08.30.06
Vatican stalks ID
Vatican Scholars to Include Intelligent-Design Theory in Meeting
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editorScientists and philosophers will gather in Rome this week to discuss the origins of life.
A group of scholars and advisors to Pope Benedict XVI will meet in Rome Sept. 1 to address the topic of evolution versus intelligent design.
Advocates of intelligent design argue the universe and living things are so complex they must be a product of intelligent design rather than natural selection.
Dominique Tassot, a Roman Catholic scientist, told the American National Catholic Reporter that this week’s meeting is “to give a broader extension” to the debate.
“Most Catholic intellectuals today are convinced that evolution is obviously true because most scientists say so,” he said. It will take time to change common belief, he added.
Bruce Chapman, president of the Discovery Institute, which advocates for intelligent design, said this week’s discussion is really just the beginning of a dialogue.
“What’s good about all this is that they’re taking up the issue seriously,” he said. “I think this is not the end, but the beginning of the discussion and debate within the Catholic Church. It will be constructive, it will be conducted at a very high level and I think it should give cheer to people who are critics of Darwinism.”
While the scholars will certainly discuss origins of life, Chapman said the Catholic Church does not have a unified opinion and it will likely address both evolution and intelligent design.
“Everybody thinks the Catholic Church speaks with one voice, but, in fact, some Catholics are really Darwinists, some Catholics are theistic evolutionists and there are creationists,” he said. “There is a whole range of opinion.”
Of significant note, he said, is a speech made by Pope Pius XII in 1950, in which he said the Church should have a debate on this topic.
“And, in fact, it never took place,” said Chapman. “So people have nibbled at the edge of it, but the teaching has been, in my opinion, confused and unclear.”
In some cases, popes have seemed to criticize Darwinism and at other times they have seemed to be OK with evolution, he said.
“Pope Benedict the 16th, as a theologian, has long been a critic of materialism. So to the extent that Darwinism is materialism, he’s against it. I think that’s clear,” Chapman noted. “There are a lot of us who believe that the whole theory of Darwinism is shot through with materialism and the ideology of materialism. So the science is already corrupted — you can’t really separate the science from the ideology. They’re the same.
“I don’t think that’s clear yet to the Church leaders, but I do think what’s clear is that they don’t like the way that the ideology of materialism expressed through Darwinism has damaged our society in the West.”