You are using the term "Creationist." I am using the term "creationist." Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI believe that God created the universe. Neither has claimed that it is only 6,000 years old. In this sense, they are "creationists" with a lower-case "c." Or just dump the term altogether: Christians believe that God created the universe, and out of nothing to boot.
The evolution issue is separate from this because evolution is not a theory of creation, or of the origin of life. Why did you bring it up? But since you did, these two men accept the "more-than-hypothesis" of evolution. What they reject is that it is a blind, undirected, non-teleological process. And they understand that life is a divine creation, not the effect of a combination of matter and natural forces.
So where does this leave Darwin's theory? You yourself quoted Pope John Paul II on this matter, as evidence that he supported evolution:
...the theories of evolution which, as a result of the philosophies which inspire them, consider the spirit as emerging from forces of living matter or as a simple epiphenomenon of this matter, are incompatible with the truth about man. They are moreover incapable of laying the foundation for the dignity of the person.Read between the lines here, allmendream! This is hardly an endorsement of Darwin's macroevolutionary theory.
I gather you wanted to cite evidence to show that because Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI spoke favorably of evolution in concept, somehow this constitutes logical proof that they were not "Creationists." This entire line of thinking seems like a non sequitur to me.
A non sequeter?
You bring up the Popes as false evidence that my statement that Creationism is the refuge of the ignorant was incorrect.
Me pointing out that both Popes agree with me, and neither agrees with you, as to the particulars of the intersection of science and faith is hardly apart from the subject under discussion.
And I agree completely with Pope John Paul II that any philosophy that concludes that the human spirit arises from physicality rather than from the glory of God are completely incompatible with the truth. This was not at all a condemnation of the scientific theory of evolution, but of a philosphy which would claim that man’s spirit is not from God.
Evolution is not a theory about the creation of life (refreshing to hear a Creationist admit it, as conflating the two seems one of their favorite tactics), but of the origin of species. Creationism as a movement formed in oposition to the idea that species formed by means of natural development from other species and insist that all species were created nearly contemporaneously in their present form.
This is, despite your rather lame attempt to claim otherwise, NOT the view of either of the last two Popes.
Yet more distortion by the evos, and they have been getting away with it for years. Every time you dig deep and look at their claims, they will be found to based on falsehoods.