Intrepid
11-18-2005, 06:05 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9589656/
PARIS - A senior Roman Catholic cardinal seen as a champion of intelligent design against Darwin’s explanation of life has described the theory of evolution as “one of the very great works of intellectual history.”
Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said he could believe both in divine creation and in evolution because one was a question of religion and the other of science, two realms that complemented rather than contradicted each other.
Schoenborn’s view, presented in a lecture published by his office on Tuesday, tempered earlier statements that seemed to ally the Roman Catholic Church with U.S. conservatives campaigning against the teaching of evolution in public schools.
Even Catholic scientists, including chief Vatican astronomer Rev. George Coyne S.J., contested Schoenborn’s view as expressed in the Times article.
In his lecture, Schoenborn said his article had led to misunderstandings and sometimes polemics. “Maybe one did not express oneself clearly enough or thoughts were not clear enough,” he said. “Such misunderstandings can be cleared up.”
Schoenborn said he believed God created “the things of the world” but did not explain how a divine will to bring about the development of the human species would have influenced its actual evolution.
“They were, so to speak, let free into their own existence,” he said.
PARIS - A senior Roman Catholic cardinal seen as a champion of intelligent design against Darwin’s explanation of life has described the theory of evolution as “one of the very great works of intellectual history.”
Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said he could believe both in divine creation and in evolution because one was a question of religion and the other of science, two realms that complemented rather than contradicted each other.
Schoenborn’s view, presented in a lecture published by his office on Tuesday, tempered earlier statements that seemed to ally the Roman Catholic Church with U.S. conservatives campaigning against the teaching of evolution in public schools.
Even Catholic scientists, including chief Vatican astronomer Rev. George Coyne S.J., contested Schoenborn’s view as expressed in the Times article.
In his lecture, Schoenborn said his article had led to misunderstandings and sometimes polemics. “Maybe one did not express oneself clearly enough or thoughts were not clear enough,” he said. “Such misunderstandings can be cleared up.”
Schoenborn said he believed God created “the things of the world” but did not explain how a divine will to bring about the development of the human species would have influenced its actual evolution.
“They were, so to speak, let free into their own existence,” he said.