Posted on 11/18/2005 10:14:11 AM PST by shooter223
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.
The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.
"Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."
His comments were in line with his previous statements on "intelligent design" - whose supporters hold that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
He stated that the Immaculate Conception was an impossibility. That's a definitive pronouncement from Thomas.
You are free to believe in a literal interpretation of Scripture if you wish. But you are in a very distinct minority in the Catholic Church; indeed, a minority among all liturgical churches (Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran).
However, he does not, as far as I know, insist that the literal reading is the only possible correct reading. I am sure that if my recollection is faulty in this respect, you will endeavor to correct it ;)
Another Red Herring sinky. Your attempts to denigrate St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, brand you. As for my belief in what the Bible say, well if I am in a minority for taking God at face value, so be it. Aren't you late walking your precious dogs?
Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) sums up the Church's approach to Scripture quite nicely. Thanks for that quote.
All types of order are manifest in the world. That phenomena bespeaks of Intelligence. Aquinas uses scientific laws and the natural order of the universe to show that there is a Designer of the Order.
The Garden Allegory best demonstrates this proof. If in a jungle there is a patch of land resembling a garden that is cultivated, planted, and weeded, then there must be a gardener.
Order does not appear randomly in chaos. Take for example Fibbanachi’s number, or pi. These numbers appear all over the natural world. Take also for example the law of gravity or the truths of mathematics. These things all are a natural order which humans do not create. Therefore these laws must imply a lawmaker.
Of course in the realm of unaided reason, this proves a Lawmaker, Designer, Orderer. Christians through Revelation recognize that this is the Lord God. Aristotle was left simply with a First Mover, Uncaused Cause, etc.
See http://www.newadvent.org/summa/107403.htm for the words of the Doctor.
Their understanding of science certainly is.
Precisely the section I had in mind, or more specifically, that, and the two preceding parts.
Often times, the evos use junk science to support their philosophical views.
Is there a working definition of science?
If they allow homosexual priests, why not deny God creating all we see and don't see? I say it goes together like a hand in a glove ... another rational reason not to be a Catholic.
If you don't believe what is stated in Genesis, why bother to believe ANY of it? I guess it's what they call being a "cafeteria" Catholic. How sad this must make God ... to see foolish people not giving Him the credit due Him and conforming to the world and it's ever lowering faith in anything.
Unfortunately for yourself and this Catholic, the rest of the authors of Books in the Bible took Genesis literally. You and this guy are denying the entire Biblical account with your desire to allegorize.
BEWARE, unleashing the Lion of the Tribe of Judah can be harmful to your worldview! (Red letters indicate words spoken by Jesus)
Rom 6:9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses,...
Rom 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1Cr 15:54-55
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory?
Mar 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
Isa 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, [even] my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
Isa 42:5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else.
Isa 40:21-22
Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isa 64:4 For since the beginning of the world [men] have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, [what] he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Gen 5:1 This [is] the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Deu 4:32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth,
Gen 5:5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
New Testament references to Adam.
Luk 3:38 Which was [the son] of Enos, which was [the son] of Seth, which was [the son] of Adam, which was [the son] of God.
1Cr 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;
Jud 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
1Ti 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
It's something of a lost cause to defend Genesis to American catholics. (I'm actually Orthodox but I get irritated when I see a much more true to doctrine bishop of Rome who may go on to heal the schism and then see catholic 'officials' trying to mess it up with anti-doctrine public comments, so I try to post the official point of view of the pope).
These folks are the result of Vatican II, they are the 'hippy version' of Catholism, and refuse to acknowledge the doctrine as whole and irrefutable.
I too have a healthy respect for Benedict XVI. He's much more forthright than his predecessor (whom I attended mass as a confirmed RC, at the L.A. Colosseum in 1986).
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