Re: "the pope and evolution"
DON MIKULECKY (MIKULECKY@VCUVAX.BITNET)
Mon, 28 Oct 1996 16:41:44 -0400
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> From: Hans-Cees Speel <hanss@zondisk.sepa.tudelft.nl>
> Organization: TU Delft
> To: Bruce Edmonds pcp <b.edmonds@mmu.ac.uk>
> Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 11:16:02 +0000
> Subject: the pope and evolution
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> The london times internet edition - available via
> http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/
>
> Oct 25. In World news tells us that (note the name of the
> reporter!?!);
>
> Pope places some faith in Darwin's theory of evolution
>
> FROM RICHARD OWEN IN ROME
>
> THE Pope risked the wrath of the religious Right yesterday by
> declaring that Darwin's theory of evolution was compatible with
> Christian faith. In a message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
> which advises the Vatican on scientific matters, the Pope said the
> theory of natural selection was "more than just a hypothesis".
>
> The Pope, who appears fully recovered from his appendix operation two
> weeks ago, was responding to requests for clarification from the
> 80-member Academy, which is holding its 60th anniversary meeting on
> "Evolution And The Origins Of Life".
>
> Darwin's theories, as formulated in Origin Of Species By Natural
> Selection and The Descent Of Man led to bitter controversy in the late
> 19th century, with leading churchmen denouncing them as incompatible
> with the account given in Genesis.
>
> Pope Pius XII broached the subject in 1950 in his encyclical Humani
> Generis, indicating that the Church should not reject Darwin's
> "serious hypothesis" out of hand. But he said that it could be misused
> by Communist "dialectical materialists" whose aim was "to remove any
> notion of God from people's minds".
>
> Pope John Paul II went further than Pius XII yesterday, saying: "It is
> noteworthy that the theory of evolution has progressively taken root
> in the minds of researchers following a series of discoveries in
> different disciplines."
>
> He added: "The convergence, neither sought nor provoked, of results of
> studies undertaken independently from each other in itself constitutes
> a significant argument in favour of the theory [of evolution]."
>
> The Pope appeared to side step the vexed theological question of
> whether, if the theory of evolution from apes and Australopithecus
> afarensis through Neanderthal man to Homo sapiens is correct,
> creatures before modern man had souls.
>
> But he said that, whatever man's origins, his soul was a divine
> creation, declaring: "If the human body has its origin in pre-existing
> living matter, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God." No
> theory was acceptable which held that the spirit emerged from "the
> forces of living material".
>
> Marghareta Hack, a leading Italian astronomer, said the pronouncement
> was an important step "because for the first time the Church is
> accepting evolution as a proven fact".
>
> Francesco Barone, a scientific philosopher, told Il Messaggero that,
> after Galileo's rehabilitation, acceptance of evolutionary theory was
> the latest in a series of steps which were "mending the tears" in the
> Church's relationship with science.
>
> Opposition to Darwinism remains staunch in the American Bible Belt.
>
> ________
>
> Theories come and go, the frog stays [F. Jacob]
> -------------------------------------------------------
> |Hans-Cees Speel School of Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and managemen
t
> |Technical University Delft, Jaffalaan 5 2600 GA Delft PO Box 5015 The
> Netherlands
> |telephone +3115785776 telefax +3115783422 E-mail hanss@sepa.tudelft.nl
> HTTP://www.sepa.tudelft.nl/~afd_ba/hanss.html featuring evolution and memetic
s!
>
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Don mikulecky replies:
I find this amusing ala our present discussion. The mechanistic view
of life is totally compatible with religion once you understand that mechanism
leads to an infinite regression which needs god to end it! Rosen
actually says this at some point. And so it goes!
Best regards,
Don