Pope says Christians should believe in evolution and big bang

[Connie]

Article here:  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/god-is-not-a-magician-pope-says-christians-should-believe-in-evolution-and-big-bang/

[Traveler]

The problem with coming to parties very late is that often many of the important guests have already left.  Both the Big Band theory and evolution have evolved since the initial religious dysfunctional relationship with science.  As we deal with ever increasing information about creation we are facing lots of questions.  One difficult question for many religionists to grasp are the latest concepts of "nothing".  Empty space time - as it turns out is a lot of something.  Science ditched the notion of Ether and now bits an pieces of that is being resurrected in the new definitions of nothing.

 

Religion ought to define the relationship of man to G-d.  The LDS religion is one of the few that integrates things physical and empirical with the understanding of G-d.  Which in my mind leaves many religions - including the Pope, trying to understand G-d out of nothing.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Traveler

[PolarVortex]

The article is correct ("Catholic teaching has not traditionally been opposed to evolution").  My best friend in high school planned to become a Catholic priest, and I remember reading some of the official Catholic publications he was studying.  They all described evolution with an attitude of "Yeah, whatever."  The important thing was that Catholics accept the special status of humans created in God's image.  This was a sharp contrast to my Protestant friends, some of whom didn't even use the word "evolution" and instead called it "The Great Lie."

[prisonchaplain]

Travelor hit the nail on the head.  At least in terms of LDS conversations on the matter, the question of creation out of nothing is probably a lot more important than whether God created the world via the process of evolution or not.  PolarVortex is also correct that Protestants, and more specifically Fundamentalists, have a combative history with evolution.

 

As for the Pope weighing in on this, I'll be happy to cite the Pope when he agrees with me, and pretty much ignore him when he doesn't. 

Edited October 29, 2014 by prisonchaplain

[jerome1232]

The problem with coming to parties very late is that often many of the important guests have already left.

The Catholic church isn't late to this party though. The father of the big bang theory was a catholic priest. The pope at the time, in 1957, said that his theory confirmed the existence of God. The Catholic church has been largely neutral on evolution, I suppose they were half way in, half way out of the door leading into the party.

Edited October 30, 2014 by jerome1232

[Guest]

The Catholic church isn't late to this party though. The father of the big bang theory was a catholic priest. The pope at the time, in 1957, said that his theory confirmed the existence of God. The Catholic church has been largely neutral on evolution, I suppose they were half way in, half way out of the door leading into the party.

 

No.  Rather, they didn't feel it necessary to attend the party.  The RCC learned a big lesson in their history with Galileo and since then, they have been encouraging the faithful to.... do what the LDS would do years later... instead of antagonizing scientists, use scientists to gain a better understanding of God.

 

Note:  This is not an ex cathedra announcement.

 

Hence, you can believe that the earth is flat, or the earth is round, or that man and apes evolved from the same ancestry, or that God made ginger-bread man out of dust and blew life into him to make Adam and literally took one of his ribs to make Eve.  You  are still in line with Catholic teaching.  So, the Pope believing in the Big Bang and Evolution in the same manner as Pious XII in the 50's and John Paul II in the 90's... simply follows this same Catholic stance.  And if the next Pope would make a statement favoring Intelligent Design, then it's also following this same Catholic stance.

 

So that... this is just another one of those media bullwinkle, an industry littered with journalists who don't know the first thing about story research, trying to paint the Pope as "breaking tradition" and teaching evolution out of the magesterium.

Edited October 30, 2014 by anatess

[Guest]

If evolution is true, then I'll be a monkey's uncle. (stupid joke)

[Blackmarch]

The problem with coming to parties very late is that often many of the important guests have already left.  Both the Big Band theory and evolution have evolved since the initial religious dysfunctional relationship with science.  As we deal with ever increasing information about creation we are facing lots of questions.  One difficult question for many religionists to grasp are the latest concepts of "nothing".  Empty space time - as it turns out is a lot of something.  Science ditched the notion of Ether and now bits an pieces of that is being resurrected in the new definitions of nothing.

 

Religion ought to define the relationship of man to G-d.  The LDS religion is one of the few that integrates things physical and empirical with the understanding of G-d.  Which in my mind leaves many religions - including the Pope, trying to understand G-d out of nothing.

when the big bang theory first came out to the public the pope at the time was really happy about it, also the pope at the time of gallileo and actually was quite open to many of the theories and principles put forth by him (however many other church leaders were not and were finally able to get him locked up due to a technicality on something totally unrelated to science.)

I guerss the question is is how well will this view of the pope be adopted among the masses under him?

[Guest]

when the big bang theory first came out to the public the pope at the time was really happy about it, also the pope at the time of gallileo and actually was quite open to many of the theories and principles put forth by him (however many other church leaders were not and were finally able to get him locked up due to a technicality on something totally unrelated to science.)

I guerss the question is is how well will this view of the pope be adopted among the masses under him?

 

 

Well, since "the masses under him" are as varied in their views as the world population... and as they know popes are as varied in their views as they are... I would venture to guess, not more nor less than the regular fluctuations of people's beliefs... Catholics just don't treat Popes as scientific authority on these matters...