As the Intelligent Design argument is pushed by Fundamentalist churches, the Vatican
steps safely back from the brink.
VATICAN CITY - A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help end the "mutual prejudice" between religion and science that has long bedeviled the Roman Catholic Church and is part of the evolution debate in the United States.
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Poupard and others at the news conference were asked about the religion-science debate raging in the United States over evolution and "intelligent design."
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Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul's 1996 statement that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."
"A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said. "(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."
As a Catholic, I breathe a heavy sigh of relief today, as my church reaffirms the happy melding of science and faith once agian. Of course there are still Bishops who will try to get the church to embrace ID, but I'm happy to see that the fight continues in the hierarchy.
So, let me be happy about this one little thing today, because there are so many more "figths" that rage on within the church, and I'd have hated to start fighting for us to regain any sembalance of reason when it comes to science. We still have a long way to go, but I'm just happy that we haven't abandoned all logic. Galileo might even be smiling down today.