A friend of mine just sent me this article which I think many here will
find interesting...
Breandán
Evolution in the bible, says Vatican
By Martin Penner
The Australian
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17162341-13762,00.html
November 07, 2005
THE Vatican has issued a stout defence of Charles Darwin, voicing strong
criticism of Christian fundamentalists who reject his theory of evolution
and interpret the biblical account of creation literally.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said
the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's
theory of evolution were "perfectly compatible" if the Bible were read
correctly.
His statement was a clear attack on creationist campaigners in the US, who
see evolution and the Genesis account as mutually exclusive.
"The fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had
no scientific aim," he said at a Vatican press conference. He said the
real message in Genesis was that "the universe didn't make itself and had
a creator".
This idea was part of theology, Cardinal Poupard emphasised, while the
precise details of how creation and the development of the species came
about belonged to a different realm - science. Cardinal Poupard said that
it was important for Catholic believers to know how science saw things so
as to "understand things better".
His statements were interpreted in Italy as a rejection of the
"intelligent design" view, which says the universe is so complex that some
higher being must have designed every detail.
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