Sealawr
Posts: 54
Joined: Feb. 2008
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One official Catholic Church position on evolution is set out in a document called "Imago Dei" (Man in the image of God). This document was sent to, and approved by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict. It is pretty much as "official" church teaching as it can be.
The money paragraph very succinctly summarizes common descent and common ancestry. For non-biologists it's quite good.
Text:offical Vatican Website
Here's the Catholic understanding of evolution, from the document:
"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. While the story of human origins is complex and subject to revision, physical anthropology and molecular biology combine to make a convincing case for the origin of the human species in Africa about 150,000 years ago in a humanoid population of common genetic lineage. However it is to be explained, the decisive factor in human origins was a continually increasing brain size, culminating in that of homo sapiens."
A pretty good "layman's" description--So Floyd cannot argue that the Pope is somehow confused by evolution. Maybe he wants to argue that the Pope is not Catholic and maybe bears shit in special Yellowstone outhouses and not in the woods.
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DS: "The explantory filter is as robust as the data that is used with it."
David Klinghoffer: ""I'm an IDiot"
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