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."

Ken Ham makes an eloquent appearance on NPR

Peter here, with a response to the scientific community's characteriazation of Ken Ham as a fringe lunatic evangelist who promotes bad science. In an NPR interview aired on May 28, Rev. Ham presents his case in a delightfully sober, well-thought out way.

On the question of the validity of scripture versus emperical science, he replied that all scientists begin with one or more presuppositions when they embark on scientific investigation, notably the supposition that God does not exist or was not involved in the phenomenon being observed. He added that scientists were not around to see dinosaurs walk the Earth anymore than creationists can claim to have been present to observe Adam and Eve.

A fair argument.

Speaking of fair, it's worth mentioning that Creation Museum visitors are exposed to both sides of the evolution-creationism issue. An exerpt of the interview on the NPR web site:

"We actually do give both sides as people walk in," Ham says, explaining that a fossil exhibit has "a creation paleontologist" and "an evolutionary paleontologist" offering different interpretations of the same fossil.

Listen for yourself to this interview and hear it from the horse's mouth. It's helpful, when making assessments, to go to the source of a story, rather than read secular reporters' versions of them.

A creationist museum replete with Noah’s Ark

Transcript of today's show:

In May 2007, Australian evangelical Ken Ham will open a 47 acre museum completely oriented around stories from the Old Testament. Here you will see actual exhibits, including Noah’s Ark, depicting the earth’s creation. The flamboyant, outspoken Ken Ham describes his museum as a wonderful alternative to the evolutionary natural history museums that are, quote: “turning countless minds against the gospel of Christ and the authority of the Scripture.” [source: Answers in Genesis]

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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:
Our good friend Webster defines museum as "A building, place, or institution devoted to the acquisition, conservation, study, exhibition, and educational interpretation of objects having scientific, historical, or artistic value. Mr. Ham's creation museum will certainly be artistic, but in no way will offer scientific nor historical meaning. I do hope that school children are not brought to this museum under the guise of a science or history field trip. What a great disservice that would be to the integrity of our kid's science education.

The Voice of Faith: Peter Williamson, M.Div., comments:
The real story -- the true story -- of our origins and history need to be told. I applaud Ken Ham for his grand and bold depiction of the stories and events that have been supressed far too long by atheistic science. This museum is an outstanding vehicle for proclaiming the inspiring truth of the Bible, and I pray that it spread the word to countless thousands and contribute to the transformation of our society.