The Vatican will be sponsoring a conference March 3-7 on Creation and Evolution. The Discovery Institute had its knickers in a twist because intelligent design was explicitly excluded from the conversation.
It's been announced that intelligent design will be discussed at the conference . . . but chances are that the DI still won't be happy. The Associated Press now reports that
"The committee agreed to consider ID as a phenomenon of an ideological and cultural nature, thus worthy of a historic examination, but certainly not to be discussed on scientific, philosophical or theological grounds," said Saverio Forestiero, a conference organizer and professor of zoology at the University of Rome.
This is bound to chafe the hide of the ID folks, who have so carefully tried to mask their goal of changing our culture. They changed their name - what was the "Center for the Renewal for Science and Culture" became the "Center for Science and Culture" - and revised their logo several times to distance themselves from their true goals as stated in the Wedge Document:
Goals:
* "To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural, and political legacies"
* "To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God"
* "To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural, and political legacies"
* "To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God"
Phase III: Cultural Confrontation & Renewal was to follow Phase I (Scientific Research, Writing & Publicity) and Phase II (Publicity & Opinion-making.) The DI has concentrated their efforts on Phases II and III, and the Vatican is graciously acknowledging their efforts by relegating the upcoming discussion of intelligent design to the outskirts of the conference.
And to add alcohol to the cut, the Vatican acknowledged yesterday that evolution is indeed compatible with Christianity:
The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes.
A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin's theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas.
A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin's theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas.
Anti-evolutionists have long held that Real ChristiansTM can't support evolution. I suppose their next step is to declare that His Holiness isn't a Real ChristianTM.
posted by Cheryl Shepherd-Adams
