God or Evolution?

Question

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism'' if it ignores scientific reason.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help end the "mutual prejudice'' between religion and science that has long bedeviled the Catholic Church and is currently part of the evolution debate in the United States.

The Vatican project was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1992 declaration that the church's 17th Century denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension.'' Galileo was condemned for supporting Nicholas Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

"The permanent lesson that the Galileo case represents pushes us to keep alive the dialogue..."

Which do you believe and why?

If you believe that God created the Universe and everything in it, then how do you explain evolution and the facts that have been shown to explain our existance?

Answer 1

First of all, I think the Vatican is a corrupt government in and of itself, though its roots may be pure and still possess upright members of leadership, and the Vatican will sway with the wind if it benefits their own agenda. I'm sorry if that offends my Catholic brothers & sisters. But, hey, most "religious" organizations operate in the same way.

Concerning evolution, I have a few observations that I think will speak for themselves. I will address those in the form of questions.

1) If we evolved from monkeys, then why do we still have monkeys? Did certain monkeys decide to remain ignorant and rebel against evolution? Why do we still have micro-organisms? I guess they rebelled against the system, too. Life on this planet is too diverse for evolution to even be a palpable theory! It is utterly ridiculous!

2) If dinosaurs walked the earth millions of years ago, why do scientists periodically find artifacts and objects which are buried within layers of sediment that pre-date dinosaurs, but could not have come from any civilization older than (supposedly) 10,000 years ago? If you do your research, you'll find that these artifacts never end up at the Smithsonian. Find out who started the Smithsonian, and the donor's evolutionary beliefs and motivations.

3) When an animal dies, its carcass and bones are left on the surface to be eroded by the elements. Yet, we find complete skeletons of preserved dinosaurs (supposedly) millions of years old buried under layers of sediment, all over the world. Why are they buried? A world-wide flood, perhaps? Is that why they are almost always found in groupings?

Or was the atmosphere vastly different in ages gone by? Perhaps the creationists could be correct in stating that the earth had a canopy of moistue which blocked out all harmful rays, and thus more oxygen was in our atmosphere. Many scientists say that it is virtually impossible for certain gigantic dinosaurs to have existed under our known atmospheric conditions. Is that why - historically - people before the time of Noah lived so long? The "great deluge" was a disruption of the "older" atmosphere? Just ponderings.

I have a friend who is a writer, and he made an interesting point once. He said that you can link anything in any way, no matter how ludicrous, and your imagination is the only limiting factor. Perhaps the story of "evolution" is a master scheme to keep the masses in the dark about the origins of mankind?

Answer 2

Sounds like the Cardinal may be part of the New World Order. Science, if correctly interpreted, does line up with the Bible. Archeology has proven and is still proving the validity of the Scriptures. Darwin admitted that evolution, before he died, that it was NOT TRUE! Chop off the tail of a mouse, breed the mouse and chop off the tails of the next generation. How many generations will it take for the mouse to have a short or no tail? It won't happen because the length of the tail is in the genes. The earth revolves around the sun because God made it that way. It doesn't matter whether "the church" agreed with it or not. So, Galileo, in this case, was correct; and science is in line with the Word of God and does not conflict. It is we, the humans, that do not understand how the Lord makes things work. Those who believe otherwise are lacking knowledge and faith. Science explains how rain and sun creat a rainbow, but that doesn't mean the Lord didn't create the circumstances or the rain and sun to combine as a reminder for all mankind that he would never let it rain again as in Noah's day.

Answer 3

The point I'll make is that it is NOT "mutual prejudice" between religion and science. Science has never had an axe to grind with religion. It's just that science isn't specifically out to buttress religious dogma, so when scientific research leads to conclusions that appear to contradict a literal reading of the Bible, religious interests freak out.

It's nice that we have this token from Cardinal Poupard, and it definitely represents a break with tradition; but forgive me if I rather doubt that the controversy is over. I'm sorry, but if your beliefs rest on claims that are demonstrably false, the revelation of the truth is going to upset you.

Answer 4

There is no conflict if we accept the possible Sumerian sources of the Bible as facts. MIllenia ago, they already knew how our Solar System looked liked, how it came to be so, and the cirtcumstances that brought about evolution on this planet. The first chapter of Genesis deals with an actual cosmological event that explains how the Asterod Belt came to be.The order of life forms as they appear in the Bible conforms with the findings of Science too. Yet this cannot be accidents. There has to be an intelligent architect in the person of God.

Answer 5

If you deny evolution, you are ignoring the physical evidence in what you would call Creation. If you believe a story about Creation, more than Creation itself, then you are an idolater who worships a book.

You have created a false dichotomy. The two real choices are God and evolution, or evolution alone.

Answer 6

That is wonderful news, and a step forward for the Catholic religion.

I believe in Evolution, because there is simple more evidence for it.

It sounds as if Pope John Paul II's final gift to humanity may have been his greatest.

Answer 7

This planet is absolutely nothing in the evolution of the entire infinite universe..
Men made up God for control and power, this God thing is very localised and does not exist anywhere else in the universe, I'm for evolution..
~Kluto~

Answer 8

Being an atheist I believe in evolution, not god. However, if I were to play devil's advocate I would argue that evolution is just a tool for the creator. Additionally, one might say that we evolved to this point, but did not become Man until god gave us a soul, to me that tends to fit in with their beliefs.

Answer 9

Both, I simply believe God created the laws that govern this seemingly random universe, that it might bring forth all manner of life forms through the process of evolution.

Answer 10

I believe in Both.

Evolution does not exclude God......in fact I have always found it hysterical that the "faithful" think God could *poof* us out of dirt and that was cool but God, the all-knowing all-powerful, could not ever design a complex self-regulating system that would enable the system to run without constant adjustments...like it would be beyond God's abilities.

Just funny to think God is omnipotent but unable to use an evolutionary process....seems kinda contradictory to me.