Is the Pope correct when he states, "Evolution is a fact"?

Question

In view of what the Creator himself states through Isaiah, how does Jehovah feel about people who attempt to diminish the glory that properly belongs to HIM alone?

" I am JEHOVAH. That is my name; and to no one else shall I give my own glory, neither my praise..."

Answer 1

The Pope is correct. Evolution is a fact that has been demonstrated multiple times in the lab.



Fact: When two populations of a species are isolated and exposed to different environments, after enough generations pass they will no longer interbreed. A true and specific piece of observable data.



Theory: Mutations and the natural process of selecting for reproductive fitness eventually leads to changes that render two populations reproductively incompatible, which is called speciation. A model that explains a broad range of observed facts.

Answer 2

Depends what he means by "Evolution".



If he means "speciation", and/or "adaptation", and/or "variation of life through reproduction", of course these are true, but are badly named as "evolution" with a small "e", ie micro-evolution.



If he means "the General Theory of Evolution" or "Darwinian Evolution" then these are versions of history that cannot by confirmed by observation, and completely contradict Biblical history.



When has anyone heard God being praised for his creation by an Evolutionist on TV lately?

Answer 3

He is NOT correct! Just because there are millions who are willing to believe the LIE of evolution, does NOT make a very flawed THEORY to be true!



If the pope said this, then he is just another sinful human being who would rather believe the devil's lies than the truth of what God says. God created the world in 6 days, just by saying the words: He is the Almighty, Omnipotent God, who CANNOT lie. What is so hard about believing what HE says?

- Yet people would rather believe the lie of evolution, because to believe God's Word means acknowledging that we are all answerable to Him as our Creator.

Answer 4

Yes, assuming God created and guides Evolution.



Once again the small groups of Atheists and Creationists are trying to make us believe that we have to choose between God and humanity's ongoing discovery of God's Creation through Science. This is not true.



Truth cannot contradict Truth. -- Pope Leo XIII



Most Jews and Christians do not take the stories of creation in the Bible literally. We believe the stories included in first 11 chapters of Genesis tell religious truth but not necessarily historical fact.



One of the religious truths is that God created everything and declared all was good.



Catholics can believe in the theories of the big bang or evolution or both or neither.



On August 12, 1950 Pope Pius XII said in his encyclical Humani generis:



The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.



Here is the complete encyclical: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis_en.html



And here is the Address of Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on October 22, 1996 speaking of the Theory of Evolution: http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm



Here is an interesting article about Pope John Paul II's opinion in the matter: http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=4627



The Church supports science in the discovery of God's creation. At this time, the big bang and evolution are the most logical scientific explanations.



As long as we believe that God started the whole thing, both the Bible and responsible modern science can live in harmony.



Here is a nice list of Christian thinkers in science: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_thinkers_in_science



The Clergy Letter Project an open letter endorsing the Theory of Evolution signed by over 12,000 clergy from many different Christian denominations: http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evol_sun.htm



I suggest you read "New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy" by Robert J. Spitzer http://www.amazon.com/New-Proofs-Existence-God-Contributions/dp/0802863833



http://www.magisreasonfaith.org/



With love in Christ.

Answer 5

Of course he's correct - the entire friggin' world knows that.



Except for some colossally stupid and ignorant cretins in America.



Sorry America, I LOVE visiting your country, and have enormous admiration for a lot that America has achieved over the years, but these fantasitcally ignorant f***wits who cannot/will not accept evolution seem to come only from the USA. And they're not a tiny minority, there appear to be vast numbers of them

Answer 6

How does the method of creation diminish God's glory?

I fail to see any logic.

Answer 7

Logical fallacy of many questions.



When did any pope state, "Evolution is a fact?"



P.S. Falsely attributing statements to someone is - obviously - not a thing approved by God.

Answer 8

In the American vernacular, "theory" often means "imperfect fact"--part of a hierarchy of confidence running downhill from fact to theory to hypothesis to guess. Thus the power of the creationist argument: evolution is "only" a theory and intense debate now rages about many aspects of the theory. If evolution is worse than a fact, and scientists can't even make up their minds about the theory, then what confidence can we have in it? Indeed, President Reagan echoed this argument before an evangelical group in Dallas when he said (in what I devoutly hope was campaign rhetoric): "Well, it is a theory. It is a scientific theory only, and it has in recent years been challenged in the world of science--that is, not believed in the scientific community to be as infallible as it once was."



Well evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.



Moreover, "fact" doesn't mean "absolute certainty"; there ain't no such animal in an exciting and complex world. The final proofs of logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only because they are not about the empirical world. Evolutionists make no claim for perpetual truth, though creationists often do (and then attack us falsely for a style of argument that they themselves favor). In science "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.



Evolutionists have been very clear about this distinction of fact and theory from the very beginning, if only because we have always acknowledged how far we are from completely understanding the mechanisms (theory) by which evolution (fact) occurred. Darwin continually emphasized the difference between his two great and separate accomplishments: establishing the fact of evolution, and proposing a theory--natural selection--to explain the mechanism of evolution.



- Stephen J. Gould, " Evolution as Fact and Theory"; Discover, May 1981



Let me try to make crystal clear what is established beyond reasonable doubt, and what needs further study, about evolution. Evolution as a process that has always gone on in the history of the earth can be doubted only by those who are ignorant of the evidence or are resistant to evidence, owing to emotional blocks or to plain bigotry. By contrast, the mechanisms that bring evolution about certainly need study and clarification. There are no alternatives to evolution as history that can withstand critical examination. Yet we are constantly learning new and important facts about evolutionary mechanisms.



- Theodosius Dobzhansky "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution", American Biology Teacher vol. 35 (March 1973) reprinted in Evolution versus Creationism, J. Peter Zetterberg ed., ORYX Press, Phoenix AZ 1983

Answer 9

The Pope is a male so does it really matter what he thinks?

Answer 10

Your hybrid question/rant suggests you don't know the difference between evolution, abiogenesis and big bang theory.

Answer 11

Insofar as anything which depends upon observation is an inviolable fact he is.

Answer 12

Greetings,



"The pope is always infallible, except when he makes a mistake."



Yours,



BAR-ANERGES

Answer 13

Yes, Il Papa is completely correct. Me and him don't agree on much, but we both definitely agree on that

Answer 14

Catholics go with the flow. They can always change it later like so many times before.

Answer 15

Biblical literalism is dumb, do you actually believe that the discussion of mustard seeds in the Bible is about mustard?

Answer 16

Surprisingly, yes. Of course, like most things, it took them over a hundred years to get it right.



I really don't care what Isaiah says about the topic. He knew next to nothing about the world.



Religion is superstition.

Answer 17

Yes. At least he has logic, a lot of Christians don't though...

Answer 18

yes

Answer 19

The Pope has been wrong before.

Answer 20

On that topic, indeed, the pope is correct.

Answer 21

He is a complete idiot. Christ himself said creationism is the truth. Christ wins in my book.



Mark 10:5-7



New King James Version (NKJV)



5 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6 But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,

Answer 22

both are true yes?

Answer 23

rubbish, I tell you, rubbish!

Answer 24

No. Actually his infallabilty has slipped. The Theory of Evolution is just that - a theory. It has never been proven.

Answer 25

That's just simple his belief .

Answer 26

no he is not correct

Answer 27

No, he's talking garbage.