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The question of intelligent design is one that baffles
some of our clientele (and, surely, some of us), but this
Catholic (meaning "universal") decision may help about
a billion people to at least accept the idea of evolution
if they haven't done so already. OK, that's not a majority,
but it's a start...
Aloha,
Richard


ROME, Jan. 18 - The official Vatican newspaper published an article 
this week labeling as "correct" the recent decision by a judge in 
Pennsylvania that intelligent design should not be taught as a 
scientific alternative to evolution.

The Evolution Debate


"If the model proposed by Darwin is not considered sufficient, one 
should search for another," Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of 
evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, wrote in the Jan. 
16-17 edition of the paper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"But it is not correct from a methodological point of view to stray 
from the field of science while pretending to do science," he wrote, 
calling intelligent design unscientific. "It only creates confusion 
between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or 
religious."

The article was not presented as an official church position. But in 
the subtle and purposely ambiguous world of the Vatican, the comments 
seemed notable, given their strength on a delicate question much 
debated under the new pope, Benedict XVI.

Advocates for teaching evolution hailed the article. "He is emphasizing 
that there is no need to see a contradiction between Catholic teachings 
and evolution," said Dr. Francisco J. Ayala, professor of biology at 
the University of California, Irvine, and a former Dominican priest. 
"Good for him."

But Robert L. Crowther, spokesman for the Center for Science and 
Culture at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle organization where 
researchers study and advocate intelligent design, dismissed the 
article and other recent statements from leading Catholics defending 
evolution. Drawing attention to them was little more than trying "to 
put words in the Vatican's mouth," he said.

L'Osservatore is the official newspaper of the Vatican and basically 
represents the Vatican's views. Not all its articles represent official 
church policy. At the same time, it would not be expected to present an 
article that dissented deeply from that policy.

In July, Christoph Schönborn, an Austrian cardinal close to Benedict, 
seemed to call into question what has been official church teaching for 
years: that Catholicism and evolution are not necessarily at odds.

In an Op-Ed article in The New York Times, he played down a 1996 letter 
in which Pope John Paul II called evolution "more than a hypothesis." 
He wrote, "Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but 
evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense - an unguided, unplanned process 
of random variation and natural selection - is not."

There is no credible scientific challenge to the idea that evolution 
explains the diversity of life on earth, but advocates for intelligent 
design posit that biological life is so complex that it must have been 
designed by an intelligent source.

At least twice, Pope Benedict has signaled concern about the issue, 
prompting questions about his views. In April, when he was formally 
installed as pope, he said human beings "are not some casual and 
meaningless product of evolution." In November, he called the creation 
of the universe an "intelligent project," wording welcomed by 
supporters of intelligent design.

Many Roman Catholic scientists have criticized intelligent design, 
among them the Rev. George Coyne, a Jesuit who is director of the 
Vatican Observatory. "Intelligent design isn't science, even though it 
pretends to be," he said in November, as quoted by the Italian news 
service ANSA. "Intelligent design should be taught when religion or 
cultural history is taught, not science."

In October, Cardinal Schönborn sought to clarify his own remarks, 
saying he meant to question not the science of evolution but what he 
called evolutionism, an attempt to use the theory to refute the hand of 
God in creation.

"I see no difficulty in joining belief in the Creator with the theory 
of evolution, but under the prerequisite that the borders of scientific 
theory are maintained," he said in a speech.

To Dr. Kenneth R. Miller, a biology professor at Brown University and a 
Catholic, "That is my own view as well."

"As long as science does not pretend it can answer spiritual questions, 
it's O.K.," he said.

Dr. Miller, who testified for the plaintiffs in the recent suit in 
Dover, Pa., challenging the teaching of intelligent design, said Dr. 
Facchini, Father Coyne and Cardinal Schönborn (in his later statements) 
were confirming "traditional Catholic thinking." On Dec. 20, a federal 
district judge ruled that public schools could not present intelligent 
design as an alternative to evolutionary theory.

In the Osservatore article, Dr. Facchini wrote that scientists could 
not rule out a divine "superior design" to creation and the history of 
mankind. But he said Catholic thought did not preclude a design 
fashioned through an evolutionary process.

"God's project of creation can be carried out through secondary causes 
in the natural course of events, without having to think of miraculous 
interventions that point in this or that direction," he wrote.

Neither Dr. Facchini nor the editors of L'Osservatore could be reached 
for comment.

Lawrence M. Krauss, a professor of physics and astronomy at Case 
Western Reserve University, said Dr. Facchini's article was important 
because it made the case that people did not have to abandon religious 
faith in order to accept the theory of evolution.

"Science does not make that requirement," he said.

Ian Fisher reported from Rome for this article, and Cornelia Dean from 
New York.

Dare Design
45-1112 Haleloke Place
Kaneohe, HI 96744
(808) 235-9585

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