“First, it was God was the Creator and nothing else. Then, came Darwin and the Church rejected his theories. Then, overwhelming mountains of observable evidence came piling in and the Church continued to reject. Then, the evidence continued to pile in and the Church accepted evolution on a small scale (micro vs. macro). Now, that that has been debunked as well and the evidence continues to pour in, the Church accepts evolution as fact. It’s the natural cycle. Same with the Earth being flat and with the Earth revolving around the Sun and with the Moon causing the tides to come and go. Science prevails. It just takes a while to convince the ignorant.” ~Adam Beaty
The church has admitted that Genesis is fictional. Christianity, now has NO creation hypothesis.
As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops cite the early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early creation legends from other cultures, especially from the ancient East. The bishops say it is clear that the primary purpose of these chapters was to provide religious teaching and that they could not be described as historical writing.
While this is a very easy, too easy, way of having your cake and eating it too; note at least two issues: 1) The comparing of “the early chapters of Genesis” with “early creation legends from other cultures” is this to say that since other cultures also had, perhaps likewise, stories; the Roman Catholic Church cannot conclude that the Biblical one is the authentic one. In fact, the fact that there indeed are other creation legends with many similarities between them argues to the fact that they are retelling real life, historical, events that were known to “other cultures”—see Creation Myths for some consideration of this point.
2) Indeed, we may affirm that “the primary purpose of these chapters was to provide religious teaching” yet, they are the very premise upon which the gospel is base—the fall into sin from which Jesus saves us. Also, while the bishops may not consider these to be historical writings, Jesus disagreed. Jesus made various references to Genesis’ early chapters including the historicity of the creation in general and of the flood and Adam and Even in particular (some examples are found in Matthew 19:4, 24:38-39; Mark 10:6; Luke 11:50-51, 17:27-29)—or, are those portions of the New Testament to be dismissed because they are now inconvenient?
The bishops say the Church must offer the gospel in ways “appropriate to changing times, intelligible and attractive to our contemporaries”. The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: “We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.”
“Catholic Church no longer swears by
truth of the Bible,” part 2 of 3
The church doesn’t come “completely clean” and still maintains many of their frauds but it is good to see them admit some truth.
Pope John Paul II Declares Evolution to be Fact!
http://biblelight.net/darwin.htm
VATICAN THINKING EVOLVES
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101961104-134926,00.html
Pope John Paul II, on the 23rd of October, 1996, while speaking to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences plenary session at the Vatican, declared the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin to be fact, tacitly acknowledging that man evolved from the apes, and reducing the biblical account of Genesis to that of mere fable!
TO ACADEMICIANS: TRUTH CANNOT CONTRADICT TRUTH
VATICAN CITY, OCT 23, 1996 (VIS) - In a Message made public today to the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, meeting this week in the Vatican in plenary session, the Holy Father recalled that Pope Pius XI, who restored this academy in 1936, called this group of scholars “the Church’s ‘scientific senate’” and asked them “to serve the truth.”
The Pope expressed delight on the plenary’s theme on the origin of life and evolution, “a basic theme which greatly interests the Church, as Revelation contains, for its part, teachings concerning the nature and origins of man.” If the scientifically-reached conclusions and those contained in Revelation on the origin of life seem to counter each other, he said, “in what direction should we seek their solution? We know in effect that truth cannot contradict truth.”
John Paul II, noting the academy’s “reflection on science at the dawn of the third millennium,” observed that “in the domain of inanimate and animate nature, the evolution of science and its applications make new questions arise. The Church can grasp their scope all the better as she knows their basic aspects.”
He pointed to the Church’s magisterium on the question of the origin of life and evolution, citing in particular Pius XII’s 1950 Encyclical “Humani Generis” and the conciliar Constitution “Gaudium et Spes.”
The Pope drew the academicians’ attention to “the need for a correct interpretation of the inspired word, of a rigorous hermeneutics. It is fitting to set forth well the limits of the meaning proper to Scripture, rejecting undue interpretations which make it say what it does not have the intention of saying.”
“'Humani Generis’,” he stated, “considered the doctrine of 'evolutionism’ as a serious hypothesis, worthy of a more deeply studied investigation and reflection on a par with the opposite hypothesis. … Today, more than a half century after this encyclical, new knowledge leads us to recognize in the theory of evolution more than a hypothesis. … The convergence, neither sought nor induced, of results of work done independently one from the other, constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.”
He continued: “The elaboration of a theory such as that of evolution, while obeying the exigency of homogeneity with the data of observation, borrows certain ideas from the philosophy of nature. To tell the truth, more than the theory of evolution, one must speak of the theories of evolution. … There are thus materialistic and reductionist readings and spiritual readings.”
“The magisterium of the Church is directly interested in the question of evolution because this touches upon the concept of man, … created in the image and likeness of God. … Pius XII underlined this essential point: 'if the origin of the human body is sought in living matter which existed before it, the spiritual soul is directly created by God.’ Consequently, the theories of evolution which, as a result of the philosophies which inspire them, consider the spirit as emerging from forces of living matter or as a simple epiphenomenon of this matter, are incompatible with the truth about man. They are moreover incapable of laying the foundation for the dignity of the person.”
“Consideration of the method used in diverse orders of knowledge allows for the concordance of two points of view which seem irreconcilable. The sciences of observation describe and measure with ever greater precision the multiple manifestations of life and place them on a timeline. The moment of passing over to the spiritual is not the object of an observation of this type, which can nevertheless reveal, on an experimental level, a series of very useful signs about the specificity of the human being. But the experience of metaphysical knowledge, of the awareness of self and of its reflexive nature, that of the moral conscience, that of liberty, or still yet the aesthetic and religious experience, are within the competence of philosophical analysis and reflection, while theology extracts from it the final meaning according to the Creator’s designs."
MESS/ORIGIN LIFE:EVOLUTION/ACAD VIS 961023 (660)
The
Full Text of John Paul II’s comments on evolution online at New Advent, a Roman Catholic web page. (Note that my comments below are keyed to the original official Vatican press release shown above, not this apparently complete translation of the Pope’s remarks, which were delivered in French.)
I will address just a few key quotes of John Paul II that were mentioned in the above October 23rd, 1996 Vatican Information Service press release, (article N.182).
To begin with, in the second paragraph, two sources of "truth” are mentioned, one being the conclusions of modern science, and the other being Revelation of truth from scripture or the church. The Pope stated that
“We know in effect that the truth cannot contradict the truth.”
(This is a quote from
PROVIDENTISSIMUS DEUS, Paragraph 23).
What the Pope has done, as you will see, is elevate Darwinian evolutionary theory to that of undeniable scientific fact, or truth. He then draws the conclusion that since evolution is indeed the truth, the Catholic Church’s interpretation of the biblical account of Genesis cannot contradict this now proven and accepted fact of evolution, and so church teachings must consequently be re-evaluated and amended. The Catholic church has faced this sort of predicament before.
The Pope probably sees parallels between Darwin’s theory and the astronomical discoveries of Galileo. In 1632, as a result of his scientific observations, Galileo published a book in which he defended the Copernican theory of a sun-centered solar system. Galileo’s “Dialogue on the Great World Systems” was swiftly condemned by Pope Urban VIII, because the church believed and taught that the earth was the center of the universe. Galileo was made to recant his heretical opinions and his book was banned by the church for two-hundred years. It is a classic example of church dogma suppressing scientific truth.
Here is a Catholic view of
The Galileo Affair online at EWTN.
Recently (1979) the Pontifical Academy of Sciences reconsidered the Galileo matter, with Pope John Paul II then acknowledging that the church erred in it’s condemning the factual astronomical discoveries of Galileo. So the Pope probably saw a similar fiasco brewing between biblical creationism and evolutionary science. While the astronomical sciences have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the earth does indeed revolve around the Sun, the case for evolutionary science has never been proven to be anything but hypothesis, which is to say it is nothing more than speculation. The cases are really quite different, but apparently that is not the opinion of John Paul II.
In the 5th paragraph of the Vatican press release, the Pope points out-
“the need for a correct interpretation of the inspired word, of a rigorous hermeneutics. It is fitting to set forth well the limits of the meaning proper to scripture, rejecting undue interpretations which make it say what it does not have the intention of saying.”
The Pope is saying that he is abandoning what he feels is an untenable and “undue” interpretation of the Bible, namely that God created the entire universe, to include man, in a mere 6 days, and he is adopting instead the process of Darwinian evolution which proposes man evolved over millions of years from the apes.
Note with care what is stated in the 6th paragraph of the Vatican press release. Pope John Paul II says-
“ new knowledge leads us to recognize in the theory of evolution more than a hypothesis.”
Either evolution is theory (hypothesis) or it is fact, there is no middle ground with respect to the origin of man. Either God created man directly from the dust of the earth or He didn’t. It is just that simple. The Pope in the above sentence has just declared evolution to be a fact, and in the process he dismissed the biblical account of Genesis as fable.
In the 6th paragraph of the above Vatican press release, an encyclical from Pope Pius XII, HUMANI GENERIS, is summarized and appealed to for support by John Paul II -
“Humani Generis’,” he stated, “considered the doctrine of 'evolutionism’ as a serious hypothesis, worthy of a more deeply studied investigation and reflection on a par with the opposite hypothesis.” (He is commenting on paragraph 36 of the encyclical)
In this summary of Humani Generis, John Paul II has just reduced the biblical six day creation (the opposite hypothesis) to mere theory, and elevated evolutionary science to be on a par with it as an equal possibility to be considered! And that is indeed a correct assessment of what Pius XII said in his encyclical.
Continuing, in the 8th paragraph of the Vatican press release, John Paul II now quotes the encyclical
HUMANI GENERIS (see paragraph 36) -
“if the origin of the human body is sought in living matter which existed before it, the spiritual soul is directly created by God.”
So, as Pius XII explains it, if man did evolve, the same is not true of the soul. That, he claims, God created directly and put into man. Man himself though, is presumed to have evolved from “pre-existing living matter”, rather than being created by God in one day from the dust of the earth. What Pius XII meant by that is that man evolved from the apes in accord with Darwinian theory!
What a predicament!! What an embarrassment for Christianity! At a time when the Protestant church in America is fighting to re-introduce the teaching of creationism into the public schools, Pope John Paul II stuns the world and declares Darwin was right after all, and man has descended from the apes! He is dismissing Genesis as fable and actually accepting Darwin’s Origin of the Species as fact! Absolutely amazing!
1 Tim 6:20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
1 Tim 6:21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith.
In reality, Evolution refutes Genesis.
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There there we have no clear evidence that all the creation story is on the same footing as any other fairy tales, folk...
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