In an important statement, Pope Benedict has stated that such theories as the Big Bang theory is evidence of God’s design. This is a far cry from the reaction to prior theories of scientists like Galileo. The statement occurs as researchers in Geneva at CERN are attempting to recreate conditions at the formation of the universe. Where is Tom Hanks when we need him?
Benedict stated “The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe. Contemplating it (the universe) we are invited to read something profound into it: the wisdom of the creator, the inexhaustible creativity of God.”
Benedict is proving to be one of the most open Pontiffs to science. He previously rejected the notion that evolution was incompatible with the Catholic faith — a position that would seem to conflict with a literal interpretation of the Old Testament.
Source: MSNBC
Former Federal LEO
If a Catholic man had a wife named Big Bertha would relations with her always constitute a Big Bang…
Answer: In theory, I suppose…
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RICHARD DORMAN 1, January 7, 2011 at 2:13 pm
So did the big bang occur within the last 5000 years
Answer: Don’t look at me!!!!
Ask Big Bertha.
So did the big bang occur within the last 5000 years
Okay, then who or what created God, and why?
I have to agree with most of you. The Pope agrees with science as long as it is “His” science.
BBB and Blouise,
I’m glad you liked it…
Gingerbaker,
Didn’t Benny during his last conquest, I mean visit to Africa,
tell his flock that condoms spread AIDS???
Bud,
Great flash video. Thanks for sharing it.
Bud,
Thank you … that was great
Copy and paste the above address in to your browser, and
enjoy.
The Galaxy Song (Flash) – care2.com
Ginger, you misunderstood. Benny IS the most open to science of all the popes.
Herpes is the best disease to to have. If the choice is between AIDS and herpes!
Who gives a f** … ahem … a flyin’ fig
Gingerbaker,
WTF? I would agree. Saying that the Big Bang happened, but it did so because God caused it isn’t a new position for the church. For them, isn’t everything “God’s will” or “God’s work”?
WTF??? He just flatly dismissed years of work by the most intelligent man on the planet with his own scientifically-unsupportable, completely un-evidenced, logically-nonsensical and frankly self-serving pronouncement. That makes him “open to science”? He just threw science under the bus of papal authority!
If this was the good old days, Hawking would already have recanted from the boards of the rack. For fuck’s sake, this is the son-of-a-bitch who still protects child rapers from prosecution and rationalized it just two weeks by saying that raping children was considered perfectly acceptable by all members of society in the 1970’s. A bald-face lie so grotesque as to defiantly gloat his immunity from prosecution.
And now you just called him “open to science” even as he casually contradicts out of hand the best scientific explanation of the origin of the universe!! Do you have Stockholm syndrome or something?
I have a deep-thought, scientific inquiry worth ponderin’ for the Pope, an experienced expert regardin’ matrimonial and heterosexual affairs…
If a Catholic man had a wife named Big Bertha would relations with her always constitute a Big Bang…
In a word, teleology: the idea that everything has an ultimate purpose.
It’s this kind of thinking–often exemplified by William Paley’s excellent “watch on the heath” argument, which so impressed Darwin as a young man, that seems to be hard-wired into our brains. It’s not difficult to see why. As primates living in groups we have to be good at spotting and analyzing intentional activity, it’s a survival trait. But we also see intentional actions where none exist. Possibly that is one of the several reasons why we still tend to explain the unknown by invoking supernatural entities–other reasons include for instance inductive reasoning to First Cause.
Teleological thinking has taken a beating since Darwin came up with respectable alternatives. Even First Cause is challenged by quantum mechanics. So it’s quite respectable in science, and is regarded as entirely normal, to assume that things just happened by themselves, without intention. The church insists that this rejection of God’s involvement is wrong.
As John Paul’s chief inquisitor (I forget the modern name of the job but it is essentially the sane post held by Bellarmine in Galileo’s day) Cardinal Ratzinger would have been responsible for helping the Pope to get his doctrinal ducks in a row. Encyclicals, bulls, speeches on matters of church teaching would all be subject to his oversight. He is an expert on church teaching. Now he’s Pope Benedict so one wouldn’t expect to see much change because it’s the same guy wearing a different hat.
As I said earlier the essential teaching is that Catholics must strive to reconcile church teaching with science. This comes down to distinguishing between the experimental findings and the materialist philosophy that underlies much modern scientific thinking. This latest statement simply seems to be a reiteration of that principle, saying whatever happened, Big Bang or whatever, must have been God’s willing and deliberate action.
The Universe is huge enough to ALSO have space for chance. JdV
Although you might not think it from reading the press, there is really nothing new about Benedict’s approach. It’s the same one adopted by Pius XII in the 1950 encyclical “Humani Generis” and by every Curia since.
This paper does a decent job of describing the sophistication of the Roman Catholic Church’s approach to science, which distinguishes it from the more backward of the American protestant churches.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/vaticanview.html
What changed between Pius and John Paul II was, essentially, the Church’s perception of the strength of the scientific evidence. Pius said that evolution wasn’t incompatible with church teaching, whereas John Paul recognized it for an established fact. Both emphasized the Papal view that science cannot contradict the church’s true teaching (there’s a little bit of “no true Scotsman” reasoning going on there of course). In particular both said that Catholics could not support materialist notions excluding God and the soul.
Ok like well is it the scientific ” Big bang Theory ” or is it that tv sitcom called the ” Big Bang Theory.”……….just asking is all I am saying……………………….LOL