Thursday, January 6, 2011

Are you sitting down?: The Pope thinks God is behind the universe

The Pope has gone on record as saying “God was behind Big Bang, universe no accident” (Philip Pullella, 2011 01 06):
God's mind was behind complex scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident, Pope Benedict said on Thursday.
Most of the Yahoo article is the usual pop media sludge (= Pope grudgingly accepts reality while retaining a tiny corner for dumb people to pray in).

However, to their credit, the Yahooligans couldn’t quite bring themselves to say “the Pope supports evolution”. Instead:
While the pope has spoken before about evolution, he has rarely delved back in time to discuss specific concepts such as the Big Bang, which scientists believe led to the formation of the universe some 13.7 billion years ago.
Yes, and the Pope has made quite clear where he stands on the only theory of evolution currently on offer, in the public media, Darwinism: He had prayer cards put out in many languages all over Rome a few years ago, saying “We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.” Some people have a really hard time accepting the significance of that.

Benedict XVI is not heedless of the politically motivated falsehoods circulated about Catholic teachings, always with the intention of confusing Christians who are trying to be faithful. Recently, some American Catholic-label politicians who tried to claim that the Catholic Church has never been certain in its stand against abortion were rebuked by the Vatican.

In fact, most popular culture isn’t sure whether to acknowledge God or the multiverse, and is simply waiting to see who wins the public relations war: Him or Them.