The Catholic Big Bang
The conflict at the highest level of the Catholic Church about the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution breaks out publicly today.Recent comments by a cardinal close to the Pope that random evolution was incompatible with belief in "God the creator" are fiercely assailed in today's edition of The Tablet, Britain's Catholic weekly, by the Vatican astronomer.
In an article with explosive implications for the Church, Father George Coyne, an American Jesuit priest who is a distinguished astronomy professor, attacks head-on the views of Cardinal Christoph Shönborn....
The cardinal's views are publicly and robustly rejected by Fr Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory, which is a scientific institution sponsored by the Holy See....
In The Tablet he says that Cardinal Shönborn's article has "darkened the waters" of the rapport between Church and science, and says - flatly contradicting the cardinal - that even a world in which "life... has evolved through a process of random genetic mutations and natural selection" is compatible with "God's dominion".
For a Vatican official of such seniority openly to attack the views of a cardinal on such a potentially explosive subject as evolution is unprecedented. It also reveals a deep rift at the heart of the Catholic Church's thinking. It is known that Fr Coyne wrote privately to both Cardinal Shönborn and the Pope himself protesting against The New York Times article soon after it was published last month. But it is understood that so many scientists, especially Catholic scientists, have since contacted him to express their disquiet, that he felt he had to go public. He is believed to have cleared the article with his Jesuit superiors....
Oh, my. A Jesuit and a Dominican sparring? I love watching intellectuals get to it. Love it, love it, love it.
The key question behind the debate is the opinion of new Pope. Some fear that the cardinal would never have published such a controversial article in such a prominent medium without his personal approval. But nothing will be known for certain until the Pope speaks for himself.
Yep, Schonborn (don't know how to do umlauts, sorry) went around telling the cardinals that Ratzi's election was "God's will." He got the first copy of the impending Compendio from the hand of B16. They're way tight.
Well, the Catholic church seems poised to become a school board in Kansas, squabbling over all this as if the Scopes trial didn't matter a fig. And what a good seat I've got for the action. Don't get all hopped up though, snowflakes; Ratzi is not William Jennings Bryant -- we will not be crucifying Jesuits on a cross of gold.
Let's get it on! Fetch the popcorn. But, at the same time, let's be wise to remember, as a good prelate would say, that "Evolution is not Lord."
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posted by Rocco Palmo at 05:02
1 Comments:
But how could you tell if it was truly random evolution? No matter how random it looked, God could still be in there "watching the game -- controlling it", as they sing in Chess.
And obviously, that's exactly what the Church has to maintain, by virtue of believing in an involved God who is constantly creating and sustaining the universe (much less every individual person).
So what's the point in arguing the ways and means? Whatever the means, God is there -- and God thought it up, and designed it that way.
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