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The New Pope and ID

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Unlike John Paul II, who seemed to sign off on conventional evolutionary theory save for the divine infusion of souls at the origin of humanity, we can expect Benedict XVI to single out intelligent design for special favors. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Michael Behe invited to an audience with the new pope. Consider the following remarks by the new pope on evolution and the intelligence underlying living forms:

Let us go directly to the question of evolution and its mechanisms. Microbiology and biochemistry have brought revolutionary insights here… They have brought us to the awareness that an organism and a machine have many points in common… Their functioning presupposes a precisely thought-through and therefore reasonable design…

It is the affair of the natural sciences to explain how the tree of life in particular continues to grow and how new branches shoot out from it. This is not a matter for faith. But we must have the audacity to say that the great projects of the living creation are not the products of chance and error… (They) point to a creating Reason and show us a creating Intelligence, and they do so more luminously and radiantly today than ever before. Thus we can say today with a new certitude and joyousness that the human being is indeed a divine project, which only the creating Intelligence was strong and great and audacious enough to conceive of. Human beings are not a mistake but something willed.

–Jospeh Ratzinger, In the Beginning: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1986), p. 54.

I’m predicting that Bush and Benedict XVI will play much the same role in the distintegration of evolution (i.e., the ateleological materialistic form of it that currently dominates the West) as Reagan and John Paul II did in the disintegration of communism.

Comments
Victim of the Wedge? The New York Times has a full story today on Cardinal Schönborn’s op-ed: Leading Cardinal Redefines Church’s View on Evolution.  According to the story the op-ed was written with the urging of the Discovery Institute’s Mark ...The Panda's Thumb
July 14, 2005
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[...] It’s not surprising that atheists like P.Z. Meyers don’t understand faith, but the ignorance of self-proclaimed Christian scientists like William Dembski about both science an [...]The Buckingham Inquirer » Intelligent Design Tomfoolery III
April 28, 2005
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[...] It’s not surprising that atheists like P.Z. Meyers don’t understand faith, but the ignorance of self-proclaimed Christian scientists like William Dembski about both science an [...]The Buckingham Inquirer » Intelligent Design Tomfoolery III
April 28, 2005
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Why Intelligent Design is Bad William Dembski points out, indavertantly, why intelligent design (ID) is bad. I’m predicting that Bush and Benedict XVI will play much the same role in the distintegration of evolution (i.e., the ateleological materialistic form of it that cu...debunkers.org
April 21, 2005
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Leveraging the New Pope to Advance Intelligent Design Creationism Those you who read these rambles regularly know that I think PZ Myers at Pharyngula has about the best blog on the web. However, I think he may have gone a little beyond the evidence today. He has a very...Abnormal Interests
April 20, 2005
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Wishful Thinking... the term "chance" when used in a technical, mathematical sense is simply a phenomenological statement; no underlying "cause" is either implied or dismissed. Thus there is no tension between what Ratzinger says here and what John Paull II said on ev...Notes in Samsara
April 20, 2005
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More on Ratzinger and Evolution I forgot to mention that the recent (2004) International Theological Commission report "Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God" (link to the Vatican copy) was written for Ratzinger and subsequently approved for publicati...stranger fruit
April 20, 2005
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The (new) Pope and ID I was no fan of Ratzinger as a Cardinal, and have little expectations of him as Benedict XVI. However, it seems Bill Dembski thinks that Benedict will sign on the line for ID. Witness: [W]e can expect Benedict XVI to single out intelligent design for s...stranger fruit
April 19, 2005
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