[asa] Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1859614,00.html

John Hooper in Rome
Monday August 28, 2006

Philosophers, scientists and other intellectuals close to Pope
Benedict will=
=20
gather at his summer palace outside Rome this week for intensive
discussions=
=20
that could herald a fundamental shift in the Vatican's view of
evolution.=20
There have been growing signs the Pope is considering aligning his
church=20
more closely with the theory of "intelligent design" taught in some
US state=
s.=20
Advocates of the theory argue that some features of the universe and
nature=20=
are=20
so complex that they must have been designed by a higher
intelligence. Criti=
cs=20
say it is a disguise for creationism.=20
A prominent anti-evolutionist and Roman Catholic scientist, Dominique
Tassot=
,=20
told the US National Catholic Reporter that this week's meeting was
"to give=
=20
a broader extension to the debate. Even if [the Pope] knows where he
wants t=
o=20
go, and I believe he does, it will take time. Most Catholic
intellectuals=20
today are convinced that evolution is obviously true because most
scientists=
  say=20
so." In 1996, in what was seen as a capitulation to scientific
orthodoxy, Jo=
hn=20
Paul II said Darwin's theories were "more than a hypothesis".=20
Last week, at a conference in Rimini, Cardinal Christoph Sch=F6nborn
of Aust=
ria=20
revealed that evolution and creation had been chosen as the subjects
for thi=
s=20
year's meeting of the Pope's Sch=FClerkreis - a group consisting
mainly of h=
is=20
former doctoral students that has been gathering annually since the
late=20
1970s. Apart from Cardinal Sch=F6nborn, participants at the closed-
door meet=
ing will=20
include the president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Peter
Schuster; t=
he=20
conservative ethical philosopher Robert Spaemann; and Paul Elbrich,
professo=
r=20
of philosophy at Munich University.=20
Last December, a US court sparked controversy when it ruled that
intelligent=
=20
design should not be taught alongside evolution theory. Cardinal
Sch=F6nborn=
=20
said: "The debate of recent months has undoubtedly motivated the Holy
Father=
's=20
choice." But he added that in the 1960s the then Joseph Ratzinger had=20
"underlined emphatically the need to return to the topic of
creation".=20
The Pope also raised the issue in the inaugural sermon of his
pontificate,=20
saying: "We are not the accidental product, without meaning, of
evolution."=20
A few months later, Cardinal Sch=F6nborn, who is regarded as being
close to=20
Benedict, wrote an article for the New York Times backing moves to
teach ID.=
  He=20
was attacked by Father George Coyne, director of the Vatican
Observatory. On=
=20
August 19, Fr Coyne was replaced without explanation. Vatican sources
said t=
he=20
Pope's former astronomer, who has cancer, had asked to be replaced."

rich faussette

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Received on Tue Aug 29 12:04:54 2006