Wednesday, July 25, 2007

This sounds familiar

In the past, Pope John Paul II announced that there was no conflict between evolution and faith, noting that evolution is "more than just a theory."

Now we have Benedict XVI announcing that the war between evolution and creationism "is an absurdity because on one hand there is much scientific proof in favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such."

The article also points out that Benedict reminded followers that evolution doesn't explain the question of "where does everything come from?"

Duh.

It's not meant to. Evolution deals only with how species arose once life was already started. It's a shame Creationists frequently forget this as they wade through their fields of strawmen. Evolution is about getting from point X to Y. It doesn't concern itself with how to get from A to B. But I suppose for people who are so used to making the arrogant assumption that their magic book tells them how to get from A to Z and that there's actually more beyond Z, that they're blind to how small steps actually work.

Also encouraging is that the pope is also encouraging stewardship of the planet. That's a nice change from what we get from many Christians who feel it's perfectly fine to rape the planet since Jesus should be coming any day now.

10 comments:

Stephen said...

Yes. But there are plenty out there that don't want to think we're related to chimps.

The Catholic Church runs a world class research telecope in Arizona - the VAT. This interest in astronomy stems from the needs of the calendar, but continues. The Catholic Church has come to terms with most of science. It is slow to react, but is not a fundamentalist entity.

Of Martin Luther's objections, the Catholic Church has corrected most of them. The infalability of the Pope has even been downgraded to official pronouncements on theology. That is, items where the Pope has actually spent the time to think about things. If he absentmindedly says it's going to rain, it might not, and that's OK.

Anonymous said...

The Catholic church is leagues ahead when it comes to bridging the science/religion gap. They've accepted evolution as fact since the mid-1900s and John Paul II warned people against taking the bible literially. Today priests have to attend workshops on basic cosmology/biology to make sure they are up to scratch.

Anonymous said...

Duh.

He didn't imply it should. That's why he (probably) reads the Bible.

As for the last paragraph; one can only wonder what kind of christians you get in the US of A... or if the astronomer in question is such an angry one, that he makes gross generalizations.

Forthekids said...

John,

Get real. That last paragraph is such crap. I know a lot of Christians and I have NEVER heard anyone talking about "raping the planet" or anything remotely close to it.

I'd really like to know what kind of Christians you hang out with that give you the impressions about Christianity that you are always forwarding in your posts.

Love the ones about finding Jesus or Mary's face on a tree or some other ridiculous oddity.

We both live in the bible belt, but evidently you've met some real Christian loons in your life. Either that, or you scan the web looking for the peculiar ones.

News flash: There are peculiar atheists in the world as well.

Anonymous said...

John,

I wanted to be an "angry astronomer" like you, but circumstances prevented the "astronomer" part from coming true.

At least I'm still angry, though :D

BTW, I believe the "find" in your last paragraph should've been "fine".

dg and forthekids,

No, the Christians don't SAY they're raping the planet, but if you see how most of them act daily...

I know many Christians who don't give a rat's arse about pollution, wasting food, population control, etc. They DO, unconsciously or not, rely on their invisible Sky Daddy to take care of everything for them.

The peculiar ones are those who let Daddy determine their fashion interests (and believe me, there are quite a few).

Jon Voisey said...

Thanks for catching that typo Foundation.

Forthekids said...

"I know many Christians who don't give a rat's arse about pollution, wasting food, population control, etc. They DO, unconsciously or not, rely on their invisible Sky Daddy to take care of everything for them."

Baloney with a capital B. Shoot, besides the efforts I and many other Christians make at home, many churches have recycling drives and other functions throughout the year to help with environmental issues.

The kicker is that the fearless leader of the "save the environment" efforts gorges more energy than most (as I'm sure you're aware).

Read this.

I think most Christians believe that our lives and our place in the universe is a gift from God...a gift that we should treasure and take care of. To abuse that gift would be like a slap in the face of the Creator.

Anonymous said...

FTK

While there are examples such as your church apparently. There are many examples of Christian politicians and leaders who couldn't give a damn about destroying the Earth before the silly Rapture. Politicians such as Fmr. Secretary of the Interior James Watt, Senator James Inhofe. Christian leaders such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and D. James Kennedy.

And as for the Christians Jon runs into I can't say. But in Lexington, MO there is a priest who instead of trying to provide services to the mexican immigrant population, he hands out anti-evolution screeds and plastic fetuses to them. He hinders the efforts to get these people the medical and educational services they need, so one lone crank in a position of power can have an effect.

Foundation said...

John,

I wanted to be an "angry astronomer" like you, but circumstances prevented the "astronomer" part from coming true.

At least I'm still angry, though :D

BTW, I believe the "find" in your last paragraph should've been "fine".

dg and forthekids,

No, the Christians don't SAY they're raping the planet, but if you see how most of them act daily...

I know many Christians who don't give a rat's arse about pollution, wasting food, population control, etc. They DO, unconsciously or not, rely on their invisible Sky Daddy to take care of everything for them.

The peculiar ones are those who let Daddy determine their fashion interests (and believe me, there are quite a few).

Ned said...

The Catholic church is leagues ahead when it comes to bridging the science/religion gap. They've accepted evolution as fact since the mid-1900s and John Paul II warned people against taking the bible literially. Today priests have to attend workshops on basic cosmology/biology to make sure they are up to scratch.