Vatican: Faithful should listen to science
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Vatican: Faithful should listen to science
Vatican: Faithful should listen to science
By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help end the "mutual prejudice" between religion and science that has long bedeviled the Roman Catholic Church and is part of the evolution debate in the United States.
The Vatican project was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1992 declaration that the church's 17th-century denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." Galileo was condemned for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.
"The permanent lesson that the Galileo case represents pushes us to keep alive the dialogue between the various disciplines, and in particular between theology and the natural sciences, if we want to prevent similar episodes from repeating themselves in the future," Poupard said.
But he said science, too, should listen to religion.
"We know where scientific reason can end up by itself: the atomic bomb and the possibility of cloning human beings are fruit of a reason that wants to free itself from every ethical or religious link," he said.
"But we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism," he said.
"The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity."
Poupard and others at the news conference were asked about the religion-science debate raging in the United States over evolution and "intelligent design."
Intelligent design's supporters argue that natural selection, an element of evolutionary theory, cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms.
Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul's 1996 statement that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."
"A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said. "(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."
He was asked about comments made in July by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who dismissed in a New York Times article the 1996 statement by John Paul as "rather vague and unimportant" and seemed to back intelligent design.
Basti concurred that John Paul's 1996 letter "is not a very clear expression from a definition point of view," but he said evolution was assuming ever more authority as scientific proof develops.
Poupard, for his part, stressed that what was important was that "the universe wasn't made by itself, but has a creator." But he added, "It's important for the faithful to know how science views things to understand better."
The Vatican project STOQ has organized academic courses and conferences on the relationship between science and religion and is hosting its first international conference on "the infinity in science, philosophy and theology," next week.
________________________________________________________________________
On the Net: Vatican project STOQ: http://www.stoqnet.org
________________________________________________________________________
It's seems like a logical step in the right direction to me.
By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help end the "mutual prejudice" between religion and science that has long bedeviled the Roman Catholic Church and is part of the evolution debate in the United States.
The Vatican project was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1992 declaration that the church's 17th-century denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." Galileo was condemned for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.
"The permanent lesson that the Galileo case represents pushes us to keep alive the dialogue between the various disciplines, and in particular between theology and the natural sciences, if we want to prevent similar episodes from repeating themselves in the future," Poupard said.
But he said science, too, should listen to religion.
"We know where scientific reason can end up by itself: the atomic bomb and the possibility of cloning human beings are fruit of a reason that wants to free itself from every ethical or religious link," he said.
"But we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism," he said.
"The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity."
Poupard and others at the news conference were asked about the religion-science debate raging in the United States over evolution and "intelligent design."
Intelligent design's supporters argue that natural selection, an element of evolutionary theory, cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms.
Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul's 1996 statement that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."
"A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said. "(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."
He was asked about comments made in July by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who dismissed in a New York Times article the 1996 statement by John Paul as "rather vague and unimportant" and seemed to back intelligent design.
Basti concurred that John Paul's 1996 letter "is not a very clear expression from a definition point of view," but he said evolution was assuming ever more authority as scientific proof develops.
Poupard, for his part, stressed that what was important was that "the universe wasn't made by itself, but has a creator." But he added, "It's important for the faithful to know how science views things to understand better."
The Vatican project STOQ has organized academic courses and conferences on the relationship between science and religion and is hosting its first international conference on "the infinity in science, philosophy and theology," next week.
________________________________________________________________________
On the Net: Vatican project STOQ: http://www.stoqnet.org
________________________________________________________________________

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It's seems like a logical step in the right direction to me.
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Originally Posted by Tommy Ceez
JPII had the same opinion
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Originally Posted by Rockmjd23
Pretty much. Catholics aren't really on the front lines of the creationist debate.
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Originally Posted by Numanoid
That's cool. In my opinion, science is just our way of figuring out God's processes. In my world, they go hand-in-hand.
Chris
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Originally Posted by Numanoid
That's cool. In my opinion, science is just our way of figuring out God's processes. In my world, they go hand-in-hand.

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Originally Posted by mrpayroll
Unless scientists totally disavow any possibility that there is a God! And there are many of them (the majority?) that don't believe in a 'god', because it is not fact.
Chris
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Originally Posted by mrpayroll
Unless scientists totally disavow any possibility that there is a God! And there are many of them (the majority?) that don't believe in a 'god', because it is not fact.
Chris
Chris
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Originally Posted by mrpayroll
Unless scientists totally disavow any possibility that there is a God! And there are many of them (the majority?) that don't believe in a 'god', because it is not fact.
Chris
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Well my point was, the religious folks (Catholics) are giving the dog (scientists) a bone, so now it is time for the scientific folks to acknowledge that it is possible that all of this 'science' crap could be God's creation! 
Chris

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#13
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Originally Posted by Rockmjd23
Pretty much. Catholics aren't really on the front lines of the creationist debate.
Like Michael Behe.

Good for the Vatican. I don't know how much real sway they have anymore, but nice to have them say something about it.
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This is nothing new. I went to Catholic high school and university, and evolution was the order of the day in the science classroom. Religion was taught seperately.
There are Catholic creationists, but not a lot.
There are Catholic creationists, but not a lot.
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Originally Posted by Groucho
This is nothing new. I went to Catholic high school and university, and evolution was the order of the day in the science classroom. Religion was taught seperately.
There are Catholic creationists, but not a lot.
There are Catholic creationists, but not a lot.
What?

Your parents should get their money back!
Chris
#19
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Good for the Vatican.
#20
What Paul Poupard really meant to say was:
"Hey everyone. We should listen to science, but you science people need to listen to us more."
"Hey everyone. We should listen to science, but you science people need to listen to us more."
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I have yet to see any scientific research that has disproven anything about Christianity and I have yet to see anything from the Bible or Christian theology that conflicts with science. Everything in the Bible is not literal and normative. Much of the conflict between science and Christianity is because there is too much ignorance about both.
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Originally Posted by DVD Polizei
What Paul Poupard really meant to say was:
"Hey everyone. We should listen to science, but you science people need to listen to us more."
"Hey everyone. We should listen to science, but you science people need to listen to us more."
Chris
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Originally Posted by Baron Of Hell
Religion without science is blind. Science without religion is lame.
So you don't think the age of the world is in conflict between science and religion?
So you don't think the age of the world is in conflict between science and religion?
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Originally Posted by gracie
Not unless you believe that creation took place in a literal 7 days...
Uhhhh, actually it was 6 days. The Big Guy was pretty tired and took the 7th day off!
Chris