Posted on 09/07/2006 6:57:13 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Distancing itself from the days of locking up the Galileo's of the world, the Vatican has taken yet another stance in favor of evolution.
Sort of.
Pope Benedict spent this past weekend in a seminar with some of his former doctoral students, and a small cadre of philosophers and theologians. The seminar focused on discussing the relationship between faith and science, particularly with regard to the origin of life.
Interestingly, the minutes from the seminar will be published and available for all to see. The minutes should be released around November.
These minutes, Reuters reports, "… will show how Catholic theologians see no contradiction between their belief in divine creation and the scientific theory of evolution."
Now, the question is how this event will affect the firestorm over the teaching of evolution in the U.S. My hope is that the American evangelical movement will follow the Vatican's lead and pull its head out of the sand on this issue.
I'm not holding my breath.
Expecting Protestants to lineup behind views of the Catholic Church is as absurd as claiming that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. It would be as irrational as, say, claiming that all life has existed in its present form since the beginning of time.
It would almost be as illogical as religious fundamentalism.
But the Vatican's continued support for evolution points to just how monumental of a waste of time the evolution-intelligent design debate is.
If the conservative Catholic Church – which still bans women from the priesthood and disavows the use of any form of contraceptive – can accept evolution, then every other Christian denomination ought to be able to do the same.
They ought to, yet it is clear that fundamentalist conservatives have no intention of changing their strict opposition to the teaching of evolution.
Evangelicals, as they like to be called, believe the Bible is the literal word of God and anything that contradicts their literal interpretation of the Good Book should be flatly rejected.
And I'm fine with that.
At some point we all have to realize that there is no reaching these people. They have their beliefs, and there is no argument in the world that is going to convince them otherwise.
Wasting time debating the merits of evolution with many of these fundamentalists is tantamount to wasting an afternoon trying to convince the various nut-job street preachers on campus that, contrary to their beliefs, we are not all "little Satans brainwashed by [our] evil professors in the Sun Devil capitol."
Some people just are not going to be reached. This is typically what happens when people debate abortion. People on opposite sides of the issue spend a couple hours yelling at each other, with the participants all the more convinced of their own correctness by the end.
With this in mind, those of us who believe in evolution (and other scientific facts like gravity and genetics) should no longer try to convince creationists that they are misguided. Instead, we owe it to creationists to give them what they want: freedom from the pseudo-science of evolution.
Simply leaving evolution out of science textbooks and public school classrooms is not enough. We must help isolate creationists from the perils of evolution entirely.
Those who reject evolution should not have it forced upon them. This includes preventing creationists from enjoying any of the discoveries of, or anything that has used research from, the field of evolutionary biology.
The triumphs of modern science are due in large part to the understanding of living organisms in terms of their evolutionary history. With this in mind, I urge all creationists to live consistently with their principles and shun modern medicine.
As for the Catholic Church, instead of Galileo, can you lock up Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson instead?
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Macy Hanson is a philosophy and political science senior. Contact him at macy.hanson@asu.edu
Not surprising.
Since St. Augustine (aka "the first Protestant") took the same position, saying that Genesis was written as a divine condescension to our limited ability to understand, maybe you should take it up with him.
Actually, he hasn't distorted the view of the Catholic Church on evolution. From the old Catholic Encyclopedia(1909):
"This is the gist of the theory of evolution as a scientific hypothesis. It is in perfect agreement with the Christian conception of the universe; for Scripture does not tell us in what form the present species of plants and animals were originally created by God." And:
"The theory of evolution as a philosophical conception considers the entire history of the cosmos as an harmonious development, brought about by natural laws.. This conception is in agreement with the Christian view of the universe."
From John Henry Newman (1874: "I see nothing in the theory of evolution inconsistent with an Almighty Creator and Protector." From "The Question Box", Rev. Bertrand Conway, (1929), a Catholic book that sold millions of copies and was widely used in Catholic schools in the 1930s:
Q: “May a Catholic believe in evolution? …”
A: “As the Church has made no pronouncement upon evolution, Catholics are perfectly free to accept evolution, either as a scientific hypothesis or as a philosophical speculation. … [quoting Wasmann] “the most probable explanation of the origin of organic species.”
“Evolution is in no sense at variance with the theistic or Christian theory of life.”
The Catholic Church never condemned evolution or Darwinism.
Catholics who believe otherwise are simply very ignorant of the Church's teaching, probably because for the last 40 years no one has been taught anything about the history or teachings of the Catholic Church. (The best Protestant thinkers, such as C.S. Lewis, also saw nothing objectionable in the the theory of evolution as a biological theory.)
It will end up that you can believe either and be perfectly comfortable and at home in the Catholic church.
The astute student columnist misses the boat here... making a very broad-brushed inaccurate statement.
Let's break this down a bit....
(1) Evangelicals bellieve the Bible is the first, foremost, and final authoritative revelation of God's written Word and God's will -- the LORD's offer of a reconciled covenant relationship that includes the ultimate promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
(2) Evangelicals believe in the plenary-verbal inspiration of the Biblical canon -- that the Holy Spirit inspired and guided the hearts and mind of the forty-plus authors of the Biblical books and letters.
(3) Evangelicals believe the Biblical canon is complete and closed; and choose to heed the admonitions of both Old and New Testaments... ...not to add or take away ...from the written Word.
(4) Much of the literature in the Bible is written in intentional symbolism, parables, and poetic metaphor, and apocalyptic language. All of these literary forms invite the reader to thoughtfully apply the passages; prayerfully inviting the Holy Spirit to illuminate all the Lord God is saying and imparting throught the Scriptures.
(5) Much of the Biblical literature and history IS INDEED written and intended by the authors to be taken literally. In other words... THE MAIN THINGS ARE THE PLAIN THINGS. When God issued the "Big Ten", they were not suggestions, but commandments to His covenanted people; the ancient tribes of Israel. When Jesus spoke the words of the Sermon on the Mount he wasn't "just kidding".
So.... why don't we consider literally all that was intended by the authors/speakers to be given literally to the reader/listener?.
And why don't we seize the opportunity -- to consider the parables, the poetry, and the prophecies as a catalyst for our ongoing relational experience with the Holy One.
It's so easy to get this right, as well. As we read the poetic book of Proverbs.. We can discern from Solomon's bits of wisdom the heart of the LORD to take compassion on the poor... be generous, industrious, and completely honest in all of our words and deeds. No brainer.
We read and consider... study the context, the known life and other Biblcal writings of the author. We use the proven historical/grammatical method of interpretation to cross the "bridges" of original language, ancient culture and remote geographical reference-- all in order to get into the mind and thoughts of the apostolic writers.
All of this accomplished in the atmosphere of prayer and personal reflection of our interactive RELATIONSHIP with the Living God. An abundant life God offers everyone -- to be lived in the abiding Presence we are entitled to enjoy through Jesus Christ.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. 17 It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do. (Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 1997 . Tyndale House: Wheaton, Ill.)
Oh yeah, and while we're at it, let's tell creationists to stop driving cars, or using electric appliances. How about they just live in caves with their blind superstitions.
(sarcasm alert)
Good overall premise, but a snide and sloppy article. The Catholic Church absolutely does *not* support evolution. It only doesn't *condemn* it--as a biological theory alone. It only comments on the aspects of it that impinge upon divine revelation and theology (cf. Pius XII's Humani Generis).
You are correct, of course. The Catholic Church does not "support" evolution. Your formulation is precise. The Church merely says that from a theological point of view there is nothing in the idea of the evolution of species that is contrary to the faith. However, in practice, because the scientific community is convinced that the evidence in favor of biological evolution is overwhelming, the Church is, in effect, giving support. Strictly speaking, the Church also does not "support" the idea that water is H20 or that George Washington was the first US president. In Catholic schools, generally speaking, evolution is taught in science classes as being the accepted theory, and no one blinks an eye about it. And that is as it should be.
I intentionally took care... and a lot of time forming my response this morning....
Then I sent a copy to the young student who wrote the original article.
The pope does say that evolution should not be taken as a global view of all reality, a "theory of everything," which makes everything essentially meaningless.
True.
What to me is most troubling is the anthropology of many evolutionists, which makes man simply "king of the beasts."
I am unaware of anyone who suggests that the theory of evolution is a "theory of everything".
It is more poetry than science. Dawkins follows the tradition of Ingersoll etc to use science in support of atheism, a kind of counter-natural theology.( Lucretius was a better poet). Evolution with a "big E" becomes a kind of Demiurge.
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