Catholic Official Says Faithful Should Listen to Secular Modern Science
An official within the Roman Catholic Church stated that people of faith should listen to what secular modern science has to say, or risk falling into ''fundamentalism'' by ignoring reason.
An official within the Roman Catholic Church stated that people of faith should listen to what secular modern science has to say, or risk falling into “fundamentalism” by ignoring reason.
The head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Paul Poupard made the comments as part of a Vatican project to end the “mutual prejudice” between science and religion. The comments take added significance as a debate over intelligent design theory and evolution takes place in a Pennsylvania federal court case.
"We know where scientific reason can end up by itself: the atomic bomb and the possibility of cloning human beings are fruit of a reason that wants to free itself from every ethical or religious link," said Poupard, according to the Associated Press.
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“But we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism,” he added.
"The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity," said Poupard.
The Church's condemnation of Galileo for embracing the idea the earth revolves around the sun was an important reason for creating the Vatican project. In 1992, Pope John Paul II said that the incident was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."
During the press conference, another official at the press conference affirmed a 1996 statement by the late Pope John Paul II in support of evolution, who called it “more than just a hypothesis.”
“A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false,” said Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, who is the director of a Vatican Project called the Science, Theology and Ontological Quest. “(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof,” he said.
Poupard, however, emphasized that “the universe wasn’t made by itself, but has a Creator.”
He added, “It’s important for the faithful to know how science views things to understand better.”
Separately, Pope Benedict XVI told German politicians from Bavaria visiting the Vatican on Wednesday that science had both positive and negative consequences.
“It’s about whether we abide by utilitarian laws or we follow the laws laid out by God,” the Pope said, according to the AGI Italian news service.
The Pope affirmed that those who “were aware of their obligation to God … do their best to reconcile scientific progress with human life” at all its stages of development, the Pope.
