User: methossr

Re:From a Kansas parent...

On: Using Copyrights To Fight Intelligent Design

This is not out of line with Catholic beliefs, in as much as they were clarified by the Pope back in 1950.

"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 . . . 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--[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God" (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36)

I don't think that anywhere we are considering the creation of the soul part of science class, but this does sound similar to intelligent design. However I think Pope Leo XIII probably hit the nail on the head... Science is science, and theology is theology. Not incompatible, but not necessarily explaining the same thing from the same viewpoint.

The Catholic Church has always taught that "no real disagreement can exist between the theologian and the scientist provided each keeps within his own limits. . . . If nevertheless there is a disagreement . . . it should be remembered that the sacred writers, or more truly 'the Spirit of God who spoke through them, did not wish to teach men such truths (as the inner structure of visible objects) which do not help anyone to salvation'; and that, for this reason, rather than trying to provide a scientific exposition of nature, they sometimes describe and treat these matters either in a somewhat figurative language or as the common manner of speech those times required, and indeed still requires nowadays in everyday life, even amongst most learned people" (Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus 18).