Evolution

[johnpaul613]

Pope Benedict XVI has been involved in several conferences dealing with evolution. The most recent conference with the Pontifical University and Notre Dame University was in March. The website http://www.evolution-rome2009.net/ has a lot of information. For those who think that

Comments

Re: The Hitchens Problem

[wickedthought]

Micro-organisms that cause disease are not evil. Thunder that causes fear isn't evil. Miscarriages that cause death in children and mothers are not evil. These are basic, fundamental natural events. And for 96,000 years, God did nothing.

This isn't the problem with evil.

The Church is not against good science? Ask the Pope what's worse: condoms or AIDS. Then, you can talk about the Church and "good science."

And saying that scientific discovery came from religious people is not a good argument. In the time of Galileo, if you weren't a Catholic, you were put to death. EVERYONE was a Catholic. Was Galileo a Catholic? You bet your ass he was. If he decried the Holy Mother Church, he'd get tortured to death over decades. Da Vinci painted for the Catholic Church, but that's only because of the same reasons. Privately, he HATED the Church. Same thing with men like Copernicus and Newton. Go down the list of scientists and thinkers who were forced into being part of the Church because the punishment of not attending Sunday Mass was DEATH.

So, saying "most of the religious discoveries came from religious members of the Church" is, like I said, not a good argument and I'd advise against using it again.

But again, I ask the question: where was God during those 96,000 years when humanity was suffering from his own creation. And why didn't he advise us about something as simple as washing our hands between surgeries? Or blood types? Or how about chicken noodle soup?

96,000 years of ignorance until God decided, "Well, I'd better make an appearance!" What was he waiting for?

Answer: he wasn't waiting for anything because he doesn't exist.

Re: The Hitchens Problem

[johnpaul613]

I will simply have to say that I profoundly disagree with these personal impressions. However, a shotgun approach is not going to get us anywhere. This discussion is about the conferences which I brought up because I found them laudatory. Are you aware of the position of the Church regarding evolution? I have found Pope John Paul II and Benedict the XVI approach to this issue very interesting and helpful to the overall improved climate of interaction between these disciplines. It seems that some improvement has happened with the Church taking a careful and measured response to new intellectual ideas.