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MindOverMatter
Guest
I haven’t got a problem with this.Aside from Pope Pius XII’s magisterial document Humani Generis which teaches that we must accept that all of human life **decended from Adam and Eve
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…the Holy Father’s message acknowledges that there are “several theories of evolution” that are “materialist, reductionist and spiritualist” and thus incompatible with the Catholic faith.
I agree.
I agree.It follows that the message of Pope John Paul II cannot be read as a blanket approbation of all theories of evolution,
Interpretation is important. When the Pope rebukes “materialism”, it is important to understand that this doesn’t and cannot mean that he is against the idea of a “natural world” that **organizes itself **according to the “principles of its given nature”. This is all that the theory of evolution proves, if it proves anything. If i am not mistaken, the Pope also said that there is no problem with the body being formed by evolutionary processes, so long that it is God that creates the soul. Materialism is the belief that the physical world exists of its own accord and is the giver of its own principles. That is not the theory of Evolution, and i am sorry to say that you are either deceived or a liar if you claim that it is. Personally i think you have been deceivedPope John Paul’s message is specifically critical of materialistic theories of human origins and insists on the relevance of philosophy and theology for an adequate understanding of the “ontological leap” to the human which cannot be explained in purely scientific terms.
Mainstream evolutionary theory, as in the theory of evolution as empirical science has discovered it, is not materialistic and atheistic. You are reading into the the theory a materialistic veiw point that isn’t really there. You interpreted the theory according to what people like Richard Dawkins has said it is; and it seems that you have uncritically agreed with him. Its like believing that cosmology and physics is false just because Stephen Hawkins has the opinion that the universe explains its own existence. Some scientists unfortunately mix their world views with their theories; but this doesn’t determine the truth or falsity of a given theory.I’ve just posted it for you. The pope condemns “several theories” of evolution – mainly neo-Darwinism (mainstream evolutionary theory) which is materialist and atheistic.
I am sorry, but this is quite simply false if what you mean is that mainstream science makes claims to materialism, and that therefore we must have our own theory. Science does no such thing. There are scientists who believe in materialism, but this is irrelevant when deciding what it is that Evolution is actually teaching. The Holy See does permit The Theory Evolution. They just reject the **philosophical **theories that has been attached to the theory. To say that the Pope accepts only “theistic evolution”, only makes sense in the respect that the Pope rebukes “materialism”. However, from a scientific point of view, there is no such thing as “theistic evolution”; there is just evolution, and it would be incorrect to employ theistic language when studying the “natural order”. There is the “scientific” theory of evolution, and then there is the religious and philosophical beliefs about what constitutes the ultimate reality of things. The Pope is speaking from the position of his world view; but if he were to talk as a scientist, he would not say “theistic evolution”, he would just say the “theory of evolution”. He would not say anything about God as a professional scientists when facing the public; but if he were to be asked what his philosophical or theological beliefs are, he would speak about God from the position of his personal belief, philosophically and theologically, in which case he would no-longer be speaking as a scientists. Science is not the study of the supernatural; it is the study of the natural world.The Holy See might permit some kind of theistic evolution but that is almost nowhere supported in current science today.
The Pope either accepts the scientific theory of Evolution, or he doesn’t.
This is not true. I accused him of failing to understand what science is teaching; and therefore adding to a greater deception which portrays the view that science is at war with religion, and he does this by arguing against a theory that has nothing to say about whether or not there is providence. If he was just attacking materialism, i would have nothing to say. But this is not what is happening. I have explained to him that the theory of evolution is not in principle against belief in God or materialistic, and yet he still desires to portray the theory in a light that is not true. There is no excuses. Why don’t you read Kenneth R Millers book “Finding Darwins God”.You’ve already accused him of spreading evil in his opposition to evolutionary theories condemned by the Holy See as “incompatible with the Catholic faith”.