Posted on 01/18/2006 3:09:20 PM PST by xzins
Vatican Paper Hits 'Intelligent Design' By NICOLE WINFIELD ASSOCIATED PRESS
VATICAN CITY (AP) -
The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying "intelligent design" is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion.
The article in Tuesday's editions of L'Osservatore Romano was the latest in a series of interventions by Vatican officials - including the pope - on the issue that has dominated headlines in the United States.
The author, Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, laid out the scientific rationale for Darwin's theory of evolution, saying that in the scientific world, biological evolution "represents the interpretative key of the history of life on Earth."
He lamented that certain American "creationists" had brought the debate back to the "dogmatic" 1800s, and said their arguments weren't science but ideology.
"This isn't how science is done," he wrote. "If the model proposed by Darwin is deemed insufficient, one should look for another, but it's not correct from a methodological point of view to take oneself away from the scientific field pretending to do science."
Intelligent design "doesn't belong to science and the pretext that it be taught as a scientific theory alongside Darwin's explanation is unjustified," he wrote.
"It only creates confusion between the scientific and philosophical and religious planes."
Supporters of "intelligent design" hold that some features of the universe and living things are so complex they must have been designed by a higher intelligence. Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism - a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation - camouflaged in scientific language and say it does not belong in science curriculum.
Facchini said he recognized some Darwin proponents erroneously assume that evolution explains everything. "Better to recognize that the problem from the scientific point of view remains open," he said.
But he concluded: "In a vision that goes beyond the empirical horizon, we can say that we aren't men by chance or by necessity, and that the human experience has a sense and a direction signaled by a superior design."
The article echoed similar arguments by the Vatican's chief astronomer, the Rev. George Coyne, who said "intelligent design" wasn't science and had no place in school classrooms.
Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed in off-the-cuff comments in November that the universe was made by an "intelligent project" and criticized those who in the name of science say its creation was without direction or order.
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An empty mason jar with the top on tight contains not a void but "some stuff" we cannot see(air).. Could be the same thing in space.. There is evidence that "space is" dark energy and dark matter.. Just because "we" can't measure or even know about dark energy or dark matter don't mean it DON'T exist.. There could a whole universe of "stuff" we humans can only theorize about.. because we don't have the ablity to register it or measure it or deal with it, now..
To wit; the space in the universe might not be space between objects but is filled with "something".. and there is no void.. The precence of Electricity is quite new to mans mind.. but has been here all along.. Could be the only void is in mankinds qualia.. and the "Void" is superstition..
Thank you for sharing your view, hosepipe! As you know I have a rather strict definition of certain things such as dimensionality which we've discussed before - the void is another.
I know.. but I don't.. here I merely put forth some suppositions.. No one I know has been to another dimension or been to the void.. If there are such things, even.. But it fun talking about.. Even if true; 4 dimensions seems lame to me.. but then my vision of dimensions are/is quite different from most anybody I know.. I am not too bright about those things.. Catching fish however is serious business to me.. I'm a serial killer of fish.. One at a time, one at a time..
Arggggh.. click, click, click <- pegged leg on the deck walking away..
What we have here is merely a language thing - sometimes you use a word for a spiritual metaphor which has a particular meaning in another context, e.g. theoretical physics. And many times there is no bright line between the subjects!
Aye me hearty, speakin pigeon with the natives sometimes makes em do a pagan dance.. The dance of the Philistines I calls it.. They grunt and make gyrations while makein plans to shrink yer head.. Them heathen be a sneaky bunch.. Intellectually naked they be but will have you for dinner if were it not for the big guns.. The big guns, you know, the good book..
(persona; Captain Greybeard)
LOLOLOL! Thank you so much for the chuckle, dear hosepipe!
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