense about sea monsters and the like.

Educated people, of course, including clerics, knew better, but that didn't help Columbus very much since his crew was composed mostly of uneducated commoners, including some convicts, who couldn't even read.

[curiosity]

I take it back. Searching a few credible places on the web, I found that there's no evidence that common people in Columbus' time believed the Earth was flat. I too was suckered by the myth. Mea Culpa.

Here's a good source, in case you are interested:

http://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/history/1997Russell.html

[Cronos]

Hard to believe that this started out as a thread on evolution, eh? ;-)

Well, any post with the word "Catholic" in it gets nutjobs -- anti-RCCs crawling out of the mud. Just post an article saying that a man has a catholic taste in food and I betcha it'll degenerate into an anti-RCC discussion within 100 posts!

[Cronos]

Twice is it recorded in Scripture that God viewed His creation as good

well, yeah, when He did create it, it WAS good. But then we do hear that sin entered the world after that....