31 - 40 of 47 Comments

1. Bulbajer

   2 years ago

   Chad, I don't think the Church rejects creationism; I think it has declared that both evolution and the traditional creationist beliefs are compatable with Catholicism. I'm not a creationist, but I respect their beliefs, because it doesn't really matter to Christian theology whether our world evolved or was literally created.

2. Mike McCants

   2 years ago

   "the scientific debate over the theory is one which, due to lack of empirical evidence, shows little if any signs of subsiding."
   
   That is a lie. The scientific evidence is overwhelming. That creationists dispute it is simply disgusting.
   
   "John Bonner, a biologist at Princeton, writes that ..."
   
   The opinions of any one person like you or him or the Pope are irrelevant.
   
   "posit that the availability of "living space" rather than competition for survival"
   
   Completely irrelevant. The Theory of Evolution is true in either case.
   
   "In a culture which often attempts to stamp out God's revealed truth ..."
   
   There is no such thing as "revealed truth" - that's simply irrational nonsense.
   
   "are in complete disagreement over man's ancestry"
   
   Hilarious nonsense. Perhaps they disagree on the exact sequence of ancestors. But they do not disagree that human evolution is true. You are attempting mere religiously-motivated sophistry.

3. F. K. Bartels

   2 years ago

   Mike: You wrote that Pius XII "didn't want the general population talking about it [his encyclical], only qualified experts." We have to be mindful of what an encyclical is: it is a pastoral letter intended to be read by all the clergy, religious, faithful, and even the whole world. Popes do not write encyclicals with the intention of preventing the faithful from reading and discussing the content contained within them. As to your comment that "It is not clear from this article even to what extent the Church's infallible teaching about revelation extends, and where it ends," explaining the subjects of infallibility, God's revelation, Church dogma, the Magisterium, etc., is beyond the scope of this article.

4. F. K. Bartels

   2 years ago

   Bulbajer: The theory of polygenism does indeed conflict with the dogma of Original Sin. Remember, original sin was passed on to all of Adam and Eve's descendants -- to all men. If, as polygenism implies, humankind did not descend from two first parents, but from a "pool" of humanoid ancestors, then all men could not have inherited original sin from Adam due to the fact that some men would trace their ancestry to a parent other than Adam. For further study of what Pius XII had to say, read Humani Generis.

5. Simon

   2 years ago

   You say in this article that "John Bonner, a biologist at Princeton, writes that traditional textbook discussions of ancestral descent are "a festering mass of unsupported assertions"."
   
   Would it be possible for you to provide further information as to where and in what context he wrote this please?

6. Augustus Carp

   2 years ago

   "Sarda Sahney and colleagues posit that the availability of "living space" rather than competition for survival -- as Darwin proposed -- is the governing factor behind the evolution of species."
   
   Isn't searching for "living space" covered under competition anyway? Surely "living space" is somewhere where an organism can obtain sufficient food and shelter to reproduce successfully.
   
   I'm not sure how far up the academic food chain Sarda Sahney is, but I have just done a search through "Web of Science", which is bang up to date with information on peer-reviewed scientific literature, and I drew a complete blank. Ho-hum!

7. MarkNS

   2 years ago

   Why do theists constantly warp and twist the evidence in a vain attempt to fit it to their pet god theory?
   There is not one shred of evidence for the christian or any other religion. The god hypothesis is not needed to fit to the known facts.
   Oh, and theology is not a science.

8. Chad

   2 years ago

   Wow, this article is absolute anti-science rubbish, I thought the catholic church rejected creationism? ( which would include the bad references to scientific articles, poorly worded quote mines, and ridiculous appeals to ignorance )

9. Pisaac

   2 years ago

   I am with RickK - prove your statement
   
   One of the earliest efforts to express support for evolution by scientists was organized by Nobel Prize winner German biologist Hermann J. Muller in 1966. Muller circulated a petition entitled: "Is Biological Evolution a Principle of Nature that has been well established by Science?", in May 1966. Bonner signed this manifesto, along with 176 other leading American biologists, including several Nobel Prize winners

10. RickK

    2 years ago

    Mr. Bartels, you use the "festering mass" quote by Bonner twice in your article. Can you please cite the origin of the quote - not the website link where somebody else quoted it, but the actual original source? And can you please show the context of the quote - what came before and after the quote?
    

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