If the Pope is saying evolution is a sound theory...?

Question

doesn't that mean catholicism is not the true religion? The pope is obviously ignoring the bible.

Answer 1

He is demonstrating that some religious people actually think.

Answer 2

Catholics read the Bible differently. The Bible is poetry, allegory, stories and some history.. All part of the Catholic faith but not all of it is taken literally.. The Pope is just acknowledging reality. There have been many famous Catholic scientists. Mendel was a Priest. There have been many famous Jesuit astronomers and mathematicians. In the Catholic world, after the messy bit with Galileo, well quite a few years after that.. science and faith have been co-existing in the Catholic world. If you want to read the Bible literally, where are the dinosaurs mentioned? One has to suspend reality more than once to read the Bible literally from book to book of the Bible.

Keep going.. Read think read think read think.. Good for you!

Sincerely,
a Catholic

Answer 3

He is not "ignoring the Bible". He's just not taking the story of Genesis as a word-for-word, historical account. The Bible is a "communications" book, not a history book. Some would even say that to interpret the story of Geneis literally is to completely miss the point of the story. It would be like reading Aesop's story about the tortious and the hare and walking away thinking Bugs Bunny is evil.

As for "not the true religion", I don't follow your logic, unless you're starting off with the horribly biased assumption that the Bible word-for-word defines "the true religion".

Oh, and just for Matt (who obviously never studied the sciences he's claimed to have studied):
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB901_1.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB901_2.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-misconceptions.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-definition.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-god.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/

Answer 4

Well I will say that pope doesn't speak for God, at least in this matter. Only his Word is infallible, the pope is not. Evolution in a goo to man sense never has been seen to take place and there is no good evidence that it has ever happened. Only variation within KINDS is every seen and that is not rejected by the Bible as is goo to man evolution.

Genesis 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his KIND, and cattle after their KIND, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his KIND: and God saw that it was good.

Answer 5

The Popes opinion on the evolution is just that. Personal opinion. It carries no more weight than my opinion or anyone elses. The principle of papal infallability only applies to matters of morals and doctrine and then only when he makes an official pronouncement using specifically this authority.
Unless evolution is intertwined with morality or religious belief in God or the dispensing of graces or of the sacraments, then papal exclamations on evolution are not guided by the Holy Ghost and are not matters of faith. Evolution is a hypotheses of science and it should be approached with scientific rigor. It needs to be proven, not believed in whimsically. Until proof is produced, it remains a hypothesis. When supporting evidence is produced making it probable we can elevate it to theory. At this point however, it remains an imaginative explanation, usupported and unproven. In any case, the church or faith has no need for it and has no need to disprove it. It is in matters of faith, extraneous, unless of course it is put forth as a substitute for God as a belief.

Answer 6

There is actually a rumor or theory or something going around that the pope has never read the bible.

Answer 7

I guess it's because the Church lost a lot of face over the whole Galileo flap. IIRC, the Church had actually accepted evolution back in the late 1800s, decades before William Jennings Bryan made a chimpanzee out of himself in Dayton, Tennessee.

Answer 8

Actually the Holy Father is educated enough to realize that the Old Testament was never intended to be a history book. There is no conflict between evolution and Genesis unless you read Genesis literally. Catholics are not alone in shunning Biblical literalism-- Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians also take a less literal approach. We take the Bible seriously, therefore we do not take it literally.

Answer 9

The pope might just be using his brain. The papacy has been found incorrect before about scientific isssues.

Answer 10

Evolution and Christianity are incompatible. The pope and people like him are using mental gymnastics to maintain a faith which has been effectively disproven for centuries.

Answer 11

the pope ignores the bible many times like;
call no man father but your Father in heaven.
and quite a few more