On Thursday Cardinal Schönborn, the Roman Catholic cardinal archbishop of Vienna, wrote an op/ed in the NYT discussing the Church's views on evolution.
He concluded:
Now at the beginning of the 21st century, faced with scientific claims like neo-Darwinism and the multiverse hypothesis in cosmology invented to avoid the overwhelming evidence for purpose and design found in modern science, the Catholic Church will again defend human reason by proclaiming that the immanent design evident in nature is real. Scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as the result of "chance and necessity" are not scientific at all, but, as John Paul put it, an abdication of human intelligence.
This caused an uproar, as you might imagine. So Thursday the Cardinal was interviewed:
Cardinal Schönborn, who is on the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, said the office had no plans to issue new guidance to teachers in Catholic schools on evolution. But he said he believed students in Catholic schools, and all schools, should be taught that evolution is just one of many theories.
Does the Church not know how science uses the word "theory?" Dictionary.com's definition 1: A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
The Church seems to be defining theory in accordance with Dictionary.com's definition 6: An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture.
Enlightenment? What Enlightenment? It's not just Osama bin Laden who wants to go back to the 14th century, apparently; the Catholic Church does too.
No wonder I turned my back on organized religion when I got to college.
Posted by Linkmeister at July 9, 2005 12:01 AM | TrackBack