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LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI said the debate raging in some countries particularly the United States and his native Germany between creationism and evolution was an "absurdity," saying that evolution can coexist with faith.

The pontiff, speaking as he was concluding his holiday in northern Italy, also said that while there is much scientific proof to support evolution, the theory could not exclude a role by God.

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 favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such. He said evolution did not answer all the questions: Above all it does not answer the great philosophical question, "Where does everything come from?"

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Darwin himself clearly said the same thing in the Origin of Species. He did not try to explain the origin of life itself. That's well outside his theory.