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f anyone is so bold as to assert that there exists nothing besides matter let him be anathema if anyone says that the substance or essence of god and that of all things are one and the same let him be anathema if anyone says that finite things both corporal and spiritual or at any rate spiritual emanated from the divine substance or that the divine essence by the manifestation and evolution of itself becomes all things or finally that god is a universal or indefinite being which by self determination establishes the totality of things distinct in genera species and individuals let him be anathema if anyone does not confess that the world and all things which are contained in it both spiritual and material were produced according to their whole substance out of nothing by god or holds that god did not create by his will free from all necessity but as necessarily as he necessarily loves himself or denies that the world was created for the glory of god let him be anathema according to catholic theologian dr ludwig ott in his 1952 treatise fundamentals of catholic dogma 43 it is to be understood that these condemnations are of the errors of modern materialism that matter is all there is pantheism that god and the universe are identical and ancient pagan and gnostic manichean dualism where god is not responsible for the entire created world since mere matter is evil not good see ott page 79 the first vatican council also upholds the ability of reason to know god from his creation 1 the same holy mother church holds and teaches that god the source and end of all things can be known with certainty from the consideration of created things by the natural power of human reason ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made chapter 2 on revelation cf romans 1 19 20 and wisdom chapter 13 popes leo xiii and pius x edit god with adam and eve in the garden of earthly delights by hieronymus bosch pope leo xiii who succeeded in 1878 was known to advocate a more open approach to science but also to be frustrated by opposition to this within the vatican and leading church circles lamenting on a number of occasions and not in a particularly private way the repressive attitudes to scholars exhibited by people around him and among those he clearly included members of la civiltà cattolica college of writers on one occasion there was quite a scene when the pope energetically refused to have the writings of mons d hulst of paris put on the index of forbidden books 44 providentissimus deus on the study of holy scripture was an encyclical issued by leo xiii on 18 november 1893 on the interpretation of scripture it was intended to address the issues arising from both the higher criticism and new scientific theories and their relation with scripture nothing specific concerning evolution was said and initially both those in favour and against evolution found things to encourage them in the text however a more conservative interpretation came to be dominant and the influence of the conservative jesuit cardinal camillo mazzella with whom leo had argued over mons d hulst detected leo stressed the unstable and changing nature of scientific theory and criticised the thirst for novelty and the unrestrained freedom of thought of the age but accepted that the apparent literal sense of the bible might not always be correct in biblical interpretation catholic scholars should not depart from the literal and obvious sense except only where reason makes it untenable or necessity requires leo stressed that both theologians and scientists should confine themselves to their own disciplines as much as possible 45 an earlier encyclical of leo s on marriage arcanum divinae sapientiae 1880 had described in passing the genesis account of the creation of eve from adam s side as what is to all known and cannot be doubted by any 46 the pontifical biblical commission issued a decree ratified by pope pius x on june 30 1909 that stated that the literal historical meaning of the first chapters of genesis could not be doubted in regard to the creation of all things by god at the beginning of time the special creation of man the formation of the first woman from the first man the unity of the human race as in 1860 special creation was only referred to in respect of the human species 47 pope pius xii edit pope pius xii s encyclical of 1950 humani generis was the first encyclical to specifically refer to evolution and took up a neutral position again concentrating on human evolution the church does not forbid that research and discussions on the part of men experienced in both fields 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 48 pope pius xii s teaching can be summarized as follows the question of the origin of man s body from pre existing and living matter is a legitimate matter of inquiry for natural science catholics are free to form their own opinions but they should do so cautiously they should not confuse fact with conjecture and they should respect the church s right to define matters touching on revelation catholics must believe however that humans have souls created immediately by god since the soul is a spiritual substance it is not brought into being through transformation of matter but directly by god whence the special uniqueness of each person all men have descended from an individual adam who has transmitted original sin to all mankind catholics may not therefore believe in polygenism the scientific hypothesis that mankind descended from a group of original humans that there were many adams and eves some theologians believe pius xii explicitly excludes belief in polygenism as licit another interpretation might be this as we have nowadays in fact models of thinking of how to reconcile polygenism with the original sin it need not be condemned the relevant sentence is this now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion polygenism can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the church propose with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual adam and which through generation is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own pius xii humani generis 37 and footnote refers to romans 5 12 19 council of trent session v canons 1 4 pope john paul ii edit new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis john paul ii 1996 49 in an october 22 1996 address to the pontifical academy of sciences pope john paul ii updated the church s position to accept evolution of the human body in his encyclical humani generis 1950 my predecessor pius xii has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points today more than a half century after the appearance of that encyclical some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis in fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines the convergence in the results of these independent studies which was neither planned nor sought constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory 49 in the same address pope john paul ii rejected any theory of evolution that provides a materialistic explanation for the human soul theories of evolution which because of the philosophies which inspire them regard the spirit either as emerging from the forces of living matter or as a simple epiphenomenon of that matter are incompatible with the truth about man pope benedict xvi edit statements by cardinal christoph schönborn a close colleague of benedict xvi especially a piece in the new york times on july 7 2005 50 appeared to support intelligent design giving rise to speculation about a new direction in the church s stance on the compatibility between evolution and catholic doctrine many of schönborn s complaints about darwinian evolution echoed pronouncements originating from the discovery institute an interdenominational christian think tank 51 52 however cardinal schönborn s book chance or purpose 2007 originally in german accepted with certain qualifications the scientific theory of evolution but attacked evolutionism as an ideology which he said sought to displace religious teaching over a wide range of issues 53 nonetheless in the mid 1980s prefect of the sacred congregation of the doctrine of the faith joseph ratzinger wrote a defense of the doctrine of creation against catholics who stressed the sufficiency of selection and mutation 54 humans ratzinger writes are not the products of chance and error 54 and the universe is not the product of darkness and unreason it comes from intelligence freedom and from the beauty that is identical with love 54 the church has deferred to scientists on matters such as the age of the earth and the authenticity of the fossil record papal pronouncements along with commentaries by cardinals have accepted the findings of scientists on the gradual appearance of life in fact the international theological commission in a july 2004 statement endorsed by cardinal ratzinger then president of the commission and head of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith includes this paragraph according to the widely accepted scientific account the universe erupted 15 billion years ago in an explosion called the big bang and has been expanding and cooling ever since later there gradually emerged the conditions necessary for the formation of atoms still later the condensation of galaxies and stars and about 10 billion years later the formation of planets in our own solar system and on earth formed about 4 5 billion years ago the conditions have been favorable to the emergence of life while there is little consensus among scientists about how the origin of this first microscopic life is to be explained there is general agreement among them that the first organism dwelt on this planet about 3 5 4 billion years ago since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism converging evidence from many studies in the physical and biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of evolution to account for the development and diversification of life on earth while controversy continues over the pace and mechanisms of evolution 4 the church s stance is that any such gradual appearance must have been guided in some way by god but the church has thus far declined to define in what way that may be commentators tend to interpret the church s position in the way most favorable to their own arguments the itc statement includes these paragraphs on evolution the providence of god and intelligent design in freely willing to create and conserve the universe god wills to activate and to sustain in act all those secondary causes whose activity contributes to the unfolding of the natural order which he intends to produce through the activity of natural causes god causes to arise those conditions required for the emergence and support of living organisms and furthermore for their reproduction and differentiation although there is scientific debate about the degree of purposiveness or design operative and empirically observable in these developments they have de facto favored the emergence and flourishing of life catholic theologians can see in such reasoning support for the affirmation entailed by faith in divine creation and divine providence in the providential design of creation the triune god intended not only to make a place for human beings in the universe but also and ultimately to make room for them in his own trinitarian life furthermore operating as real though secondary causes human beings contribute to the reshaping and transformation of the universe a growing body of scientific critics of neo darwinism point to evidence of design e g biological structures that exhibit specified complexity that in their view cannot be explained in terms of a purely contingent process and that neo darwinians have ignored or misinterpreted the nub of this currently lively disagreement involves scientific observation and generalization concerning whether the available data support inferences of design or chance and cannot be settled by theology but it is important to note that according to the catholic understanding of divine causality true contingency in the created order is not incompatible with a purposeful divine providence divine causality and created causality radically differ in kind and not only in degree thus even the outcome of a truly contingent natural process can nonetheless fall within god s providential plan for creation 4 in addition while he was the vatican s chief astronomer fr george coyne issued a statement on 18 november 2005 saying that intelligent design isn t science even though it pretends to be if you want to teach it in schools intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught not science cardinal paul poupard added that the faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity he also warned of the permanent lesson we have learned from the galileo affair and that we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism fiorenzo facchini professor of evolutionary biology at the university of bologna called intelligent design unscientific and wrote in the january 16 17 2006 edition l osservatore romano but it is not correct from a methodological point of view to stray from the field of science while pretending to do science it only creates confusion between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or religious kenneth r miller is another prominent catholic scientist widely known for opposing young earth creationism and intelligent design he writes concerning emeritus pope benedict xvi that the holy father s concerns are not with evolution per se but with how evolution is to be understood in our modern world biological evolution fits neatly into a traditional catholic understanding of how contingent natural processes can be seen as part of god s plan a careful reading suggests that the new pope will give quarter neither to the enemies of spirituality nor the enemies of evolutionary science and that s exactly as it should be 55 in a commentary on genesis authored as cardinal ratzinger titled in the beginning benedict xvi spoke of the inner unity of creatio...
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