In a speech before the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Francis expanded the opening made by his predecessor on the issue and added to the convoluted recognition of evolution an acceptance of the Big Bang. The Pope also called for a change in the interpretation of the Book of Genesis, which states that God is an all-powerful magician, and prefers to state that God created potential for every living being and evolution brought him to the exhaustion of that potential
Readers of the science website know that this is an extremely rare step, but in this article I quote at length from a news item by The Catholic News Agency. In this case, it would be desirable to understand straight from the source what the Pope said, not through the filters of the general news agencies and of various news websites, hundreds of which published the news yesterday (Wed).
As we will see later, Francis violated both science, when evolution and the Big Bang are not exactly what we know from the books of biology and physics, and religion, when he claimed that the accepted interpretation of God as it appears in the book of Genesis - as an all-powerful magician - is not correct.
Pope Francis gave a lecture on Monday this week to the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, on the occasion of the unveiling of the statue of the previous Pope, Benedict XVI, and at the beginning of his speech he spoke in praise of the one who became Pope Emeritus for the first time in 16 years.
After that he turned to deal with the subject for which the Catholic scientists gathered - the evolution of the perception of nature. In this speech, he expands on the opening opened by the previous Pope, Benedict XVI, who told the members of the same academy in 16 "God directs evolution".
The Pope encouraged the members of the Academy to "advance the scientific process and improve the living conditions of human beings, especially the poor."
"When we read the story of creation in the book of Genesis, we run the risk of likening God to a magician, holding a magic wand that allows him to do everything, but this is not the case." Francis says.
"He created the living beings and allowed them to develop according to internal laws that he gave to each of them, so that they were able to develop to their full potential. He gave autonomy to the living beings in the universe. At the same time, he assured them of his continued presence, and gave essence to all reality. Hence the creation It lasted for hundreds upon hundreds of years, a thousand and a thousand, until it became what we know today, precisely because God is not a magician, but the creator who gave life to all things."
Pope Francis added that "the beginning of the world is not the work of chaos and chaos that owes its origin to another chaos and chaos, but is derived directly from the supreme principle created by love."
"The Big Bang, which today is considered the origin of the world, does not conflict with the act of divine creation, but requires it. The evolution of nature does not contradict the idea of creation, when evolution presupposes the creation of the creatures that have evolved."
"However, as for man there is a change and something new." emphasized the Pope. "When man was created on the sixth day according to the calculation of the Book of Genesis, God gave human beings another autonomy, an autonomy that was different from that of nature - freedom." Francis said.
"When God asked man to name everything and continue history," he added, "this made him responsible for creation, so that he may be the steward of the development of the rest of the creatures until the end of time."
"Therefore, scientists, and first and foremost Christian scientists, must adapt the approach of presenting questions regarding the future of humanity and the earth, and the need to be free and responsible, to help prepare nature and preserve it, to eliminate risks to the environment - both natural and human. However, at the same time, scientists must be prevented by the certainty that nature hides, in the evolutionary mechanism, potentials for reason and freedom to discover and understand, in order to achieve the development that is in the program of the Creator."
The Pope also called on human beings to act to "participate in God's power" and added that humanity must build a world that is suitable for both physical and spiritual life, to build a humane world for all humans and not for members of a certain group or class.
Referring to the environment, the Pope warned that man should not destroy the world and try to take the place of the Creator. This is a great sin against God and the Creator."
At the end of his speech, Pope Francis encouraged the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to continue their work for the benefit of all people.
So much for the words of the Holy See. It is interesting how the Protestant believers, who have no equivalent to the Pope, will react, and how the Jewish fanatics will accept it, who, under the influence of the evangelicals, have been dragged into a refutable worldview - according to which the entire universe, and the earth in particular, was created as it is today about 6,000 years ago. And by the way, in matters where there is no disagreement between science and the religion of the environment and social sensitivity (except in the US where there is a package deal - if you are religious you must also believe that there is no global warming and that any consideration for the poor is a crime - hence the fanatical opposition to Obama's health care plan). On these issues, one can agree with the Pope's conclusions. It is forbidden to destroy nature between those who ask for it and come to the conclusion for religious or scientific reasons, and of course, the social gap also in the opinion of the writer of these lines endangers the future of humanity.
23 תגובות
Jesus
Science has shown that man is responsible for dangerous global warming. Science has shown that man is responsible for the worldwide extinction of species, at an alarming rate.
Religion makes people deny this work. According to the former Chief Scientist of the Education Tsherd...
Jesus
In my understanding, science actually supports human rights. Example - science has shown that we are all equal, and race is irrelevant. Example - science supports the human right to life, with the help of medicine.
Religion often infringes on these rights. Example - a covenant, a word infringes on a person's right to his body. Example - marriage laws violate a person's right to happiness.
Are science and human rights contradictory beliefs? First, science is not "faith". Science is a method for solving problems and separating true and false claims. Human rights are borderline - they are not a belief per se, but they do derive directly from some world view that can be called "religious" and therefore I will not argue with you.
Anyway, can you point out any contradiction between the two ideas? How does the scientific idea contradict the belief in human rights or vice versa? Words are cheap...
Science and human rights are also two contradictory beliefs, but this does not prevent many scientists from believing in human rights and for some reason no one revolts against this foolishness. All beliefs (sets of inhuman laws) create logical slaps in the intersections, which does not prevent most people from adopting a few for themselves. I suggest to the respected commenters and the dear editor not to blame all the problems of the world on the religious, it's just bullshit. The world warmed and cooled many times before the evangelicals and will continue to do so after them.
Do not blame humanity for the extinction of species, since even before history a decisive percentage of species became extinct - a statistician will come to the conclusion that a species is doomed to extinction, in this sense man is nothing more than a physical and extremely natural factor.
Shabbat Shalom
Everyone knows there is no God, so enough with the unnecessary arguments.
Pope Francis: Ebola exhausts the divine potential of every being
Raphael
What exactly did I say that you don't think is right? I would be happy to explain each sentence, and correct if I was wrong. Why are you so hurt?
rival
I also have practical advice for you - don't treat him.
Raphael
I thought all people were equally developed…
rival
The surfers of this site are indeed smart and developed except for one surfer who responds compulsively and enjoys mocking and scolding the other commenters.
God also created the Nazis and Daesh for the sake of evolution and also because he did not want us to think there is a God
rival
Those who do not understand that there is an abysmal contradiction between science and religion, do not understand what science is or what religion is.
In the past, perhaps, religion promoted humanity. why? Because there was no science. A simple example - it is said that Jews suffered less from epidemics in Europe because of the custom of washing hands. Today, the situation is reversed, religious communities are less healthy than secular communities.
You don't need to insult, or get angry, and you can talk about everything.
But that's the situation.
Rabbi Nadel of Bnei Brak as well as Rabbi Kook are of the same opinion
Rabbi Nadel of Bnei Brak as well as Rabbi Kook are of the same opinion
Wow, this pope is amazing. This is a reversal on a historical scale.
I don't understand this Pope's obsessive need to please the scientists and/or priests of atheism. The true believer has no reason to apologize to anyone or anything for his faith. There is no floor plan here, which is a shame.
It is definitely a serious progress, it is true that the divine idea was not abandoned by them, but it allows its believers
A large space of research and questions that are not disturbed by religious dogmas based on faith alone,
It will take years, but in the end even religious Judaism and its Rabbis will recognize this,
Since the Pope still today influences hundreds of millions of people, it will have an impact on humanity
where there will be more people who are connected to the scientific world, another engine of progress in the scientific front of humanity,
And in this respect he contributed to humanity.
The following quotes appear in the previous comments:
"A ridiculous worldview", "one should give up believing in something without any foundation", and there is more.
I believe that the users of this site are supposed to be smarter and more developed in their worldview than those they oppose and use terminology and methods that are a mirror image of those they oppose.
There is no such thing as a "ridiculous worldview" ... so many people who thought they knew better used this phrase in history, and those who are ridiculous today are those who use this phrase.
As for "unfounded faith"... Beloved, every faith is unfounded (that's why it is faith), and you will be surprised to know that science is based on beliefs and axioms no less than any other consistent theory.
At the root of the matter is this opposition to what is called "religion", that in fact most religions in the world have led humanity to spiritual and moral development and to where we are today (evolution remember) without debating the nature of the path.
Religions and contribution to humanity are no less important for human evolution than science (!), and the fact that there is absolutely no contradiction between them
You just have to get used to it, because perhaps most of the human creation to the issue is derived from the question "what is the meaning of life", but all the styles live at the same time and there is no need to look for an unnecessary clash and we must say, quite stupid.
Herzl
Nicely said. I know another example - the boy who listened to his mother and did not enter the river alone was not eaten by the crocodile...
This is one layer of religious belief, because of the development of our brain. There are a few more. One of them is superstitions (exists in animals). Another one is the structure of our memory (we remember unusual things better - like a story we heard about the talking tree). And there is mathematics... and there are other things...
Miracles - no chance. In my opinion, the (completely illogical) ability to absolutely believe in something that someone else wrote or said is built into the human mind. It seems to me that the origin is at the beginning of agriculture, when a person had to sow the seeds he had saved on the day that some old man told him (the old man became a priest for a long time because he knew how to recognize the seasons according to the movement of the sun). He who did not sow at the right time, early or late, perished with his whole family. The one who blindly believed what the old man/priest told him survived. A hundred such generations are enough to build in the brain a permanent pattern of blind faith in the story. So there is probably a part of the population for whom the pattern has not yet been established - you and I are an example. But the constants will not change.
my father
To mention, we had a chief scientist of the Ministry of Education who did not believe in global warming, because God would not let it happen…..
Herzl
There is something small, much more basic, that the sects should give up - the belief in something without any foundation...
In other words, the Catholics should cancel Spinoza's ex-communication, because they reached exactly the same opinion: God created the laws of nature and that's it. Nature develops according to these laws without the hand of God. It is very similar to Rambam's opinion that God does not interfere in what happens in nature.
We will probably have to wait another 100-200 years until the other Christian sects reach the same conclusion, and who knows when the Jews (most of whom now believe the opposite of Rambam) and the Muslims will also join.
But even the Catholics still have a long way to go: to allow the marriage of priests and to get rid of the control of homosexuals in most clerical positions, while legitimizing homosexuality. Also approve contraceptives, abortions and divorces.