For by him were all things created, that
are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things
were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him
all things consist.” Colossians
1:16,17
The Pope said the scientific
account of the beginning of the universe and the development of
life through evolution are compatible with the Catholic Church’s vision of
creation. He told a meeting of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for
Sciences: ‘The Big Bang, which today we
hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the
divine creator but, rather, requires it.’
The Catholic Church no longer teaches
creationism – the belief that God created the world in six days – and says that
the account in the book of Genesis is an allegory for the way God created the
world.
But he said Christians should reject the
idea that world came into being by chance. Likewise, evolution was all part of
God’s plan, he explained. The development of each creature’s
characteristics over millennia ‘does not contrast with the notion of creation
because evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve,’ he said.
“Reading Genesis we imagine that God is ‘a
wizard with a magic wand’ capable of doing all things, he said. ‘But it is
not so. He created life and let each creature develop according to the natural
laws which he had given each one.’
Francis praised his predecessor, Benedict,
who initiated attempts to shed the Catholic Church’s image of being
anti-science, a label that stuck when it condemned the astronomer Galileo to
death for teaching that the earth revolves around the sun.
The Catholic
Church no longer teaches creationism – the
belief that God created the world in six days – and says that the account in
the book of Genesis is an allegory for the way God created the world.
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