Ratzinger on human origins

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Science doesn’t disprove God. But some people try using it to disprove Him. Which is ironic, because God, being nonmaterial, cannot be disproven (neither proven) by science.
 
Aulef said:
Science can be dead at birth for faulty philosophy. So I agree with what you said in theory, but only when the science is honest.
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To paraphrase: you will only believe science that comports with your preconceived theological beliefs.
 
KevinK said:
Do you agree with this statement from Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God, published in 2004, and chaired by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger?:
“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 (Para. 63).”
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No, I do not agree with it. And I’m not sure that what has been gathered since 2004 from various ‘scientific’ studies or finds would presently agree with it. Secondly, the paragraph begins with ‘According to the widely accepted scientific account,’ and according to what follows, this is nothing but cosmic evolutionary theory which is the ‘widely accepted scientific account.’

But, there are other fields of study of scientific knowledge that are higher and more universal than the natural sciences, namely, philosophy and metaphysics specifically which is the highest human science attainable by the natural reason, and the highest science of all is Sacred Theology which is founded on divine revelation. Now, the account of the origin of the universe and all its multitude and variety of creatures according to either philosophy/metaphysics and Sacred Theology may not agree with the natural sciences evolutionary theory account. Indeed, creationists argue that Holy Scripture and the Church’s essentially entire theological Tradition teach creationism. It’s probable that the theologians who wrote the document were theistic evolution theorists and thus no mention is made of creationism.

Also, the documents published by the International Theological Commission have no official Church magisterial or teaching authority even though Cardinal Ratzinger may have given the okay to publish the document in question here.
 
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I don’t know.

With the help of science we know there was a major global catastrophic event in the past. We know there were massive extinctions at this time. There are sedimentary layers worldwide that has a similar compositions, and we know there was extreme volcanic activity all around the world during a certain period of time. Also, we know there was a major ice age after these events.

Some say this global catastrophe was cause by a meteor/asteroid that hit our planet. Others say it was some instability in earth’s core, which caused intense volcanic activity. Others say the sun got unstable and caused all this.

I believe it was a global flood.
 
There is a big difference between a global flood, a meteor and volcanic activity. The evidence ought to reflect that as well as the time period.
 
I have a problem with the statement, i think…

It implies that there would still be around today many humanoids that are NOT descended from Adam and Eve. So they would be “not really humans.” So…who are the humans, and who are the “humanoids” that we see every day walking down the street? Those people walking down the street…Some, but not all, are made in the image and likeness of God. What a can of worms!
 
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Notice that intense volcanic activity is one of the consequences caused by something else
 
‘All humans alive today share a surprisingly recent common ancestor, perhaps even within the last 5,000 years, even for people born on different continents’
from ‘Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans’, Nature, 431 (2004)
 
Dan_Defender said:
‘All humans alive today share a surprisingly recent common ancestor
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If you are going to quote scientific papers, please read them first. You missed this part:

"the MRCA appears in about the year 300 BC, and all modern individuals have identical ancestors by about 3,000 BC. Such estimates are extremely tentative, and the model contains several obvious sources of error, as it was motivated more by considerations of theoretical insight and tractability than by realism. "
 
thistle said:
It is a fact that all 7 billion people alive today can be traced back to one woman in Africa around 150,000 years ago. This is proven through mitochondrial DNA.
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This research showed that all people outside of that region trace to a single women. There are apparently descendants of three other women still in that region (per the research.

As for myself, I’m not all that concerned about how God made the world and man; I’m happy that he did.

hawk
 
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