Creationism news in France

[Nullasalus]

msnbc.msn.com/id/17799902/

Is anyone else irritated by this article? It implies Pope B16 has come out against evolution. In reality, he’s come out against a particular interpretation of evolution - the concept of a universe and life as ultimately unguided. If he’s a creationist, then so is Ken Miller, who is a vicious opponent of Intelligent Design.

 

[Dauphin]

This article does an extremely poor job of articulating the Church’s position. It implies that the Church has some kind of problem with evolutionary theory, which is totally wrong.

 

[Wisdom]

Catholics are neither Darwinist or Creationist and can’t be easily defined as the media likes to do as it is easy to do with secularist scientist and fundamentalist christians. We have the freedom to vascilate on modern findings and to keep to the few essentials of the genesis story that have been defined as non-negotialble ie adam and eve are our first ancestors and thier souls were given to them by God. How long was the creation process? It is entirely negotiable. Was their evolution of the various species? Also negotiable.
Since we don’t have easy to be defined opinion and good catholics can disagree on the negotiables it puts the media in position they don’t like in trying to explain their is no one position on some finer points of creation. They like to stereotype people of faith as ignorant of all science and since catholics are not ignorant of some of the possible truths of evolution as well as some of the possible fallacies it frustrates their cause.
It is like Pope Benedict has an opinion quite different than JOhn Paul II but he won’t declare it defacto the catholic position as John Paul II never declared his postion the de facto position and until we know for sure how things went down and we probably won’t its best we keep some things open.

 

[pedja]

Catholics are neither Darwinist or Creationist and can’t be easily defined as the media likes to do as it is easy to do with secularist scientist and fundamentalist christians. We have the freedom to vascilate on modern findings and to keep to the few essentials of the genesis story that have been defined as non-negotialble ie adam and eve are our first ancestors and thier souls were given to them by God. How long was the creation process? It is entirely negotiable. Was their evolution of the various species? Also negotiable.
Since we don’t have easy to be defined opinion and good catholics can disagree on the negotiables it puts the media in position they don’t like in trying to explain their is no one position on some finer points of creation. They like to stereotype people of faith as ignorant of all science and since catholics are not ignorant of some of the possible truths of evolution as well as some of the possible fallacies it frustrates their cause.
It is like Pope Benedict has an opinion quite different than JOhn Paul II but he won’t declare it defacto the catholic position as John Paul II never declared his postion the de facto position and until we know for sure how things went down and we probably won’t its best we keep some things open.

So when were Adam and Eve created? 250.000 years ago? Or have they actually evolved? Did Neanderthals know what sin is?

 

[Wisdom]

So when were Adam and Eve created? 250.000 years ago? Or have they actually evolved? Did Neanderthals know what sin is?

We don’t know when Adam and Eve were created. Adam and Eve were our first common ancestor with a soul in scientific terms they were the first homo sapiens. Neanderthals are not related to homo sapiens nor were homo sapiens descended from them so they probably were more animal like and did not have the god breathed soul quality that Adam and Eve the first homo sapiens.
We as catholics leave a lot of this open as opposed to our fundamentalist friends who insist Adam and Eve were created 6000 years ago and in 6 literal days. Which is a regresssion in Chrsitian human thought as St Augustine thought this idea was rather niave and he did not think the creation time period was to be taken literally of scientifically. What is to be taken literally is that Adam and Eve were our first common ancestors and had a special quality that the animals did not have a God breathed human soul.

What is your opinion?

 

[Titus]

So when were Adam and Eve created?
**We don’t know for sure, but scientists are finding that there is a small gene pool at the beginning of *homo sapiens. ***

250.000 years ago?
Are the total specifics of that event, like timeline and location, important? Or is it what happened and the significance thereof?

Or have they actually evolved?
**Do individual people evolve in the way you are suggesting? Of course not. So be more accurate. **

Did Neanderthals know what sin is?
The Church teaches that neanderthals were not given immortal souls nor did they have the doubtful gift of ‘eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil’ (that’s an allegory, so you don’t confuse my position).