Is Pope Benedict the American Pope?

Transcript of today's show:

Pope Benedict made his first papal visit to the US this April. Is this Pope an ally to creationists? Last year we reported on Vatican holy cards, praised by creationists, that declare that humans are not a casual and meaningless product of evolution. And yet, Time magazine portrays this new pontiff as celebrating America’s separation of church and state -- calling him the "American Pope".

[source: Time magazine]


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Sound Off: What is being said about this story from around the blogging and opinion world.

from an article published in April 2007 in the Daily Mail:

Pope Benedict has aired his views on evolution fo the first time - and says he partially believes Darwin's theories.

The Pontiff said science had narrowed the way life's origins are understood and said Christians should take a broader approach to the question.

However, he did not adopt a strictly scientific view of the origins if life, believing instead that God created life through evolution.

He said he "would not depend on faith alone to explain the whole picture".

As well as praising scientific progress, the Pope's views, published in a new book 'Schoepfung unt Evolution' (Creation and Evolution), did not endorse the creationist, or 'intelligent design' view of life's origins.

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from a comment posted on the Daily Mail in response to the above article:

As we understand more and more about DNA, Scientists are proving that there is intelligent design behind the creation of human beings. Darwin's theory was exactly that, a theory, but because people choose not to believe in God or Creation, they have adopted his theory as fact.

Darwin's theory is increasingly becoming flawed with more and more medical and scientific evidence proving we are created by an intelligent design, although some Scientists won't tell you this truth, why, what are they afraid of?



quoted from Pope Benedict XVI:

Ultimately it comes down to the alternative: What came first? Creative Reason, the Creator Spirit who makes all things and gives them growth, or Unreason, which, lacking any meaning, strangely enough brings forth a mathematically ordered cosmos, as well as man and his reason. The latter, however, would then be nothing more than a chance result of evolution and thus, in the end, equally meaningless. As Christians, we say: I believe in God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in the Creator Spirit. We believe that at the beginning of everything is the eternal Word, with Reason and not Unreason. [more]

Vatican Chief Astronomer says Bible is not a science book

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The new Chief Astronomer for the Vatican Jose Gabriel Funes says science, especially astronomy, does not contradict religion. He believes the Big Bang Theory is the most "reasonable" explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter.


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Is Pope Benedict a Creationist?

Transcript of today's show:

In our continuing coverage of Pope Benedict's US visit, the Holy Father has sent confusing signals about creationism and Catholicism. While the Pope and President Bush find common ground in opposing abortion and gay marriage, the Pope's new book ‘Creation and Evolution‘, does not endorse creationism or intelligent design. But this did not stop the Pontiff from firing his Chief Astronomer, Father George Coyne, for not supporting intelligent design.


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Pope Benedict, speaking recently to the Italian Ecclesial Congress:

"At the roots of being a Christian, there is no ethical decision or lofty idea, ... but a meeting with the person of Jesus Christ. The fruitfulness of this meeting is apparent ... also in today's human and cultural context, correlation between its structures and the structures of the universe ... excites our admiration and poses a great question. It implies that the universe itself is structured in an intelligent fashion, in such a way that there exists a profound correspondence between our subjective reason and the objective reason of nature. It is, then, inevitable that we should ask ourselves if there is not a single original intelligence that is the common source of both the one and the other."

Pope Benedict, in his book Creation and Evolution:

"Science has opened up large dimensions of reason...and thus brought us new insights. But in the joy at the extent of its discoveries, it tends to take away from us dimensions of reason that we still need. Its results lead to questions that go beyond its methodical canon and cannot be answered within it. The issue is reclaiming a dimension of reason we have lost."

A Vatican astronomer repudiates the Intelligent Design movement

Transcript of today's show:

Before his recent resignation, the director of the Vatican Observatory went public with his belief that the Intelligent Design movement actually demeans God and insults human intelligence. George Coyne noted that many in the Intelligent Design movement fondly hope for scientific gaps in our knowledge of evolution, so that they can fill them in with God. This, Coyne says, is antithetical to what human intelligence is all about. [source: National Center for Science Education]

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Sound Off: Science & Faith. Our point/counterpoint regulars Shelley (the voice of science) and Peter (the voice of faith), comment on the story.

The Voice of Science: Shelley Greene, Ph.D., comments:
This is a rare and admirable example of a man of the cloth allowing his ecumenical beliefs to be consistent with scientific certainty. Astronomer Coyne clearly does not believe that looking for scientific gaps in our knowledge of evolution makes for good science or religion. Perhaps he believes too that filling in those gaps with supernatural explanations amounts to what we might call 'bad science'.

The Voice of Faith: Peter Williamson, M.Div., comments:
Coyne, I believe, resigned his post in line with the new Papacy's long-awaited “course-correction” regarding matters of liturgical and philosophical comportment. Pope John Paul II’s congenial regard for evolution theory was unappreciated by a large number of Catholics and Christians. This kind of acquiescence will tend to breed confusion. Many of us have experienced directly how difficult it can be to keep that faith if scientific materialism gives you a statement of ‘truth’ that contradicts the Scripture. Coyne may appear to be a man ahead of his time, but he simply is a man with loosely held convictions.