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[Sylver]

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[Kit H. Ruppell]

Maybe they'll start thinking about treating other species less like shit....nah, not likely.

 

[Kaedal]

I think it's an interesting, and rather curious, move. I can't say what has prompted it, but they probably got a good PR department hired. They know they need to work on building up a reputation, so they need to make concessions. Politics, essentially.

Note: I know topics tend to derail after 1-2 pages on FA, and I expect that if this thread gets enough attention then it will, I just hope that it derails onto something that's not a religious argument...

I predict it will turn into a discussion about Asian silks.

 

[Lomberdia]

Cant say i care too much. Im just indifferent.

 

[Phyllostachys]

Leaving aside the silliness of insisting that presence of an omnipotent being is necessary for natural phenomena, wasn't that the position the Catholic Church held even before this? And I doubt that what pope says on this matter would have much influence on Protestants, to which most of creationism-teaching fundamentalists belong.

And while their stance on other matters, such as homosexuality, might follow this trend of appeasement, I am sure there still would be limits that they will not cross.

 

[jtrekkie]

Yeah they already accepted evolution, that isn't new.

 

[KyryK]

Fun fact: Some Christians think Catholicism is a satanic cult and the pope's apparent acceptance of evolution will surely add fuel to that fire. If i remember correctly when the new pope was being chosen they said that it was prophesied that the current pope (the 533rd if i remember correctly) would bring ruin to the Catholic church so this is going to play into the fears of mad Catholics as well (what fun :twisted. As for homosexuality being a sin i fail to see how an acceptance of evolution will change religious dogma regarding that. Also as far as i'm aware YECs are an evangelical phenomenon so nothing the Catholic church believes will change their view of a 6000 year old earth (citation definitely needed for that last sentence).

EDIT: Oh it seems that the Vatican already accepted evolution before this...well...ignore this entire post.

 

[KyryK]

Sorry I should have clarified, I meant that the acceptance of Big Bang theory may have positive effects on their view of homosexuality, because once they prove that homosexuality is genetic and not a choice (I don't know if this is even true or not) then that would mean their God created them that way... I think... then again that's really easy to put a spin on. Anyway, I do hope that it would help somewhat.

I didn't know that the theory of evolution was already accepted, I guess that's what I get for reading unreliable biased shit off the internet. At least they got the acceptance of the Big Bang theory by the pope correct.

It wouldn't do anything to change the idea that homosexuality is a sin though, it would just make the Abrahamic God seem like a bastard that programmed people to be sinners and would likely lead to a more widespread acceptance of the Calvinist theology.

 

[Lobar]

Yeah, for all the Catholic Church's faults, continuing denial of evolution wasn't one of them.

 

[Llamapotamus]

Yeah, there's nothing really earth-shattering here. Christians can accept both theories and still retain their faith, and I'd like to think most have. I guess it's cool that the Pope made such a public declaration of it, though.

 

[PastryOfApathy]

Even if it's not revolutionary or new, it lends credence to my theory that Pope Francis is a really cool guy.

 

[Ayattar]

Art I
Art II

Context I
Context II

Ergo, nothing new.

 

[Fallowfox]

Yeah, for all the Catholic Church's faults, continuing denial of evolution wasn't one of them.

I was involved in a palaeontological teaching exercise for students from a Catholic school, and received complaints because the way I and my colleagues were teaching them to classify fossils implied man was also an animal, who had evolved too.

We didn't even mention the word 'evolution'- we asked them to make a cladogram of invertebrate marine fossils, and then asked them where they would place humans- and all other vertebrates- on their cladogram.

 

[Lobar]

I was involved in a palaeontological teaching exercise for students from a Catholic school, and received complaints because the way I and my colleagues were teaching them to classify fossils implied man was also an animal, who had evolved too.

We didn't even mention the word 'evolution'- we asked them to make a cladogram of invertebrate marine fossils, and then asked them where they would place humans- and all other vertebrates- on their cladogram.

I suppose I should have included "with certain caveats". I don't think that human exception from evolution is explicitly part of the Catechism, but it is in "open to your interpretation" territory that some local bishop may have taken license to enforce a more conservative view from. But the usual problems of "God-guided evolution" and such are definitely present.