Free Republic

As I have indicated in other columns on this page, Laudato Si is an astonishing collection of problematical statements the likes of which have never appeared in any papal encyclical, ranging from dubious scientific opinions to humanist social commentary addressed to “every person living on this planet,” to a grab bag of vague political and economic recommendations which are none of the Pope’s business. But what does it all mean? As Andrea Galgiarducci has so succinctly put it, “there is everything and nothing in ‘Laudato Si.’”One could write an entire book about this paradigmatic document, which signals what I would call a final, “post-Catholic”...

With the publication of the Envirocylcical, Laudao Si’, many were shocked to discover that this represented the first time the once-condemned French Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, was cited in a papal (if you will allow) encyclical. (Laudato Si’, footnote no. 53) In 1962, Teilhard was the subject of a monitum (warning) issued by the Holy Office which read in part:The most eminent and most revered Fathers of the Holy Office exhort all Ordinaries, as well as the superiors of Religious institutes, rectors of seminaries and presidents of universities, effectively to protect the minds, particularly of the youth, against the dangers...

The Monitus reads: "Certain works of Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, including some posthumous, are published and can not find the least benevolence. [...] In the philosophical and theological point of view it clearly recognizes that the said works contain dangerous ambiguities and serious errors which offend Catholic doctrine."

The time has come to be blunt. The problem with Intelligent Design is not that it is false; not that the arguments in its favor reduce to smoke and mirrors; and not that it's defenders are disingenuous or even duplicitous. The problem with Intelligent Design is that it is dumb. I would contend that ID is dumb biology; even if it is on to something, what it is on to has no connection and does no meaningful work in biology (or physics). However, and more significantly, ID is dumb philosophy. First, and despite the claims of its defenders, ID is...

In April of 2005 the American Teilhard Association, in collaboration with the French and British Teilhard Associations and other partnering institutions, begins a yearlong commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) in New York City. One of the leading thinkers of the 20th century, Teilhard integrated his scientific understanding of evolution with his religious understanding of the "divine milieu."