A deep rift has opened within the Catholic church over the theory of evolution and its compatibility with the Christian faith.
The Vatican鈥檚 chief astronomer, George Coyne, has rebuffed controversial comments made by Cardinal Christoph Sch枚nborn in The New York Times on 7 July that evolution is incompatible with a belief in God.
鈥淭he waters have again been darkened鈥� writes Coyne in the latest issue of the UK Catholic weekly, The Tablet. His article follows another flare-up in the debate, when US president George W Bush commented on Monday that schools should teach children about 鈥渋ntelligent design鈥�. Proponents of this idea believe that science can be used to find evidence of a creator鈥檚 design in nature.
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鈥淚 think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,鈥� Bush said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.鈥�
In his article, Sch枚nborn dismissed as 鈥渞ather vague and unimportant鈥� a statement made by Pope John Paul II in 1996 which seemed to indicate the church鈥檚 acceptance of evolution. 鈥淎ny system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science,鈥� Sch枚nborn wrote.
But Coyne, a Jesuit priest from the US, slammed these comments. He writes that the 鈥渘agging fear鈥� that a universe explained by scientific concepts 鈥渆scapes God鈥檚 dominion鈥� is 鈥済roundless鈥�.
He calls for an extensive dialogue. 鈥淏ut we should not close off the dialogue and darken the already murky waters by fearing that God will be abandoned if we embrace the best of modern science,鈥� he urges.
Read more on evolution in 快猫短视频鈥檚 Special Report.