Thursday, July 07, 2005

Clearing The Air

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has some interesting things to say in a NYT op-ed piece.

teaser:

EVER since 1996, when Pope John Paul II said that evolution (a term he did not define) was "more than just a hypothesis," defenders of neo-Darwinian dogma have often invoked the supposed acceptance - or at least acquiescence - of the Roman Catholic Church when they defend their theory as somehow compatible with Christian faith.

But this is not true. The Catholic Church, while leaving to science many details about the history of life on earth, proclaims that by the light of reason the human intellect can readily and clearly discern purpose and design in the natural world, including the world of living things.

Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense - an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection - is not. Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science.

Consider the real teaching of our beloved John Paul. While his rather vague and unimportant 1996 letter about evolution is always and everywhere cited, we see no one discussing these comments from a 1985 general audience that represents his robust teaching on nature...

1 comment:

Lawrence Gage said...

I like your blog!

In case you're interested, I've posted on the Cardinal's piece
here.

Also, I've a few links to the discussion (quasi-discussion) with the liberals on the NYTimes forum:

Debate in Darwinian Territory

With compliments,

MJ