Pope Benedict Admits Evidence for Evolution

The Pope admitts there is a lot of scientific evidence of evolution in a talk with 400 priests.

Pope Benedict Admits Evidence for Evolution

POPE Benedict has said there is substantial scientific proof of the theory of evolution.

Talking about creationism versus evolution.

“They are presented as alternatives that exclude each other,” the Pope said.

“This clash is an absurdity because on one hand there is much scientific proof in favour of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such.”

But he said evolution did not answer all the questions and could not exclude a role by God.

“Above all it does not answer the great philosophical question 'where does everything come from?'“

His comments appear to be an endorsement of the doctrine of intelligent design.

I'm sure he lost a lot of friends in the Vatican after they heard this!

The Pope is now "endorsing" intelligent design? Now they have me wondering if the church is hiding info on ET'S.





[edit on 30/7/07 by Keyhole]

Hey, the Catholic church is making progress! It took them around 500 years to reverse Copernicus' excommunication.

They accepted evolution in only 150 years.

Now if we could get them to give up on the sky fairy business ...

This is not new. Pope John Paul "embraced" the findings of evolutionary scientists. The Church may be slow, but they now tend to agree in the face of overwhelming evidence. The church position is that evolution is a fact, and God is the architect. Evolution and God are not mutualy exclusive in the Churches view.

While it did take the Church centuries (in the 1980's) to finally admit that Galileo was not a heretic for stating that the Earth Revolved around the Sun, they tend to keep up with things better these days.

I think he is 100% correct.

Holy Carp! I am totally agreement with something our Nazi-Pope said. This, I interpret, could only be the seventh seal being opened. Anyone else smell sulfur?

The Catholic Church admitted today, after centuries of denial, that scientists, "might just be on to something after all."

Jon

Well, science also now provides substantial evidence to support the belief that the existence of a 'savior' such as one symbolized by the words 'messiah' or 'christ' is within the realm of life's evolutionary potential.

I suppose his recent statement now leaves him open to admitting the possible evolutionary potential of mankind to evolve a 'christ'?

If everything else is a product of evolution, then logically, it must follow that 'christ' too must also be a product of the same evolutionary process.

Of course this too is old news, as a Jesuit priest posthumously published a book stating that such an outcome was possible, a long long time ago. However, the old Jesuit didn't speak about evolving a 'christ'. He called the ultimate outcome of evolution 'the Omega Point' (but he was speaking in philisophical and not strictly in scientific terms).

There were many others who also talked about the human evolutionary potential to evolve a 'messiah', etc., and the Churches have mostly been well aware of it for at least 150 years.

Maybe in another 50 years or so they might finally getting around to admitting that mankind has a tremendous evolutionary potential, one that perhaps includes the potential for the evolution of a 'christ'? Or at least, for the attainment of the 'Omega Point', as the old Jesuit priest used to say?

(So, yes there is a 'God', and yes there is a 'Savior', and so much more beyond what we can even imagine. Science 'proved' it a long time ago. So the folks who usually scoffed at religion might actually start going to Church again, with a somewhat different understanding of the meaning of the 'sacraments'?)

Obviously, the Church adapts to the mentality of the people. How long it takes for them to admit to the human evolutionary potential, depends mostly on how quickly people become aware of it.

Unfortunately, we all know just how dumb and backwards most folks are, so expect a long time to pass before the great awakening commences.

PS: Please forgive the dancing alien avatar, as I have been posting in the UFO section recently, and haven't had a chance to change it.


[edit on 7/31/2007 by Rudolph_X]

I'm glad. Good job to Benedict.

I have never understood why the argument between creation and evolution. While I do not believe in the theory of creation (being that god created the heavens and the earth), I see no reason why evolution should discourage those that do or even cause them to question their faith. Creationists should be able to easily fit the evolution of the species into their theory.

If nothing else, maybe this endorsement will quell a FEW future arguments.


Jasn

The only belief-system that is slower and more inert than science is religion. 150 years later the church sees the relative validity of evolution-theory. So it will take another 500 years until they go beyond evolution theory into consciousness creating the world. The slowness of these institutions blows my mind. Either they are really as stupid as they are acting or its a conspiracy.

God created man in his image. We are not done yet. Our path is to become like god. Why would you deny his very scripture. Do not fear science, evolution, cloning or stem cell research. All the knowledge we are gaining is in fact our path to becoming like god. We are evolving (being created) into gods image.

Do not fear technology etc.. it is our path. Almost the entire bible tells us to become like god... it does not stop at learning how to create life and to achive immortality etc..

So many religious people are so confused yet it says so right in the book they believe in.

the pedophile and nazi church, oops I mean the catholic church, is now only about 100 years behind the rest of society.

Intelligent Design is a nice way of trying to rationalize beliefs in imaginary beings . “Above all it does not answer the great philosophical question 'where does everything come from?'“ ummm sorry but it does... perhaps the Church is confusing the Big Bang theory with their idea of a massive pedophilic orgy.

how can that imposter believe he can speak in the name of jezus........

Hello there...

Hey Keyhole, where've you been... hiding? Since you started this thread, aren't you supposed to be the one to respond to our posts and keep this thread moving along? Since your initial post, where did you go, to the moon?

Same goes to the other posters on this thread. In my earlier post I opened up and expanded the discussion to include talking about the human potential for the evolution of a 'christ', and what... no questions? No yeas or nays? What's the matter? Is this topic too taboo for you'se?

When we talk about evolution, we're also talking about the the potential for the evolution of a 'christ'. Does 'christ' evolve into being through a gradual process of evolution, or was he created by God (like instant coffee) spontaneously? Or, perhaps the mind of 'christ' is eternal, never ending and never beginning?

Got any ideas... you'd like to share with us? We'd all like to know about your opinions.

Thanks again, and spread the word.

PS: "In the beginning there was the word... then God said, 'Let there be light', etc.


[edit on 7/31/2007 by Rudolph_X]

I'll bite. There is NO SUCH THING as a messiah or a Christ in the Biblical sense of son of god, working miracles, blah blah blah.

Not buying the old version, and I'm certainly not about to buy a new & improved version.

Miracles such as described in the bible do not happen, it is impossible by the laws of nature.

So, I can't go along with your thought, but at least you got an answer, right?

OK, this is all Vatican II. Late sixties early seventies, anyway, The Pope bought it and did not survive very long. But what he cleverly did was to refer to Genesis as an allegory of life (I am partly Christian and I find it wonderful how the Bible practically predicted -from their level of knowledge- the whole of evolution), and Big Bang was part of it, 'let there be light.'
However, I maximum to Benedict on his stance on condoms, he has got that onto the medical and ethics committee on the line of the disease (AIDS) being a greater evil than sex. I like him.

The Pope finally sees the light. There is so much scientific evidence that points to the Evolution of Christianity...

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
I'll bite. There is NO SUCH THING as a messiah or a Christ in the Biblical sense of son of god, working miracles, blah blah blah.

Not buying the old version, and I'm certainly not about to buy a new & improved version.

Miracles such as described in the bible do not happen, it is impossible by the laws of nature.

So, I can't go along with your thought, but at least you got an answer, right?

Hello MajorMalfunction.

Thanks for your comments.

When you see a magician doing a magic trick, its only magic when you don't know the secret behind the trick. Many of our scientific accomplishments also seem like magic to those who don't understand the secret behind the trick.

I'm not talking about old biblical stories that speak of miracles. I'm talking about the scientific evolutionary potential of mankind, and indeed the potential of evolving life all throughout the universe.

Thanks again.

PS: I really appreciate you having the 'true grit' to post a response. Where other folk's fingers tremble at the keyboard, your keystrokes were steady and true.

Originally posted by Lemarchand
The Pope finally sees the light. There is so much scientific evidence that points to the Evolution of Christianity...

To be honest, I've never heard a *CATHOLIC* priest, bishop or pope speak against Evolution.

Whatever their past may be, whatever other faults you may find in the religion and it's practitioners, being Bible Literalists isn't one of them.

Southern Baptist Televangelists do not speak for Catholics.

I don't see how creationism can't co-exist with evolution. Where did the first single-celled organism on earth come from? was it created by nature in a random pattern of matter? Did it come from an asteroid? or was it intelligently designed (either by a supernatural being or an already evolved intelligent extraterrestrial entity) with evolution written into its DNA?

With the technological breakthroughs that we ourselves have been doing with genetic engineering, it seems plausible that a single-celled organism with evolution written into its DNA could be intelligently designed.

[edit on 2-8-2007 by curiousbeliever]