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Pope Francis declares evolution and Big Bang theory are right and God isn't 'a magician with a wand'
MSN News ^ | 10/30/2014 | Adam Withnall

Posted on 10/30/2014 4:22:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not “a magician with a magic wand”, Pope Francis has declared.

Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pope made comments which experts said put an end to the “pseudo theories” of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator – arguing instead that they “require it”.

“When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,” Francis said.

He added: “He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment.

“The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.

“Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Religion & Science; Theology
KEYWORDS: bigbang; creation; evolution; popefrancis
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To: CatherineofAragon

Well, no. The life that speaks of is the same as the life Jesus speaks of. The body dies, the believers soul does not.

John -
25 Jesus said: I am the resurrection. Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live,

26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?


61 posted on 10/30/2014 5:47:17 PM PDT by Varda (God is the creator, evolution is the unfolding of creation)
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To: Sherman Logan
LOL!!!
62 posted on 10/30/2014 5:49:29 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: metmom; allendale
ping to post 28

I've dealt with this guy before. He's convinced only a big meanie would have literally killed all the firstborn of Egypt. There's simply no getting through to him.

"Natural law" opens the door to non-Theistically based "morality" and "ethics." It's why I'm a Theonomic positivist.

63 posted on 10/30/2014 5:49:43 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Throne and Altar! [In Jerusalem!!!])
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To: what's up

It doesn’t because the Church doen’t have a problem with the body being made from pre-existing material. God’s time is not our time. Who knows how long it took God to make Adam from the dust of the Earth. I should also point out that I was taught that creation is complete and that includes time. Past present and future is already created. Evolution is simply how we describe the change of things in the passage of time.


64 posted on 10/30/2014 6:03:21 PM PDT by Varda (God is the creator, evolution is the unfolding of creation)
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To: Varda

I maintain my point.

Genesis 1:30 says that God gave every beast of the earth plants to eat, so we know that the animals which today are carnivorous were not killing for food. There’s no Biblical implication that any other form of animal death occurred—in fact, all Scriptural evidence denies that it did.

The text says that God found His creation good. Does “good” include sickness and death in His eyes? We know it doesn’t.

Many (not necessarily you) try to insert death before sin in order to validate evolutionary theory. I don’t buy it.


65 posted on 10/30/2014 6:06:11 PM PDT by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males---the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: SeekAndFind

I never had the slightest problem with evolution ….it all started with God.


66 posted on 10/30/2014 6:07:49 PM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: SeekAndFind


67 posted on 10/30/2014 6:08:31 PM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

I’ve heard that argument from the hard core atheistic, God hating evos from years back.


68 posted on 10/30/2014 6:13:09 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: CatherineofAragon

Those clearly apply to spiritual death. Are you seriously suggesting that not even a fly or mosquito feel to the earth dead before Eve bit the ahole? Ridiculous.


69 posted on 10/30/2014 6:29:55 PM PDT by Benito Cereno
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To: allendale

“That is just one example why Catholics do not take the Bible literally.”

First of all, I doubt that you speak for “Catholics.”

Second, what a pathetic argument. You have your own hypothetical case that you set against the Holy Scriptures and their plain and clear meaning. Sorry, but I’m going to go with the Scriptures, however intelligent and all knowing you fancy yourself to be or, even more unlikely, are.

Third, why are you resorting to an emotionally charged hypothetical when you claim to be the friend of the “intellectual?” What’s with that?

Three strikes. You’re out.


70 posted on 10/30/2014 6:37:05 PM PDT by Belteshazzar (We are not justified by our works but by faith - De Jacob et vita beata 2 +Ambrose of Milan)
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To: Varda
Evolution is simply how we describe the change of things in the passage of time.

And this includes one species "evolving" into another eh? But the Word of God says that God created Adam from the dust of the earth. He did not evolve from a beast.

Jesus showed us that God is able to make something from nothing (a healthy eye "created" from spittle and dirt). Why not believe the Bible?

71 posted on 10/30/2014 6:37:10 PM PDT by what's up
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To: SeekAndFind

People who anthropomorphize God always end up in trouble with Him being God.


72 posted on 10/30/2014 6:40:32 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: CatherineofAragon

I really don’t take scripture as a science book. It’s pretty clear that lions ate antelopes long before men appeared. That makes the meaning of the scripture passage something other than all animals were vegetarians. (Church doctrine is that truth doesn’t contradict truth) What is the actual literal sense what meaning was the sacred writer wishing to convey?
This may be a passage whose meaning we don’t have at present. One meaning we do have is that death doesn’t stop good from being good. Creation is good in it’s being.


73 posted on 10/30/2014 6:40:47 PM PDT by Varda (God is the creator, evolution is the unfolding of creation)
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To: SeekAndFind; Zionist Conspirator

People who anthropomorphize God always end up in trouble.

What ends up happening, is that they then end up sitting in judgment of God, as if they are better than God because THEY wouldn’t do ___________.

They have elevated themselves above God by demanding that He measure up to an arbitrary standard they have erected themselves, at which THEY are the center, the standard by which good and evil and right and wrong are measured.


74 posted on 10/30/2014 6:43:05 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: Varda

“It’s pretty clear that lions ate antelopes long before men appeared.”

And the documentation of that is ... ?

What is the essential difference between the argument you offer here and that which any atheist could offer?

I would submit that when it comes to Christian doctrine, whether Catholic or Protestant (a term I don’t particularly favor), you are not particularly conversant.


75 posted on 10/30/2014 6:52:15 PM PDT by Belteshazzar (We are not justified by our works but by faith - De Jacob et vita beata 2 +Ambrose of Milan)
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To: what's up

All preexisting bodies are dust. That doesn’t exclude the dust being another form before it was made into us.

“Jesus showed us that God is able to make something from nothing (a healthy eye “created” from spittle and dirt”

Dirt and spittle aren’t nothing and that’s kinda the point. The fact that a healthy eye was made from pre-existing material doesn’t mean that this wasn’t a miracle, that this wasn’t from devine origin.

The fact that I don’t read the Bible the way you do, doesn’t mean I don’t
believe it. I think it has the be approached with respect for the sacred authors and the ideas they were trying to illustrate.


76 posted on 10/30/2014 6:56:27 PM PDT by Varda (God is the creator, evolution is the unfolding of creation)
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To: GeronL

When I was about 14, I asked my priest if God could create a rock that he couldn’t lift. Priest went ape sh!t on me.


77 posted on 10/30/2014 7:08:00 PM PDT by Pappy Smear
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To: Belteshazzar

Sometimes atheists can know something true. That’s a good thing. It’s how unbelivers are evangelized. You find out what realities you both recognize and go from that ground of truth seeking truth. However it doesn’t work unless you believe truth is objective. If reality/truth is subject to what ever you feel there is no common ground.


78 posted on 10/30/2014 7:08:21 PM PDT by Varda (God is the creator, evolution is the unfolding of creation)
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Comment #79 Removed by Moderator

To: Pappy Smear

I was distracted, it made some sense at the time.

lol


80 posted on 10/30/2014 7:09:37 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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