Vatican Agrees with Darwin

[ParkourMcGhee]

Lets have see a religious war now fought between Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox... I've been waiting for a new religious blood bath, the old "alalalalallah *BOOM*" thing kinda got old. Another benefit to this is that we unbelievers will make up a higher percentage of the population and so as we evolved the concept of religion so it will disappear from our genes like the hair and so many other things we don't need anymore.

 

[Jenny Creed]

They're really just accepting the fact that other people may be allowed to believe other things than they do. It doesn't mean changing what you yourself believe. I call it growing up and learning to respect other human beings.

 

[hem dazon 90]

umm people


THEY NEVER SAID EVOLUTION WAS FAKE!!!!!!! I swear atheists can really misinterpret well

 

[Lord George]

Hehe I've now lost the slightest respect I may have had for the Church, I mean even if your completely wrong about something you should never admit it, at least if they stuck to their beliefs I'd have respect for them, though I'll not give them more creditability.

 

[Jenny Creed]

Hehe I've now lost the slightest respect I may have had for the Church, I mean even if your completely wrong about something you should never admit it, at least if they stuck to their beliefs I'd have respect for them, though I'll not give them more creditability.

So if, say, you happened to believe in Santa Claus and then figured things out, you'd not be able to admit that you were wrong without losing respect for yourself?

Standing up for your mistakes and working to fix them is called learning. Standing by your word because you're too proud to admit, or understand, that you can do wrong is called stupidity. Please do explain why the latter would be more worthy of respect.

 

[Kevvers]

He's just realised that over time its only going to become more and more apparent that we are evolved from apes, so he's cautiously laying the groundwork so in the future the next Pope can say "Ahhh, but you see we knew all along". They have learnt from the whole Galileo debacle. The real question is if evolution is true, what's eating apples and original sin all about? It's a pretty big part of the theology, but its sort of undermined by evolution because that implies we didn't gain consciousness and the ability to make moral judgement overnight, but as part of a gradual process.

 

[Caimekaze]

umm people


THEY NEVER SAID EVOLUTION WAS FAKE!!!!!!! I swear atheists can really misinterpret well

Well, that was a pleasant addition to this discussion. Caps lock and everything!

The catholic church denounced Darwin when he brought up his theory of evolution, and declared him a heretic. I'm fairly sure that's saying that evolution did not comply with their belief system.

 

[Lord George]

Hehe I've now lost the slightest respect I may have had for the Church, I mean even if your completely wrong about something you should never admit it, at least if they stuck to their beliefs I'd have respect for them, though I'll not give them more creditability.

So if, say, you happened to believe in Santa Claus and then figured things out, you'd not be able to admit that you were wrong without losing respect for yourself?

Standing up for your mistakes and working to fix them is called learning. Standing by your word because you're too proud to admit, or understand, that you can do wrong is called stupidity. Please do explain why the latter would be more worthy of respect.

With no proof to deny the existence of a fat man who rides around on a sledge, I'm not going to admit that he doesn't exist. If you have principles its better to stand by them, then just turn into a spineless organisation who bends over backwards for whatever view is popular.

 

[Jenny Creed]

He's just realised that over time its only going to become more and more apparent that we are evolved from apes, so he's cautiously laying the groundwork so in the future the next Pope can say "Ahhh, but you see we knew all along". They have learnt from the whole Galileo debacle. The real question is if evolution is true, what's eating apples and original sin all about? It's a pretty big part of the theology, but its sort of undermined by evolution because that implies we didn't gain consciousness and the ability to make moral judgement overnight, but as part of a gradual process.

I don't know, the story isn't very specific about timeframe to my knowledge. We eat the fruit of knowledge, alright, it's an allegory for the rise of language and abstract thought and imagination, and in realizing the difference between the way things are and how they could be we're separated from blissful paradise, or thrown out of it as the story puts it. All this may take several hundred years, but then Adam and Eve live several hundred years, so what's the difference?

It would be interesting to know when the story was first told. It could be four or six thousand years ago. If we look at the Illiad, we know that was written circa 1000 BC, even then they had no terminology to describe the concept of consciousness. The minds of the people around the time of Adam and Eve worked in very strange ways compared to ours; it shouldn't be all that surprising that the story has surrealistic elements in it, I mean, these people were still dealing with the shock of being able to imagine things.

If you have principles its better to stand by them, then just turn into a spineless organisation who bends over backwards for whatever view is popular.

I'll just stand over here and be grateful that you're not running any of the world's most influential organizations.

The catholic church denounced Darwin when he brought up his theory of evolution, and declared him a heretic. I'm fairly sure that's saying that evolution did not comply with their belief system.

You know, they declared Galileo a heretic too when he said the Earth was not the center of the universe. But they've apologized for that, lately.

It's like any kindergarten teacher will tell you: You should never mock someone for trying to learn.

 

[guardian001]

umm people


THEY NEVER SAID EVOLUTION WAS FAKE!!!!!!! I swear atheists can really misinterpret well

I'd just like to point out that I said that in the original post, as did the article.

And I do like the fact that the vatican is taking steps to bring themselves into this century. Still, I don't think this will catch on with the people who belive in the literal creation story, whether or not the Vatican approves of evolution.

 

[WeedWorm]

Suck it Catholics jk jk

Seriously though, the Vatican is fairly slow on the uptake to do with... anything really. It took them how long to forgive John Lennon? 30 years? And it was posthumous too. How long did it take them admit that Galileo was right? 350 or so years?

 

[sheic99]

I guess that also means they denounced that the Earth began on October 23, 4004 BC at 9:00 am.

 

[Redlac]

Hmm, how interesting. Not quite sure what to make of this myself. I'm Protestant, but a decision like this won't just affect the Catholics. It doesn't really bother me anyway. My personal view is that God could have plonked us on this rock any old way. I believe in a God that can do anything after all. If it was via evolution, fine. If he just spoke, fine. His creation, his rules.

As for the question of Original Sin and Eden, this does mean the asking a lot of new and interesting questions, some of which I've asked myself.

 

[sheic99]

umm people


THEY NEVER SAID EVOLUTION WAS FAKE!!!!!!! I swear atheists can really misinterpret well

Well, that shows how much you paid attention in history.

For the record, Darwin was a Christian until the day he died.

 

[Crudler]

The new pope seems to be a cunning politician.

Well that's only because he looks so much like Emperor Palpatine, chances are that he may actually be the Emperor.

But really though, I'm not really sure how to see this news. I'm not religious but it seems to me that they're accepting something else but I always saw Catholicism to be quite strict in its beliefs, seems just like they're conforming for want of a better word.

We need Luke Skywalker here to fix this mess it would seem.

Well, I expect that one his cardinals looks like Vader too then. Someone needs to throw him down that huge pit we all know they have in the Vatican.

 

[Gladion]

Lets have see a religious war now fought between Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox... I've been waiting for a new religious blood bath, the old "alalalalallah *BOOM*" thing kinda got old. Another benefit to this is that we unbelievers will make up a higher percentage of the population and so as we evolved the concept of religion so it will disappear from our genes like the hair and so many other things we don't need anymore.

You obviously don't need your sexual organs any more, too.
Also, you're the first person I meet to truly deserve several limbs being cut off as a result of a bomb. It might not be old any more then.

With no proof to deny the existence of a fat man who rides around on a sledge, I'm not going to admit that he doesn't exist. If you have principles its better to stand by them, then just turn into a spineless organisation who bends over backwards for whatever view is popular.

Here's your proof: it's physically impossible for one single man to fly around at christmas eve bringing presents to every goddamn person on the planet. (I hope you weren't serious about that one).
Anyways, why not change your opinion? It's not like the church was persuaded easily, were they? Also, this view is most definetly not very popular amongst its greatest supporters, so your point doesn't make any sense at all. I know what you're trying to say, but that's not the case here. Your point only makes sense when it comes down to opinions, but we're talking about facts here. Why deny facts? Just because you did before?


I'm no religios person, in fact, I'm undenominational, but I have to defend religion in general here. I always hear about how religious people are intolerant, but I have to say the enemies of religion are as intolerant as well, if not even more. At least (in this case) the pope can accept some scientific facts, while his enemies aren't satisfied until religion is wiped off the face of the earth. That's just bullshit.
Also, anyone who believes there would be any less war on our planet if there was no religion in the first place is pretty damn naive.

 

[Dread_Reaper]

umm people


THEY NEVER SAID EVOLUTION WAS FAKE!!!!!!! I swear atheists can really misinterpret well

What a meathead. The Church publicly denounced Darwin and declared him and his work heretical. But hey, why bother doing research and knowing what the hell you're talking about when you can just use CAPS LOCK to get your point across?

That being said, I couldn't give a rat's ass about what the Church is doing. Instead of just admitting that they are a cult of fanatics worshiping make believe beings, they simply tried to indirectly ally with the winning team. There is no accountability with their actions, they basically just tried to dodge the inevitable bullet a little bit longer.

On the other hand, the fact that they are actually agreeing with, you know, FACTS, might lead some of their followers down a path of enlightenment that could eventually lead them to cast off their chains of superstition.

-Dread_Reaper

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Hehe I've now lost the slightest respect I may have had for the Church, I mean even if your completely wrong about something you should never admit it, at least if they stuck to their beliefs I'd have respect for them, though I'll not give them more creditability.

So if, say, you happened to believe in Santa Claus and then figured things out, you'd not be able to admit that you were wrong without losing respect for yourself?

Standing up for your mistakes and working to fix them is called learning. Standing by your word because you're too proud to admit, or understand, that you can do wrong is called stupidity. Please do explain why the latter would be more worthy of respect.

With no proof to deny the existence of a fat man who rides around on a sledge, I'm not going to admit that he doesn't exist. If you have principles its better to stand by them, then just turn into a spineless organisation who bends over backwards for whatever view is popular.

Is that why scientists still think the earth is flat and that the speed of light is constant and that DDT is completely safe and that malaria is caught from breathing in bad air and that women have inferior brains to men?

 

[ModDom]

Uh.. the Catholic Church has accepted evolution for a while now, nothing new.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, although at times Darwin believed that the world was too cruel for there to be a God, he didn't doubt the existence of Him (or Her, whatever you want to call it). So yeah, old news for me, but I wasn't aware the Vatican only just publicly announced its acceptance. And yes, some atheists can over-do things and really make a fool of themselves by just declaring the Church wrong, when there is no proof for or against a God, therefore I respect all the atheists who actually take some time to just consider other views for a moment. I don't know, some atheists just seem to hate all Christians for some reason.

 

[Specter_]

Though does this mean I have to stop using the "Fossils were put in place by the devil to test your faith" punchline to rest?

No, I'm pretty sure enough hardcore-christians will denounce Ravasi as a heretic, so we shall not fear the lose of glee taken from pissing on fanatics parades.