Posted on 08/28/2004 9:10:46 PM PDT by AskStPhilomena
In what appears to be its latest capitulation to worldly wisdom, the Vatican apparatus now assumes (contrary to the teaching of Pius XII in Humanae Generis) that the evolution of men from animals is a proven fact.
On June 24, 2004 Zenit.org reported that "Vatican Observatory has convoked a range of experts to reflect on a question that at times seems to be forgotten in scientific research: Is there purpose in evolution?" That is, evolution is now assumed to have occurred, and the only debate is over whether it has a purpose. The Vatican called a symposium of experts to meet on June 24-26 to discuss whether evolution has a "purpose."
The Vatican Observatory’s announcement of the symposium states that "in scientific circles, there is a very deep-seated distrust of teleological language, even though researchers may occasionally use the word ‘design’ in an attempt to grapple with the often astonishing adaptive complexes they study … Put crudely, the widely accepted scientific worldview is that human beings or any other product of evolutionary diversification is accidental and, by implication, incidental."
Well, that’s right, of course. And what is the Vatican’s response to this worldview? Read it for yourself, if you can believe it: "The purpose of this symposium is not to dispute this worldview, but to inquire whether it is sufficient and, if it is not, to consider what we need to know and ultimately how we might discover the requisite information with one or more research programs." So, the Vatican does not dispute the view that the emergence of human life is merely incidental to the process of "evolution," whose truth is now apparently assumed.
The symposium (whose results have not yet been published) was asked to address five questions:
-- Can we speak of a universal biochemistry?
-- How do levels of complexity emerge, and are they inevitable?
-- Can we properly define evolutionary constraints?
-- What does convergence [different species displaying the same traits] tell us about evolution?
-- What do we mean by intelligence? Is intelligence an inevitable product of evolution?
Notice that every question presumes that evolution has, in fact, occurred, even though there is abundant evidence showing no gradual transition from one form of life to another (as evolution supposes), but rather the sudden appearance of every basic form in the fossil record, which is precisely what one would expect to see if God directly and specially created each kind, as the Book of Genesis recounts.
In Humani Generis Pope Pius XII warned that "the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which through generation is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own."
Moreover, Pope Leo XIII taught in his encyclical letter Arcane Divinae Sapientiae (Christian Marriage) that Adam and Eve, and they only, are our first parents and that Eve was created from Adam's body:
We record what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by any, that God, on the sixth day of creation, having made man from the slime of the earth, and having breathed into his face the breath of life, gave him a companion, whom He miraculously took from the side of Adam when he was locked in sleep. God thus, in His most far-reaching foresight, decreed that this husband and wife should be the natural beginning of the human race, from whom it might be propagated, and preserved by an unfailing fruitfulness throughout all futurity of time.
The Church says that no one may doubt these things. Yet how can these things be reconciled with the view that Adam and Eve (and who knows how many other humans) "evolved" from apes and that Eve was not formed from the body of Adam, as the Vatican now seems to suppose, in calling for a symposium to discuss the "purpose" of evolution.
So the question must be asked: Do those who are in charge of the Vatican’s approach to "modern science" still believe in what the Church teaches concerning the origin of the human race? Or are we witnessing yet another sign of the great apostasy in the Catholic Church beginning at the top, which was predicted by the Third Secret of Fatima?
I find this headline unbelievable!
Well, see, then you're one of the people who doesn't pit science against religion. That's what the church is trying to do: prevent them from being pitted against one another.
Thank you!
Thanks for the promo!
ping for your ping lists.
Not having much success... It's though, because it's not like Aquinas would use a good buzz word like "evolution." (Not to suggest that he espoused Darwinism!)
I'm trying to think of what word you might search for: Just brainstorming:
creation
Adam and Eve
account
story
Genesis
God's plan for man
My brain just dried up.
Actually, I don't think it was in reference to Adam and Eve, but rather merely to the millennia it took for the mountains to be built, etc. I looked up milllennia, ages, etc. The interesting thing about the quote was that it even teased towards a notion of evolution of organisms, albeit not necessarily anything resembling Darwinism. I learned about in college, but cannot find it now.
So I'll just ask that if anyone reading this knows to what I refer, please post it.
The point is that this is associated with something that science simply can not ever fathom, and indeed, will outright deny - the creation of our immortal souls. Where does our immortal soul fit into the scheme of creation via evolution? Science will always overlook or deny eternity ~ isn't that the only reason God made us? - for eternity?
It seems to me that if one holds to the evolution of man from an omeba to a monkey, then a caveman to todays man, somewhere in there, man did not have a soul or did not posess the ability to accept grace - which denied him eternal salvation - and to me, that alone is enough grounds to negate creation via evolution. Don't you agree?
Just to clarify: reading evolution into it would probably be very forced. Also, the context I learned about it was natural law, not science, and it was not directly related to natural law.
They [pagans] are deceived, too, by those highly mendacious documents which profess to give the history of [man as] many thousands of years, though reckoning by the sacred writings we find that not 6,000 years have yet passed.
Saint Augustine's (354 - 430) ~ The City of God
Jesus was born some 5200 years after creation so this world is not much more than 7200 years old.
Should say Chapter 10
Thank God I don't depend on fallible mortals for wisdom.
The Bible is VERY clear that the earth was created in seven days and on the seventh day God rested. Just goes to show, put your faith in God and not the Vatican or other fallible mortals.
You're well on your way to becoming a Baptist.
The world is much much older than 7200 years, and it has been proven, scientifically.
That's the problem with the fundamentalist interpretation of Scripture: it falls like a house of cards in the face of science.
Be sure to let St. Augustine know that when you meet him.
Regarding your tagline, the ID people (Johnson, Behe, Dembski, et al) believe in an old planet, billions of years old. However, they believe that Darwinist theory cannot explain how life developed or (especially) originated. That required a Designer.
St. Augustine was not a scientist.
Theres probably not many scientists who are saints.
"Regarding your tagline, the ID people (Johnson, Behe, Dembski, et al) believe in an old planet, billions of years old. However, they believe that Darwinist theory cannot explain how life developed or (especially) originated. That required a Designer."
I'm not advertising them with my "tagline".
As I mentioned to someone else, the Bible is sufficient for me for His wisdom. I'm not responsible for the "wisdom" (LOL) of other fallible mortals.
The earth was created in six days and on the seventh day He rested. We are made in His image and He is NOT an animal.
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