Evolution dispute now set to split Catholic hierarchy

[LiviaOlivia]

Evolution dispute now set to split Catholic hierarchy
By Michael McCarthy
Published: 05 August 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article303775.ece

~snip~

In an article entitled "Finding Design in Nature" in The New York Times last month, Cardinal Shönborn reignited the row between the Church and science by frankly denying that "neo-Darwinian dogma" was compatible with Christian faith. He wrote: "Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo- Darwinian sense - an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection - is not."

~snip~

In an article with explosive implications for the Church, Father George Coyne, an American Jesuit priest who is a distinguished astronomy professor, attacks head-on the views of Cardinal Christoph Shönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna and a long-standing associate of Joseph Ratzinger, the German cardinal who was elected as Pope Benedict XVI in April.

~snip~

In The Tablet he says that Cardinal Shönborn's article has "darkened the waters" of the rapport between Church and science, and says - flatly contradicting the cardinal - that even a world in which "life... has evolved through a process of random genetic mutations and natural selection" is compatible with "God's dominion".

For a Vatican official of such seniority openly to attack the views of a cardinal on such a potentially explosive subject as evolution is unprecedented. It also reveals a deep rift at the heart of the Catholic Church's thinking. It is known that Fr Coyne wrote privately to both Cardinal Shönborn and the Pope himself protesting against The New York Times article soon after it was published last month. But it is understood that so many scientists, especially Catholic scientists, have since contacted him to express their disquiet, that he felt he had to go public. He is believed to have cleared the article with his Jesuit superiors.

~snip~

[DBoon]

1. If they don't like random forces guiding natural processes

They will have even bigger problems with quantum mechanics.

Try designing a transistor with intelligent design instead, see if it works.

[sui generis]

2. isn't that funny about the Jesuits

I've heard many anecdotes about Jesuits being very practical about science -

Well, the catholic church in general is in for a bumpy ride until it learns to better resolve reality with faith. They're losing their conservative catholic base in Europe to a younger generation that takes them with a bucket of salt, and so have to look farther afield to poor countries (and parts of the U.S.) where conservatism is the social norm, rather than adapt and survive where they are.

They're kind of like a hunter/gatherer - instead of planting for the future they just try to expand their territory, and we know how well hunter/gatherers did historically. Ah, but that's science.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Headline seems overly dramatic to me.

Some people are always looking for the Catholic Church to split, be "in crisis," etc.