TO: Vatican buries the hatchet with Charles Darwin

[JMS]

The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes.
A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. “In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God,” said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The Vatican also dealt the final blow to speculation that Pope Benedict XVI might be prepared to endorse the theory of Intelligent Design, whose advocates credit a “higher power” for the complexities of life.

Organisers of a papal-backed conference next month marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species said that at first it had even been proposed to ban Intelligent Design from the event, as “poor theology and poor science”. Intelligent Design would be discussed at the fringes of the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University, but merely as a “cultural phenomenon”, rather than a scientific or theological issue, organisers said.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle5705331.ece

Wow.

[skinsfan_1215]

Wow is right... Who saw that coming?

[sacase]

Well this should be an interesting thread if the past is any indicator.

[skinsfan_1215]

You guys think that the fact that the Vatican admits that Darwin was right will influence people enough to get them out of their stone-age thinking?

[Burgold]

Great! Now, what will the schools do.

That is a shocking turnaround. Might be on the level of the Descartean Compromise although I doubt it will have as much impact.

[Smoot Point Really]

"Descending from Apes"... I'll accept the science behind evolution, but that is one of those Darwinian theories I have too hard of a time swallowing.

[KAOSkins]

"Descending from Apes"... I'll accept the science behind evolution, but that is one of those Darwinian theories I have too hard of a time swallowing.

The thread about the man and his five year old kinda takes the wind out of this line of thought. Actually, I think apes would be a little kinder with their own.

I am surprised by this. Watch the chasm between the protestants/evangelicals and the Catholic church get MUCH bigger.

[Old Bay]

I am surprised by this. Watch the chasm between the protestants/evangelicals and the Catholic church get MUCH bigger.

Sums up my thoughts as well.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Who gives a ****?

Round and round we go with the same arguments...

[Cooked Crack]

I thought the Pope already admitted that a while back ago. I don't understand why there are people who think you can't believe in God if you believe in evolution. We got people out there believing that Jesus rode on dinosaurs. (some elected officials too, that's a damn shame)

[jnhay]

Yeah, I thought it was common knowledge that the Church didn't have any problems with evolution. I don't think the theory says anything about how everything was created.

[DCSaints_fan]

I never thought the RCC had much problem with the ToE. At least not in the 20th century. Gregor Mendel, who is considered the father of modern genetics, was a Catholic priest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel

There does come a conflict, however, because the Church's belief in "soul" and how a human soul is different from animal souls. To an evolutionary biologist however, it is all a matter of degree. We are a bit smarter than other great apes, who are a bit smarter than the other mammals, etc. And the view that our behavior is entirely a consequence of instinct and societal pressure, that "choice" is an illusion, would present problem with the Church's view of the world.

[stupidmorals]

I'm pretty sure that the Catholic Church has never really been opposed to biological evolution. Ignored it at times, remained indifferent, and gradually become more accepting of it over the last half century or so. As someone pointed out earlier, it has been mostly protestants that object to biological evolutionary theory so completely. Oh, those silly Baptists...

[JMS]

Great! Now, what will the schools do.

That is a shocking turnaround. Might be on the level of the Descartean Compromise although I doubt it will have as much impact.

I think the Pope is catching alot of heat from progressives and moderates for trying to roll back Vatican Councel II reforms. John Paul our previous Pope also activelly rolled back Vatican Councel II reforms, but he was a young man when he became pope and was able to take his time in subtly trying to change/influence the churches direction. Pope Benedict is already 82, and doesn't have that kind of time in trying to erase fifty years of Catholic progress..

I see the Darwin stance as a bone thrown to calm upity mainstream Catholics who are still up in arms over Benidicts "compromise" with unrepentant anti semetic, any VCII troglidites...

It's important, It's like when the Vatican apologizing for the Inquisiiton's treatment of Galileo, in 1979!!!.. It's kind of meaningless, but at least in the future we Catholics can say we did it. And who knows some school kid in 2209 might overlook the fact it took the Vatican nearly 400 years to accomplish the task.

It's the ongoing need by a religion which constantly takes faith based positions against science and is often wrong. Every few hundred years you have to clean house and admit what most inteligent people already understand.

(*) Note the Vatican didn't say Darwin was right. They said "he was on the right track". Which is a significant distinction, just in case PeteMP tries to think this changes my position in our previous discussion. There are huge scientific holes in modern evolutionary thought. modern evolutionary thought is not what darwin described nearly 150 years ago. Darwin's origin of the species was wrong and it's been discarded. Modern evolutionists have significantly rewriten the mechanism of change resulting in evolution. The role Darwin plays is as the father of moving us down the scientific path of evolution. The role of modern evolution as a theory is that it is more right or explains more things than any other competing theory; Evolution remains an active pursuit of science today who continue to try to fill the holes.

[Buford]

How hard is it for them to say "God made us Evolve"?