Intelligent Divine

The official Vatican newspaper published an article this week labeling as "correct" the recent decision by a judge in Pennsylvania that intelligent design should not be taught as a scientific alternative to evolution. While the article did not specifically embrace the teachings of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, its author certainly gets the point:

"If the model proposed by Darwin is not considered sufficient, one should search for another," Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, "But it is not correct from a methodological point of view to stray from the field of science while pretending to do science. It only creates confusion between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or religious."

The article emphasizes that there is no inherent inconsistency between Catholic dogma and the teaching of Darwinian evolution or a close derivative, a view that strongly suggests Catholic biology professors are not generally taught the Book of Genesis in CCD class (“And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth…” Gen. 1:21; why the great whales get special mention and the lemurs nothing is beyong me).

Still, the reconciliation of a text that traces world creation back six thousand years and a science that traces it back 4.5 billion is impressive not only for statistical reasons but also because of its tendency to allow people of science to retain faith without having their heads explode.

The Vatican stresses that the article does count as official Church doctrine, but sources inside the pope’s enclave say that His Holiness viewed a copy of the text sent to him by Pope Fax (the Holy office supplies are all covered in bullet-proof plexi-glass) and he nodded verily.

Source