Posted on 10/28/2014 9:44:29 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Evolution is not inconsistent with God, said Pope Francis during an unveiling of a bust of his predecessor, Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI, at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Monday.
"Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation," Francis said. "The scientist," he continued, "must [nevertheless] be moved by a trust in the idea that nature hides, within her evolutionary mechanisms, potentialities that it is the task of intellect and freedom to discover and actuate, in order to achieve the [kind of] development that is in the design of the Creator."
The pope, who backed the Roman Catholic Church's openness to evolution, added that scientific advancements can be used for the benefit of people.
The bust of Benedict XVI was unveiled during the course of the Academicians' Oct. 24-28 plenary meeting dedicated to evolving concepts of nature, Vatican Radio reported.
Francis praised his predecessor, and said the he "[was] a great Pope: great for the power and penetration of his intellect, great for his significant contribution to theology, great for his love for the Church and of human beings, great for his virtue and piety."
The Vatican leader encouraged science and scientists to continue working on "happy" theoretical and practical initiatives for the benefit of human beings.
Brother Guy Consolmagno, astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory, said earlier in October that he finds Young Earth Creation theories that run contrary to science "almost blasphemous" in nature.
"It's almost blasphemous theology," Consolmagno said. "It's certainly not the tradition of Catholicism and never has been and it misunderstands what the Bible is and it misunderstands what science is."
The Vatican astronomer added that although literal interpretations of the Bible could suggest that the Earth is of a young age, scientific evidence to the contrary has shown that such a belief is "bad theology."
The Catholic Church's acceptance of evolution stands contrary to other Christian views of the origins of the earth, such as creationism, which supports a literal interpretation of Genesis.
The question of human origins remains a divisive one in the U.S. especially, where a Gallup poll from June found that more than four in 10 Americans, or 42 percent, believe that God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago.
Another 31 percent of those who responded to the survey said that they believe in evolution, but with God guiding the process, while 19 percent said that God had no part in the process. Gallup noted that these figures have changed little over the past three decades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_the_eye
That was hard! (Google is your friend)
I understand the popes view and most likely agree but would not trust second hand information on exactly what he said.
I did not evolve from no dammed ape but if some one believes they did that is to their shame, not mine.
I do believe there were two parts to the creation, Adam being in the second part, that is where we get the sons of God and the daughters of men.
Or maybe you could just get an education.
Check back with me in a couple of million years.
RE: I understand the popes view and most likely agree but would not trust second hand information on exactly what he said.
Pope Francis is either one of the most misunderstood or mis-interpreted Popes in modern times or the most liberal.
From inequality, to capitalism to gays, to divorce and now, evolution, the liberals tend to see his statements as advancing their cause... until someone starts telling us... “hang on that is not what he meant.”
Expect more of that in the near future.
It’s embarrasing that we should still find such an idea controversial in the 21st century.
Just before the flood, before the fall of the babel tower and before Sodom and Gomorrah were burned to cinders.
Yes you did. Or more precisely you and apes are both descended from common ancestors. You are entitled to your opinion but not your own facts.
Time is the magic fairy dust...
Expect more of that in the near future.
Really? The Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because their inhabitants used wisdom, reason and science to observe their surroundings? I'd like to see your Bible because none of that is indicated in my copy.
You are entitled to your opinion but not your own facts.
I will stick to my fact, which is I did not evolve from any dammed ape.
I was tempted to say "Hillary Clinton," but maybe she is still technically a virus.
>> You are entitled to your opinion but not your own facts.
Evolution is quite far from being a “fact”. It is still merely a theory — one that has significant skeptics from the ranks of scientists, I might add.
However, I must say that I greatly admire your faith in your unproven (and partially disproven) theory. We Christians can take a lesson from your faith!
God’s blessings on you; keep an open mind, and pursue the truth. But be careful to pursue the whole truth.
Really? The Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because their inhabitants used wisdom,
Nobody made that claim, except you. We were created in God’s image, and the 2000 year history of Catholic teaching recognizes that fact, and promotes it through its respect for human dignity.
"The basic light-processing unit of eyes is the photoreceptor cell, a specialized cell containing two types of molecules in a membrane: the opsin, a light-sensitive protein, surrounding the chromophore, a pigment that distinguishes colors. Groups of such cells are termed "eyespots", and have evolved independently somewhere between 40 and 65 times."
Your Wiki article makes it sound downright simple, and certainly doesn't explain how this evolved "independdently somewhere between 40 to 65 times." Actually there are a whole lot more proteins and difficulties to be faced for the Evolutionist in this process:
When light first strikes the retina a photon interacts with a molecule called 11-cis-retinal, which rearranges within picoseconds to trans-retinal. (A picosecond [10–12 sec] is about the time it takes light to travel the breadth of a single human hair.) The change in the shape of the retinal molecule forces a change in the shape of the protein, rhodopsin, to which the retinal is tightly bound. The protein's metamorphosis alters its behavior. Now called metarhodopsin II, the protein sticks to another protein, called transducin. Before bumping into metarhodopsin II, transducin had tightly bound a small molecule called GDP. But when transducin interacts with metarhodopsin II, the GDP falls off, and a molecule called GTP binds to transducin. (GTP is closely related to, but different from, GDP.) GTP-transducin-metarhodopsin II now binds to a protein called phosphodiesterase, located in the inner membrane of the cell. When attached to metarhodopsin II and its entourage, the phosphodiesterase acquires the chemical ability to “cut” a molecule called cGMP (a chemical relative of both GDP and GTP). Initially there are a lot of cGMP molecules in the cell, but the phosphodiesterase lowers its concentration, just as a pulled plug lowers the water level in a bathtub.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg:
http://creation.com/book-review-of-dawkins-climbing-mount-improbable#f27
And the 40 to 65 times is the biggest joke of all. They must imagine that this process MUST have occurred, because it is everywhere in the fossil record too early for them to claim that it came from just one ancestor. Take the Trilobites for example, who were said to have originated in the lower Cambrian, but with eyes that are hardly "primitive," but extraordinarily complex:
http://www.trueorigin.org/trilobites_eyes.asp
thinking themselves wise they became fools
(of unsound thinking)
....”Expect more of that in the near future”....
It’s pretty much a given the catholic leaderships views must become more liberal/worldly in order to create the appearance of unity of religions under it’s umbrella. Which is also why the Pope is interested in “gatherings” of representatives of various religions it hosts.
Things are pretty much moving in this direction rapidly though little mentioned in our news sources how that’s developing on the World Stage.
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