Is The Theory of Evolution mandatory for the modern worldview

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Barbarian observes:
You still don’t get it. Nothing in Darwinian theory says that man is the product of mere physical processes. Nor is it something Darwinians “like to imply.”

But you already know that, don’t you?

It’s quite true. It’s why you will not present any evidence that evolutionary theory says such a thing. You already know that it’s not part of the theory.

In other words, he accepts evolutionary theory, because it makes no such claims. That’s why he says it’s “virtually certain.”

Nope. Says nothing at all about that. You just made that up. Science can neither support nor deny God. It could, for example mean that God moves every single quark personally to make a consistent universe, the workings of which can be predicted and explained by science. Science would be fine with that.

It’s why the Pope accepts the fact of evolution. Science in general and evolution in particular are in no way contradictory to the Church.
Fact? What fact? The Pope does not accept textbook evolution. Why? Because it does not include God. Haven’t you read “Human Persons Created in the Image of God”? The Catholic Church does not accept any theory of evolution that denies to God any truly causal role.

God bless,
Ed
 
Originally Posted by Ender
says that man is not the product of mere physical processes, as Darwinists like to imply.
It’s true that they like to imply that (if not state it outright).

For example, Brown University biologist Kenneth Miller said just recently:
“People want to believe that life isn’t purposeless and random. That’s why the intelligent design movement wins the emotional battle for adherents despite its utter lack of scientific support.”
That elicited this blog response …

Miller said, “People want to believe that life isn’t purposeless and random.”

People WANT to believe that life isn’t purposeless and random? What does this suggest? It suggests that life is purposeless and random, but people are deluded into thinking that it isn’t.

Miller is a complete enigma to me. He claims to be a Catholic Christian, but denies the foundational tenets of his faith, that humankind was created with design and purpose.

What’s going on with this guy? Is it book sales? Is it fame, pride, being in the spotlight, being adored by those who want to use him to demonstrate that purposeless Darwinism is thoroughly compatible with Catholicism?

The Catholic church really should issue a comment on this guy, since he has effectively set himself up as a spokesman for the Catholic faith, and he is a very poor representative.

uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/millers-evolutionary-design-an-oxymoron-or-trojan-horse/#more-3082
 
Barbarian asks:
Hmmm… which scientist says that evolutionary theory shows man to be merely a product of physical processes?

(Ender can’t find one, either, and changes the subject)
What part of evolutionary theory implies that man is partly the result of non-physical processes? I was unaware that evolutionary theory left room for characteristics that couldn’t have evolved.
As you should know, science does not deny supernatural causes. It just can’t make any inferences on those.
Or does Darwinism have an explanation for evolution via non-physical processes?
No more than chemistry has an explanation for reactions via non-physical processes. Are you now trying to tell us that chemistry denies God?

Seriously? Isn’t the fact that you can’t find even one scientist who says what you claim the theory says sufficient evidence to show you are wrong?
 
Fact? What fact? The Pope does not accept textbook evolution.
He says it’s “virtually certain.”
Perhaps we should let him explain why:

Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related, it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism. Converging evidence from many studies in the physical and biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of evolution to account for the development and diversification of life on earth, while controversy continues over the pace and mechanisms of evolution. While the story of human origins is complex and subject to revision, physical anthropology and molecular biology combine to make a convincing case for the origin of the human species in Africa about 150,000 years ago in a humanoid population of common genetic lineage.
Then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI
INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION
COMMUNION AND STEWARDSHIP: Human Persons Created in the Image of God

Why does he favor Darwinism above other, no longer accepted theories of evolution?

"What response shall we make to this view? It is the affair of the natural sciences to explain how the tree of life in particular continues to grow and how new branches shoot out from it. This is not a matter for faith. But we must have the audacity to say that the great projects of the living creation are not the products of chance and error."
bringyou.to/apologetics/p81.htm

As you should know, Darwin’s great discovery was that it was not by chance.
Because it does not include God. Haven’t you read “Human Persons Created in the Image of God”?
Yes, notice that the central claim of Darwinism is said by the Pope to be “virtually certain.”
The Catholic Church does not accept any theory of evolution that denies to God any truly causal role.
Another reason the Pope approves of Darwinian theory; as you should know, Darwin attributed the origin of life to God.

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.
Darwin’s last sentence in The Origin of Species

How about that?
 
By not explicitly including God, science excludes God. Get it straight, mutation and natural selection work entirely without outside (i.e. God) interference. Open a textbook. Read it. No God. No role for God. Therefore, God is not given a truly causal role. Science, thereby, excludes God. You “including” God is not relevant at all. Your words do not count, since they add to a theory that works entirely without divine intervention.

From “Human Persons Created in the Image of God,” part 69:

In the Catholic perspective, neo-Darwinians who adduce random genetic variation and natural selection as evidence that the process of evolution is absolutely unguided are straying beyond what can be demonstrated by science. Divine causality can be active in a process that is both contingent and guided. Any evolutionary mechanism that is contingent can only be contingent because God made it so. An unguided evolutionary process - one that falls outside the bounds of divine providence - simply cannot exist because “the causality of God, Who is the first agent, extends to all being, not only as to constituent principles of species, but also to the individualizing principles…It necessarily follows that all things, inasmuch as they participate in existence, must likewise be subject to divine providence” (Summa theologiae I, 22, 2 by St. Thomas Aquinas).

That is not in the biology textbook, therefore, the biology textbook is not the whole, complete or correct answer. By excluding God, it is not to be believed in its entirety.

God bless,
Ed
 
Of course, but you offer no details. How did God create it? When? By what method(s)? Your raw assertion is compatible with Catholic doctrine, but in no way displaces scientific investigation.
I don’t have to offer any details, you can ask God for those when you get to Heaven. HE has ALL the answers you’ll ever want. You just have to be patient. TRUE science can NEVER contradict GOD. If it does, then guess whose wrong and it ain’t GOD.
 
By not explicitly including God, science excludes God.
So by not explicitly including God, plumbing excludes God? You’re a very odd person, Reggie.
Get it straight, mutation and natural selection work entirely without outside (i.e. God) interference.
Science can’t say that, although you can. You see, science can’t say whether or not God is pulling the strings, merely created the process that runs by itself, or never created anything at all. It can’t (and doesn’t rule out God)
Open a textbook.
(or a plumbing manual)
Read it. No God. No role for God. Therefore, God is not given a truly causal role. Science,
(and plumbing!!)
thereby, excludes God.
(if one accepts Reggie’s somewhat odd notion that not mentioning God denies Him)
You “including” God is not relevant at all. Your words do not count, since they add to a theory that works entirely without divine intervention.
So it doesn’t help that the plumber is a theist? Darn. Atheistic plumbing. Whodda thought?

From “Human Persons Created in the Image of God,” part 69:
In the Catholic perspective, neo-Darwinians who adduce random genetic variation and natural selection as evidence that the process of evolution is absolutely unguided are straying beyond what can be demonstrated by science.

Just what I was telling you. Cardinal Ratzinger knew something you don’t, um? Evolutionary theory can’t say anything about God, as our Pope tells you. Isn’t it time you believed him?
Divine causality can be active in a process that is both contingent and guided. Any evolutionary mechanism that is contingent can only be contingent because God made it so.
This is why Pope Benedict says that God can even use contingency in His creation. Hence, random variation can serve His purposes as well as anything else. ( with the direction of natural selection, of course)
That is not in the biology textbook,
And shouldn’t be, as the Pope says. Why don’t you believe him?
therefore, the biology textbook is not the whole, complete or correct answer.
Very good. But if you understand that, why all the thrashing and complaining about it? It’s correct as far as it can go. But for the supernatural, you will have to go beyond science. This is what Pope Benedict is telling you. Why not accept the teaching of the church and be done with this foolishness?
 
So by not explicitly including God, plumbing excludes God? You’re a very odd person, Reggie.
You not only like to insult people, you can’t read. You’re responding to a post that I didn’t write. An apology is in order. I’m not sure you’re capable of such.
(if one accepts Reggie’s somewhat odd notion that not mentioning God denies Him)
As above. You might actually want to read the post and figure out who wrote it before mentioning the wrong person’s name.

I’ll accept this gross inaccuracy as an indication of how you do your science. It also says a lot about you (this is at least the second time you’ve mistaken me for someone else).
 
Barbarian observes:
So by not explicitly including God, plumbing excludes God? You’re a very odd person, Reggie.
You not only like to insult people, you can’t read. You’re responding to a post that I didn’t write. An apology is in order. I’m not sure you’re capable of such.
Um, darn, it was ed that dissented from the magisterium that time. Sorry about that. And yes, I took you to task for accusing me of things I didn’t write, so it’s only fair I apologize to you. You guys tend to make the same sorts of arguments, sometimes it’s easy to confuse you two. Not that it’s a good excuse.

Just for the record, do you think science or plumbing are atheistic, because they can’t comment on the supernatural?
 
To The Barbarian,

Dodging the issue again. If it’s not in the biology textbook, the average teenager is only told that it (evolution) happened by itself. Get it?

ONLY, the Catholic Church has the whole answer, the complete answer, the right answer. Any other answer is atheistic. Don’t try to dodge the question by saying science does not include or exclude God - the point is, God is excluded.

And get off your atheist plumber kick, it doen’t help your argument in the slightest.

God bless,
Ed
 
And yes, I took you to task for accusing me of things I didn’t write, so it’s only fair I apologize to you. You guys tend to make the same sorts of arguments, sometimes it’s easy to confuse you two. Not that it’s a good excuse.
I caught your first version of this post and your edit is an improvement, athough you still have to attack even while apologizing for your error (by saying that my posts are indistinguishable from another person’s). But yes, it’s not a good excuse anyway.

Apology accepted. Thank you.

I don’t understand your question so I can’t answer. It appears to be merely one of your loaded questions designed to entrap a person and cloud the issue. You continue to compare Darwinian evolution with plumbing, as if the former does not carry with it significant philosophical and theological baggage that is impossible to consider in the latter.
 
I don’t have to offer any details, you can ask God for those when you get to Heaven. HE has ALL the answers you’ll ever want. You just have to be patient. TRUE science can NEVER contradict GOD. If it does, then guess whose wrong and it ain’t GOD.
Well, Memaw, that’s a rather odd stance to take. How do you think humanity has managed to make all the discoveries it has since 1660, if it only had waited to ask God in heaven? Or do you not understand how science works?

Petrus
 
Barbarian observes:
So by not explicitly including God, plumbing excludes God?
Barbarian, my Honda needed carburetor work a couple of months ago, so I first prayed over the matter. When nothing happened I took it to our local mechanic, a Honda specialist. I told him in no uncertain terms that I did not want him to approach it from an atheistic viewpoint, but to pray over the matter.

He replied to me, “I’m sorry, but in working to diagnose and solve your carburetor problem, I presume your periodic vapor lock has a naturalistic explanation, so I do not resort to God to explain why it happens.” He was very kind man, saying that as a Catholic he prays regularly for inspiration and guidance in his work. However, he told me that mechanics is a profession that can be practiced by atheists and theists alike; he assured me that it is God-neutral, just like plumbing or biology. I thanked him and let him do his work; perhaps he prayed quietly as he followed up leads to discover the cause of the problem.

Prayerfully yours,
Petrus
 
I caught your first version of this post and your edit is an improvement, athough you still have to attack even while apologizing for your error (by saying that my posts are indistinguishable from another person’s).
Um, I didn’t say that. I’ll refrain from saying you can’t read, though.
I don’t understand your question so I can’t answer. It appears to be merely one of your loaded questions designed to entrap a person and cloud the issue.
If you don’t want to tell me, that’s O.K. Not everyone wants to make their position clear, nor are you required to do so.
You continue to compare Darwinian evolution with plumbing, as if the former does not carry with it significant philosophical and theological baggage that is impossible to consider in the latter.
You’ve put your philosophical and theological baggage on it, but it really doesn’t belong there. The point, of course, is that both science and plumbing are methodologically naturalistic, and so they can’t say anything at all about God. This doesn’t make science or plumbing “atheistic.”

If this still isn’t clear to you, I’m not sure how to make it simpler. Science can’t say anything about God. So if God was directly responsible for everything in nature, science couldn’t tell it. But neither can it deny that fact. Which is why the Pope acknowledges evolution as virtually certain.
 
My cookbook does not tell me how I got here.

My auto repair manual does not tell me how I got here.

My do-it-yourself plumbing manual does not tell me how I got here.

But that biology textbook - I’m just like a salt crystal, and due to a lot of random mutations and natural selection, which had all of them gone just a little bit differently, I might look like an ant - I’m me. From slime to human being - just billions of years of dice rolling. No God required.

God bless,
Ed
 
However, he told me that mechanics is a profession that can be practiced by atheists and theists alike; he assured me that it is God-neutral, just like plumbing or biology. I thanked him and let him do his work; perhaps he prayed quietly as he followed up leads to discover the cause of the problem.
👍
 
My cookbook does not tell me how I got here.
My auto repair manual does not tell me how I got here.
My do-it-yourself plumbing manual does not tell me how I got here.
But that biology textbook - I’m just like a salt crystal, and due to a lot of random mutations and natural selection, which had all of them gone just a little bit differently, I might look like an ant - I’m me. From slime to human being - just billions of years of dice rolling. No God required.
Pretty much like your cookbook doesn’t require God, or your plumbing manual doesn’t require God. Your sense of pride is offended that your physical body can be accounted for in naturalistic terms. (even if your soul cannot)

But God isn’t required to consider your pride. Let Him be God.
 
Dodging the issue again.
Dodging won’t help you. At this point, some facts are called for.
If it’s not in the biology textbook, the average teenager is only told that it (evolution) happened by itself.
Hmmm… not when I went to school. Not in any of the schools I know about. Can you name even one such school and the city in which it is located? I’d be very interested in talking to the people there, to see why they are doing that.
I think so. You no longer assert the theory denies God. Now, it seems you no longer assert that textbooks deny God. But you still assert that students are told that. So it’s time to substantiate that allegation.
ONLY, the Catholic Church has the whole answer, the complete answer, the right answer.
The Catholic Church is not about science, and is unable to make scientific judgments about biology or other sciences. That’s why we have science. The Church can’t give us those answers.
Any other answer is atheistic. Don’t try to dodge the question by saying science does not include or exclude God
It’s a fact. And it seems to infuriate you. But that’s how it is. That’s what the Pope says about it. Get with the program.
And get off your atheist plumber kick, it doen’t help your argument in the slightest.
You seem to find methodological naturalism OK for some science, but not for others. But neither science nor God is compelled to fit your expectations.
 
If you don’t want to tell me, that’s O.K.
I didn’t say that I didn’t want to. I said I didn’t understand your question.
Not everyone wants to make their position clear, nor are you required to do so.
You’re not required to make your position clear. If you don’t want to, that’s OK. I already said that I didn’t understand your question.
You’ve put your philosophical and theological baggage on it, but it really doesn’t belong there.
Why has the Church warned about evolutionary theory but not about plumbing? Can you show me where the Pope has said anything about plumbing? Also, why do atheists universally cite evolution as a support for their atheistic belief? Where are the atheists or Christians who use plumbing as a support for their belief?
The point, of course, is that both science and plumbing are methodologically naturalistic, and so they can’t say anything at all about God.
This is a philosophical statement that cannot be proven scientifically.
This doesn’t make science or plumbing “atheistic.”
You used the term Krishna Consciousness “science” already so you’re not consistent. If you can use that kind of modifier on science (where is the Krishna Consciousness plumbing?) then the term *atheistic science *is perfectly consistent.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=3344157&postcount=125
Your attack on a Hindu-philosophical approach to science is an obvious refutation of your supposed belief that science is not significantly influenced by philosophical premises.
If this still isn’t clear to you, I’m not sure how to make it simpler.
You’re not a philosopher so I don’t think you can explain it very well. You make philosophical claims about science that you can’t prove.
Science can’t say anything about God.
I would like to see your proof of that.
So if God was directly responsible for everything in nature, science couldn’t tell it.
Again, please prove that point.
But neither can it deny that fact.
As above.
Which is why the Pope acknowledges evolution as virtually certain
Please explain why the Pope makes this statement again. You appear to be saying that the Pope says this because science cannot speak about God. So, the proof that evolution is “virtually certain” is based on the “fact” that science cannot speak about God.

What level of Catholic doctrine or dogma did the Pope assign to his statement about the certainty of evolution?
 
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