[Dialogue] Pope weighs in on creation controversy

[Harry Wainwright]

Colleagues, another oar in the water. Peace, Harry 
  _____  




  MSNBC.com

Pope weighs in on creation controversy 
Intelligent-design advocates hail Benedict's criticism of 'scientific'
atheism

The Associated Press

Updated: 5:54 p.m. ET Nov. 11, 2005

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has waded into the evolution debate in the
United States, saying the universe was made by an "intelligent project" and
criticizing those who in the name of science say its creation was without
direction or order.

Benedict made the off-the-cuff comments during his general audience
Wednesday. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published the full
text of his remarks in its Thursday editions.

Benedict focused his reflections for the audience on scriptural readings
that said God's love was seen in the "marvels of creation."

He quoted St. Basil the Great, a 4th-century saint, as saying some people,
"fooled by the atheism that they carry inside of them, imagine a universe
free of direction and order, as if at the mercy of chance."

"How many of these people are there today? These people, 'fooled by
atheism,' believe and try to demonstrate that it's scientific to think that
everything is free of direction and order," Benedict said.

"With the sacred Scripture, the Lord awakens the reason that sleeps and
tells us: In the beginning, there was the creative word. In the beginning,
the creative word - this word that created everything and created this
intelligent project that is the cosmos - is also love."

His comments were immediately hailed by advocates of intelligent design, who
hold that the universe is so complex it must have been created by a higher
power. Proponents of the concept are seeking to get public schools in the
United States to teach it as part of the science curriculum.

Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism - a literal reading of
the Bible's story of creation - camouflaged in scientific language and does
not belong in science curriculum.

Questions about the Vatican's position on evolution were raised in July by
Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.

In a New York Times op-ed piece, Schoenborn seemed to back intelligent
design and dismissed a 1996 statement by Pope John Paul II that evolution
was "more than just a hypothesis." Schoenborn said the late pope's statement
was "rather vague and unimportant."

But in a lecture published last <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9589656/>
month, Schoenborn paid tribute to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and
said the controversy over his remarks arose from a "misunderstanding."

Schoenborn attended Wednesday's audience. He was seated on the dais behind
Benedict in St. Peter's Square, along with other Austrian bishops making a
regularly scheduled visit to the Vatican.

C 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

C 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10007382/

 

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