The ID Report

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Recently, a person who claimed to be a Catholic informed me that I was a liar if I didn't tell readers that the Catholic Church has fully embraced Darwinian evolution.

Ironically, I'd be a liar if I told readers that the Catholic Church HAS fully embraced Darwinian evolution, because it hasn't and I know that it hasn't. (I wouldn't be a liar if, like my correspondent, I were simply confused or mistaken.)

My correspondent is probably honestly confused, because many people have been, by inept reporting.

In October 1996, John Paul II told the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,

... some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis.* In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies—which was neither planned nor sought—constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory.

Many sources ran with this, trumpeting that the Pope supports evolution. They did NOT bother to read, consider, or report JPII's further remarks:

"There are materialist and reductionist theories, as well as spiritualist theories."

[Guess which kind the Church likes? Hint: Not the one Darwin liked.]

"The magisterium of the Church takes a direct interest in the question of evolution, because it touches on the conception of man, whom Revelation tells us is created in the image and likeness of God. The conciliar constitution Gaudium et Spes has given us a magnificent exposition of this doctrine, which is one of the essential elements of Christian thought."

[= Man is a fallen god not a risen animal.]

"Pius XII underlined the essential point: if the origin of the human body comes through living matter which existed previously, the spiritual soul is created directly by God."

[= The immortal soul really exists and is unique to humans.]

Richard Dawkins, probably the best-known Darwinist worldwide, attacked the Pope for his statement, because he realized - if others didn't - that JPII was cutting the heart out of the enterprise. No meaningful interpretation of Darwinism can survive JPII's qualifications. The whole point of Darwinism is to situate humans firmly within the animal kingdom and the whole point of JPII's statement is to jerk them out of it.

Also, "more than an hypothesis" does not mean what many have interpreted it to mean. The online document at EWTN inserts an asterisk and provides the following note:

EWTN Note on translation:
The English edition at first translated the French original as: "Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of more than one hypothesis within the theory of evolution." The L'Osservatore Romano English Edition subsequently amended the text to that given in the body of the message above, citing the translation of the other language editions as its reason. It should be noted that an hypothesis is the preliminary stage of the scientific method and the Pope's statement suggests nothing more than that science has progressed beyond that stage. This is certainly true with respect to cosmological evolution (the physical universe), whose science both Pius XII and John Paul II have praised, but not true in biology, about which the popes have generally issued cautions (as above and Humani Generis). [CBD]

There it is in black and white, folks. The popes have issued "cautions" about evolution in biology, which is Popespeak for "Darwin? Forget Darwin." (In Italian, that's Dimenticare Darwin, the Italian title of an anti-Darwin book, now in translation.)

Following that up, the current pope Benedict XVI (B16) has gone out of his way to make his dissent from Darwinism clear. I mean the only way he could be more clear would be to issue prayer cards assuring Catholics that they are not some "casual and meaningless product of evolution." Oops, he's done that, actually.

And the message seems to be getting across to people who just weren't listening before. So B16 gets mail too.

Here is an excellent overview of Catholic teachings by Fr. Martin Hilbert of the Toronto Oratory.

Also:

The hit review in the New York Times of Antony Flew's book "There IS a God" gets mail. (Also, an explanation of how Flew came to be pegged as "world's most notorious atheist" It WASN'T Marketing's fault!).

Business and social Darwinism: An uneasy mix?

Mythbusting: The Catholic Church and the Galileo myth

The Large Hadron Collider: Gateway to other universes?

Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of the forthcoming The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).