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Pope to debate evolution with former students
Reuters ^

Posted on 08/30/2006 7:46:06 AM PDT by Grendel9

PARIS (Reuters) - Pope Benedict gathers some of his former theology students on Friday for a private weekend debate on evolution and religion, an issue conservative Christians have turned into a political cause in the United States.

Benedict, who taught theology at four German universities before rising in the Catholic Church hierarchy, has pondered weighty ideas with his former Ph.D students at annual meetings since the late 1970s without any media fuss.

But his election as pope last year and controversies over teaching evolution in the United States have aroused lively interest in this year's reunion on September 1-3 at the papal summer residence of Castel Gondolfo outside Rome.

Religion and science blogs are buzzing about whether it means the Vatican will take a more critical view of evolution and possibly embrace "Intelligent Design," which claims to have scientific proof that human life could not have simply evolved. *** At his inaugural mass after his election last year, Benedict declared: "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God."

(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...


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To: deputac
The Italian word 'un' can be translated into the English indefinite article "a" or the English adjective "one".

So, when the Pope said something to the effect of "Evolution is more than 'un' theory, the Mainstream Media claimed that he had declared that "Evolution is more than a theory", when he had, in fact, said that "evolution is more than one theory".

Or something like that.

21 posted on 08/30/2006 3:36:25 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: nmh

It's bad enough we have to listen to your anti-science crap, do we have to listen to you spout anti-Catholic crap, too?


22 posted on 08/30/2006 3:40:45 PM PDT by Liberal Classic (No better friend, no worse enemy. Semper Fi.)
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To: Smogger

Actually, he's not reciting a universall held protestant doctrine. Many denominations believe the Bible means what it says.


23 posted on 08/30/2006 3:46:20 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: Liberal Classic
"It's bad enough we have to listen to your anti-science crap, do we have to listen to you spout anti-Catholic crap, too?"

I assume you are Catholic? It's not my fault that Catholicism does NOT believe in God creating all we see and don't see. I don't understand why as a Catholic you are so hostile to the Bible and what GOD states. As for Creation and GOD creating all - God is the AUTHOR of the Laws of Science. Your "knowledge" could dance on the head of a sharp pin with room to spare compared to God's knowledge.
24 posted on 08/30/2006 3:50:34 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God) .)
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To: nmh
I don't know why as a Catholic you are so hostile to the Bible and what GOD states.

Ummm, aren't you the one arguing that the Bible doesn't mean what it says in this instance?

25 posted on 08/30/2006 3:56:09 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: thomaswest

However, in "Truth and Tolerance," the Holy Faith sees the basic problem as the cleft between reason and faith, in a world where faith to many is nothing more than feeling. He quotes Werner Heisenberg worry(in 1927) that this may lead to disaster. The Chjristian view, as stated by the Holy Father in dis discussion of the wisdom books, that it was the concept of wisdom that brought together the personal God of Abraham together with the "High God"
of the pagans, who was not thought to have interest in the affairs of men.
"The rationality that is to be seen in the structure of the world is understood as the reflection of the Creative Wisdom that has produced it. The view of reality now corresponds to some extent the question Heisenburg formulated... "'Is it completely meaningless to imagine, behind the ordering structures and principles of the world as a whole, a consciousness whose intention these world express?" The radical evolutionists say, no. They are not open to a question posed by a great physicist.


26 posted on 08/30/2006 3:57:56 PM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: Grendel9

Can you believe there are some of us outh there who have gotten so sick of hearing about this we don't even want to hear the word "evolution."


27 posted on 08/30/2006 3:58:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: Grendel9

This is proof that you don't need brains to be a Pope. And I was raised Catholic.


28 posted on 08/30/2006 4:01:24 PM PDT by WestVirginiaRebel (Common sense will do to liberalism what the atomic bomb did to Nagasaki-Rush Limbaugh)
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To: gcruse; Grendel9

... it will be viewed as Amusing by Atheists; Interesting by Born-Agains ..

and meaningless to most of us.


29 posted on 08/30/2006 4:05:16 PM PDT by Virginia-American
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To: Mr. Lucky

Uh.. Protestant denominations.


30 posted on 08/30/2006 4:07:53 PM PDT by Smogger (It's the WOT Stupid)
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

I'm not sure on which side of the argument you stand by your comment. Please further your thoughts.


31 posted on 08/30/2006 4:08:06 PM PDT by john drake (Roman military maxim; "oderint dum metuant," i.e., "let them hate, as long as they fear.")
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To: nickcarraway
'Can you believe there are some of us out there who have gotten so sick of hearing about this we don't even want to hear the word "evolution."'

I'm raising my hand here. And, if anyone is paying attention, there is the typical cast of characters continually wasting bandwidth with it. I thought it were more suited to the Smoky Backroom, but I'm thinking more that threads of that nature should be in the Religion section.

32 posted on 08/30/2006 4:08:12 PM PDT by Tench_Coxe
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To: RobbyS

""'Is it completely meaningless to imagine, behind the ordering structures and principles of the world as a whole, a consciousness whose intention these world express?" The radical evolutionists say, no. They are not open to a question posed by a great physicist."

To the extent that there is value in imagining that, say, there really is a tooth fairy, I suppose the question has merit. Science builds on proof, though, and not imagination. Ungrounded adoption of imaginings is the realm of faith, if not to say superstitious ignorance.


33 posted on 08/30/2006 4:10:53 PM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com)
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To: Smogger
Catholics don't believe Mark 14:22-24 is true?
34 posted on 08/30/2006 4:15:57 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: nmh

I have two question to ask of you..first off, why do you say God created in seven 24 hour days....according to my reading of the Bible, creation occured in six days, not seven...I thought the 7th day was for rest...I have seen some posters on FR, those who follow the teachings of Pastor Arnold Murray, who believe in the 8th of creation, which is the day that they believe Adam was created...they seem to believe that the various human races is what was created on the 6th day...so why do you say 7 days?

Secondly I notice your tagline, where I assume you say that you support intelligent design..I wonder how that can be...considering that the leading proponents of Intelligent Design do not subscribe to literal creationism...they conclude that the earth is millions, perhaps billions of years old...they also accept common descent of man...they also admit, that altho their personal preference for the Intelligent Designer may be the God of the Bible, they admit, that the Intelligent Designer could very well be any other deity, even perhaps some space alien...also they state, that altho they believe that God, or some other deity was the Intelligent Designer, they also concede, that this God or deity, could very well be dead...

I am just curious as to how you seem to be able to meld these two very differing notions together...most strict literal creationists will not admit for the correctness of Intelligent Design, with all its beliefs, nor will those supporting Intelligent Design provide for the correctness of a strict literal creationist interpretation of the Bible...and when one looks at the stand that both creationism and Intelligent Design take, they are at complete opposite ends of the spectrum...they do not agree with each other in most areas...

So I do not understand how you can say something in one post which shows that you believe in a literal creation, while you tagline seems to indicate that you believe something different...

Thanks in advance for any answers...


35 posted on 08/30/2006 4:44:22 PM PDT by andysandmikesmom
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To: thomaswest
Martin Luther went on to be the first man to print the Bible in the German language.

Actually, the first printed German bible came out in 1466 - the Mentel Bible, which went through 18 editions until Luther's superseded it in 1522.

Dozens more versions appeared in the decades after.

Luther's claim to fame was that his captured the hearts of so many of his countrymen, becoming interwoven into the language itself and its idioms.

36 posted on 08/30/2006 4:52:20 PM PDT by The Iguana
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To: nmh
It's not my fault that Catholicism does NOT believe in God creating all we see and don't see.

Actually, the Nicene Creed is pretty clear on that: "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible."

That's the creed that is said (or is supposed to be said) in every Catholic mass.

37 posted on 08/30/2006 5:01:44 PM PDT by The Iguana
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To: nmh
It's a sin to eat human flesh and a sin to drink human blood.

John 6:54-56.

Was Jesus telling us to sin?

38 posted on 08/30/2006 6:01:06 PM PDT by Quark2005 ("Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs." -Matthew 7:6)
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To: Quark2005

No, he was telling us to be cannibals. And we did it.


39 posted on 08/30/2006 6:06:31 PM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com)
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To: nmh
Re 20 Catholicism isn't receptive to truth. As I recall, humanists have never burned anyone at the stake, never persecuted any woman as a witch (and don't even worry about black cats or transubstantion), and generally have a better record in morality.
40 posted on 08/30/2006 8:24:03 PM PDT by thomaswest (Just curious.)
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