Posted on 10/30/2014 4:22:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not “a magician with a magic wand”, Pope Francis has declared.
Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pope made comments which experts said put an end to the “pseudo theories” of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
Francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator – arguing instead that they “require it”.
“When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,” Francis said.
He added: “He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment.
“The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.
“Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
I forgot to respond and say thanks for posting that Scripture.
There’s also this one:
Genesis 1:30
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green plant for food: and it was so.
It's not just me that reads Genesis and believes what is written there and in the rest of the Bible. Millions throughout the ages have considered the Bible to be the Word of God as Jesus Himself regarded it.
Speaking of marriage Jesus said "from the beginning God created them male and female". He was not approached about apes...he was approached about the question of divorce among people. Jesus spoke of Noah as an historical person; yet still many think of Noah as a myth. Too many people think they're wiser than Scripture. That's an impossibility.
All pursuit of knowledge can be an exercise in discovering more about God whether it's philosophy, theology or any other area of learning. There are many disciplines but all roads will lead to God if followed with integrity.
Those who interpret the Bible literally ultimately alienate themselves and others from true spirituality and rationality.
There were predictions the last Pope would be the last of the Catholic Church and I think those predictions are right.
I expect Pope Francis to be shaking it at the next West Hollywood gay pride parade the way he is going.
Francis makes me not want to remain a Catholic.
I think I can agree with RC Sproul’s position.
1) There is no single view of evolution, define what we are talking about here.
2) Macro evolution is just bad science
3) Macro evolution DOES conflict with Christianity
What should Christians think about evolution?
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/what-should-christians-think-about-evolution/
There is no single view of evolution out there. We make one distinction, for example, between macroevolution and microevolution. Macroevolution claims that all of life evolved fortuitously from a single cell—one little pulsating cell of life made up of amino acids and RNA and DNA and all of that, and then through chance, explosions, or whatever, there were mutations. First, a lower, simplistic form of life came about, and then from that came more complex things, and we all emerged, as it were, from the slime, through oozing, into our present humanity. That’s the radical view of evolution that sees life occurring as sort of a cosmic accident.
This view of evolution—the one I hear discussed publicly so often in the secular world—is unmitigated nonsense and will be totally rejected by the secular scientific community within the next generation. My objections to it are not so much theological as they are rational and logical. I mean, the doctrine of macroevolution is one of the most unsubstantiated myths that I’ve ever seen perpetuated in an academic environment.
But there are other varieties much less radical that simply indicate that there is a change, a progression involving different directions among various species that we can even track historically. The kind of evolution of the latter sort is of no consequence with respect to biblical Christianity. The big issue is with the former view, and this is the basic question: Is man in his origin the product of a purposive act of divine intelligence, or is man a cosmic accident? In other words, am I a creature of dignity or a creature of cosmic insignificance? That’s a pretty heavy issue because if I just sort of popped into being or emerged from the slime and I’m destined for annihilation, I can only fantasize that somehow in between those two poles of origin and destiny I have meaning and significance and dignity. But that’s wishful thinking of the worst sort. Obviously if I come from nothing and go to nothing, I am nothing under any objective analysis.
A Christian cannot believe that he is a cosmic accident and at the same time believe in the sovereign God and the creator God. To be a Christian is to affirm not only Christ the Redeemer but God the Creator. And we have to affirm both. Let me say, too, before we drop this question, that some of the biggest objections I have toward this more radical view of evolution are not the theological problems, as serious as they are, but rational problems. I think that it is not only bad theology, it’s bad science.
All Christians, Jews, and Muslims historically have made it a central article of affirmation that this world and all the people in it are the result of a divine act of creation. As far as Christianity is concerned, if there’s no creation, then there’s nothing to redeem.
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