Get the popcorn. Evangelicals and fundies are going to have a cow about this...


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-declares-evolution-and-big-bang-theory-are-right-and-god-isn-t-magician-magic-wand-9822514.html

Francis goes against Benedict XVI’s apparent support for 'intelligent design' - but does hail his predecessor’s 'great contribution to theology'


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.


“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.”

The Catholic Church has long had a reputation for being anti-science – most famously when Galileo faced the inquisition and was forced to retract his “heretic” theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun.



Yet more recently, Benedict XVI and his close advisors have apparently endorsed the idea that intelligent design underpins evolution – the idea that natural selection on its own is insufficient to explain the complexity of the world. In 2005, his close associate Cardinal Schoenborn wrote an article saying “evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense – an unguided, unplanned process – is not”.

Giovanni Bignami, a professor and president of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics, told the Italian news agency Adnkronos: “The pope’s statement is significant. We are the direct descendents from the Big Bang that created the universe. Evolution came from creation.”

Giulio Giorello, professor of the philosophy of science at Milan’s University degli Studi, told reporters that he believed Francis was “trying to reduce the emotion of dispute or presumed disputes” with science.

Despite the huge gulf in theological stance between his tenure and that of his predecessor, Francis praised Benedict XVI as he unveiled a bronze bust of him at the academy's headquarters in the Vatican Gardens.

“No one could ever say of him that study and science made him and his love for God and his neighbour wither,” Francis said, according to a translation by the Catholic News Service.

“On the contrary, knowledge, wisdom and prayer enlarged his heart and his spirit. Let us thank God for the gift that he gave the church and the world with the existence and the pontificate of Pope Benedict.”

For people who want to maintain faith, I think this is a sensible solution. I've always maintained that science and faith do not need to be incompatible.

Yes, but at some point the church will have to abandon the Garden of Eden, the notion that Adam brought death and Jesus rebirth, etc. There is no ineluctable conflict between faith and science, but there is between the Bible and science.

With every one of these policy demarches, however welcome it may otherwise be, the pope shows once again how far down on his agenda one must go to find children and their protection.

Perhaps.

My guess, however, is that he would like to help the kids but can't due to the extent of molestation and coverup within the hierarchy. Open the barn door and all the horses run off.

He may be focusing on things he has the political power to affect.

+1.0x10^10

As usual, once the evidence is strong, religion has to adapt to stay relevant.

Unfortunately he didn't say this:
I'm sorry we mislead everyone for so long once again. We were making things up. Of course we'll still keep doing it when we can until science shames us as usual. Can I interest you in our authorized exorcism service for demon removal?

So ... St. Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei?


Pray for me, St. Galileo, now and in the hour of my need!


Sounds good, huh?

Who?

Galileo's not here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2021 07:04PM by Lot's Wife.

I think he's still failing to understand what is written in Genesis 1. It says 'god created...' the idea that creation is putting things together, not exploding and destroying things together. The Big Bang just doesn't make any sense if one is to believe literally what the bible says. My thought is that this pope probably would have been better suited for a job teaching at a university rather than leading Christianity.

macaRomney Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think he's still failing to understand what is
> written in Genesis 1.

But you haven't read Genesis either. If you had, you would know that Abraham took other wives while Sarah was alive and that the women fought over their status and that of their children. You'd also know that Abraham and Sarah were Semites culturally, religiously, linguistically, and genetically. Hagar was supposedly an Egyptian, which was also very close to Semitic, and she spoke a Semitic language and shared Semitic religious beliefs. There accordingly was no ethnic distinction between "white" Abraham and "tribal" wives.

Your "white supremacy" is showing again, magaRomney, as is your ignorance of the topics you claim to understand.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2021 08:09PM by Lot's Wife.

Maca, it actually says "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth, and the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

What does that sound like to you?

There was nothing, then there was something.

Just about every culture on Earth has some kind of similar creation myth.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2021 01:55AM by anybody.

Of course Mormonism teaches that there was no creation ex nihilo, that God simply organized the existing matter and intelligence. So MagaRomney is simply repeating things he heard in church.

Protestants would have something to say about your characterization of the Pope "leading Christianity".

He admitted evolution was real 7 years ago.

"On October 27, 2014, Pope Francis issued a statement at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that "Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation," warning against thinking of God's act of creation as "God [being] a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_and_the_Catholic_Church#

+++




this is a news flash ~


the pope is a communist ~


and an atheist ~



~\|||/~
(•_•)/
<)/)
/-\



is this the end times ? ~



you better bet your sweet ass ~



repent of your sins ~



*ʕ•͓͡•ʔ-̫͡-ʕ•̫͡•ʔ*

https://www.ncronline.org/news/quick-reads/letter-signed-more-1500-accuses-pope-francis-canonical-derelict-heresy

A group of Catholic scholars and priests has written an open letter to the College of Bishops accusing Pope Francis of heresy.

The letter, published by LifeSiteNews April 30, accuses Francis of a "comprehensive rejection of Catholic teaching on marriage and sexual activity, on the moral law, and on grace and the forgiveness of sins" and is framed as the third step in a process that began with a private letter to the cardinals and Eastern Catholic patriarchs in 2016.

While the 2016 letter from a similar group pointed out "heresies and other serious errors" promoted by Francis' apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, and a 2017 "filial correction" asserted that Francis had "upheld" seven heretical positions, those signers stopped short of stating that the pope was guilty of heresy.

The April 30 letter goes farther, accusing Francis of the "canonical delict* of heresy," which the writers define in their summary as when someone "knowingly and persistently denies something which he knows that the Church teaches to be revealed by God."

They ask the bishops to publicly admonish Francis to "abjure" those heresies, including "repudiating and reversing" actions that have manifested heresy such as "nomination of bishops and cardinals who have supported these heresies by their words and actions."

If Francis does not repent, the letter asks that the bishops declare that he has committed heresy and must "suffer the canonical consequences of this crime." Those consequences should include removal from office, the writers argue in a section after the signatures that discusses canon law and theology related to papal heresy.

Yes, but if Francis can PROVE to them that the earth goes around the sun, then he should be okay!

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

If God existed before the Big Bang, and caused it to happen, then presumably it occurred one way or another by his act of will. Absent some established divine mechanism explaining how one wills something into existence, how is Frances' statement different from a magic wand scenario. I guess it is just magic without the wand!

Moreover, can we assume that God had a purpose in creation? If so, then the universe was created to fulfill that purpose, and the laws of nature either were created at the Big Bang, or pre-existed God. Either way, material existence coupled with the laws of nature paved the way for God's purpose to be fulfilled. And, if evolution is somehow the mechanism for this purpose, again, ultimately it too is the product of God's will; like magic, bringing creation and evolution into existence.

But as for me, I am not impressed. After all, we all bring things into existence all the time; even some things ultimately from 'nothing' but our own will. For example, our creative thoughts when attempting to solve a difficult problem; or as part of some act of artistic creation! Again, magic without the wand! So, what's the big deal?