Pope says evolution doesn't mean there's no God

Finally some common sense from religion. If only the American Evangelical Lunatics could get on board with some science.

You CAN believe in GOD and EVOLUTION at the same time! Yes!

This Pope is making some pretty outlandish claims about God, and I suspect that he might be assassinated by the far right wing fringes of the Church pretty soon.

The religious right won't stand for a Pope that brings the Church into the thinking of the 21st Century for very long.

Just to toss something out there... but what if there is a grand papal plan that each pope is following. The last two popes gave in more and more towards science and it seems it has progressed to this.

What if... maybe, these popes have access to information no one else in the world does. You have to remember they virtually ran the world for 1000 years. What did they gather and sequester into their basement during this time?

What if... maybe its actually the catholic church that has been the only entity to speak to aliens??

What if... this is a gradual progression to lessen the shock of inevitable alien acknowledgment and integration and a way to keep the catholic religion from folding because they are able to explain both aliens and religion?

Just some thoughts I figured I would bounce out from no where.

originally posted by: ArmyOfNobunaga
What if... maybe, these popes have access to information no one else in the world does.

They're simply playing catch up with the last century of discovery. They understand that to deny the reality of scientific discoveries only makes them look ignorant and backwards. Christianity is for the first time experiencing an increasing drop off in new subscribers. Alienating 21st century people any further with crazy claims that deny reality is not good for introducing and retaining new members.

I never understood religious rejection of science, I never will either. I grew up in Christianity and I remember being around 5 and watching PBS nature shows and looking at monkeys/apes and just knowing we were related somehow, but in Sunday School I was taught humans came from Adam and Eve which made sense to me because I came from my mom and dad... but I'd seen kids with down syndrome and other disabilities so in my young mind I figured monkeys came from Adam and Eve too and something had gone wrong... but my Sunday School teacher got mad when I asked lol. Fast forward some years and I realized that all creation stories are just metaphors and that we evolved from apes, are in fact apes but still being Christian at the time I figured it was all Gods plan. The Bible says we are created in Gods image but I look at a human fetus and I see a chicken, couldn't our Ape past have been a fetal stage?

Why do we assume, regardless of what religion we are, that we concretely know anything a God thinks, feels or plans? That's pure ego and tribalism based on nothing but ancient human words.

Simultaneous belief in a God and acknowledgement of science is so easily possible. I think too many of us are more monkey than homo sapiens to get it though.

a reply to: boymonkey74

Pope Francis, in the tradition of his namesake of Assisi, is a brilliant tactician. How to create more Catholics?
That is his quest. The 21st century will not bow to the will of tradition, and this Pope consigns John Paul II (and Benedict) to the past.

a reply to: Sabiduria

The line of thinking that the pope has been on is the same line of thinking that led me away from religion to become agnostic. The pope is becoming agnostic.

I was taught this in Catholic school 30 years ago. The Bible I was given at school made it very clear the creation stories were myths and the second creation story was written before the first one in Genesis.

I moved to a small fundamentalist town in my early twenties and wow was I baffled when I realised they took the Bible literally when I had been taught by a priest that it was not to be taken literally.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I have read more than most on the subject. I completely understand all scientific evidence when it comes to Big bang, Origins, and Evolution.

I could argue for the above far better than anyone I have ever spoken to about evolution. I completely understand the THEORY, their is nothing lacking in my mind.

Science is about scientific method, if speciation could be proven by scientific method the debate would be over. But they have to prove it first, otherwise it's still science fantasy.

Darwin's Theory of Evolution has single handedly destroyed scientific method. When it comes to evolution man says "I think it therefore it is", sounds like a god complex.

Like I said you are free to believe, have faith in what has not been proven, but when I use the word science I expect it to be backed by scientific method, not one man's imagination.

a reply to: sacgamer25

Allah will destroy them during the night and will let the mountain (faulse religion) fall on them, and He will transform the rest of them into MONKEYS AND PIGS (evolution) and they will remain (natural, unspiritual) so till the Day of Resurrection."

:-)

originally posted by: amazing
Finally some common sense from religion. If only the American Evangelical Lunatics could get on board with some science.

You CAN believe in GOD and EVOLUTION at the same time! Yes!

Yes you can believe in both, and Evolution could even prove to be compatible with every religious text, but why have faith in two things?

Why can't we have God and WAIT for science to prove their claims before I am expected to believe in it.

We don't need the theory of evolution, unless someday we prove speciation. We need the theory of speciation. You can only take one step at a time.

And like I said, I let science teach me what it can prove, and I let God fill in the blanks. I don't really care how we got hear, It's only the WHY that has any real meaning.

If everyone could understand that I have no concern for the How, then maybe everyone would understand that it doesn't matter. What matters most is scientific integrity. Science and faith are compatible but they don't mix well.

a reply to: sacgamer25

And like I said, I let science teach me what it can prove, and I let God fill in the blanks. I don't really care how we got hear, It's only the WHY that has any real meaning.

which is why gods role in evolution currently is nothing more or less than to fill in the gaps.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: Sabiduria

I'll start by saying I'm an Empirical Agnostic.

The same thing will happen with evolution and life's origins, when we can finally determine how life began, god will no longer be able to be used to explain how life started. You can kind of already make this argument in reference to evolution, since evolution's process is so haphazard that it makes little sense that it was directly influenced by an intelligent designer. For instance, if evolution is a directed process, why hasn't it been directed for humans to lose their wisdom teeth yet? We clearly don't need them anymore, and they create more problems than solve. Yet there they are waiting for our mid-twenties so we can overpay some dentist to remove them.

You are assuming that evolution is a directed process. I said that I think it is the natural process that happens, the animal/insect/fish/etc evolves due to the natural changes in the environment not because God is directing it.

It's funny how Creationists argue "there is no evolutionary changes happening right now, therefore evolution doesn't exist" and Evolutionists argue "If evolution is a directed process, why hasn't it been directed for humans to lose their wisdom teeth yet?" Both are arguing about a change that isn't happening at the moment, therefore the other thing doesn't exist. Evolutionists know changes don't happen right away and creationists assume changes are happening all the time.

As you should be able to see, the god of the gaps idea is flawed because it assumes that no new scientific knowledge can be gained on a subject that has been turned over to the domain of god. Yet this concept has been proven wrong throughout history so many times that it's a wonder that this idea can still be used.

Yes it makes sense for there to a gap in an understanding of something so God is used to explain it. I don't know if that is what the Pope is saying though, that God only exists because of certain things we do not exist.

((Sorry, I'm still reading up on it and having a bit of a hard time with it because I'm having problems focusing. I just kept my response simple))

a reply to: Sabiduria

This from the same man that said that we shouldn't have a personal relationship with Christ. I care less than a rat's backside what the pope (with a little p) says about anything at all.

a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

We know what happens genetically with incest so how could one guy and two girls populate the world? There is a major flaw right there.

a reply to: sacgamer25

I'm an Empirical Agnostic so I believe in both Evolution and the possibility of their being a higher being that created everything and set it in motion.

Interesting what the Quaran has to say about it. That's just one theory though.

originally posted by: Sabiduria
a reply to: ignorant_ape God of gaps?

God of the Gaps refers to using God as the explanation for anything science hasn't been able to explain.

originally posted by: Sabiduria
a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

We know what happens genetically with incest so how could one guy and two girls populate the world? There is a major flaw right there.

If you had to actually explain this to someone.... I suggest you walk away.

jimo

originally posted by: TheProphetMark

originally posted by: TzarChasm

originally posted by: TheProphetMark
Even God is always evolving.

Think about.

First is was an eye for an eye,
Then it's turn the other cheek.

god cant evolve because hes eternal.

I thought someone might said that.

But then Jesus Christ came,
He experienced what it was like to be human and realized being human was no easy task when it comes to living up to his Father's expectations.

Hence, 'Father forgive them for they do not know what they do'

That is why Jesus Christ is our salvation.

So yes as above, it is below even God is always evolving.

And God is not eternal, eternal implies without beginning and end. Even God eventually dies, and when God dies, we die with him.

Hence,

I am the Alpaha and the Omega, the beginning and the end

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there's not an iota of contemporaneous documentation (ie. historical evidence) proving that Jesus ever lived. He's a storybook character.

a reply to: pirhanna

What I said in the OP is:

I have always believed that God set everything in motion and that evolution is the natural process that took place.

The important thing to remember is that evolutionary theory is a scientific theory about how life has developed — this means that it begins with the premise that life already exists. It makes no claims as to how that life got here. It could have developed naturally through abiogenesis. It could have been started by a higher power, by aliens, by the universe (the Universe would be a sentient being that wants to act out every single possible thing and that's what we are doing) Whatever the explanation, evolutionary explanations begin to apply once life appears and begins to reproduce.