Can someone update me on Catholics?

[Goon]

I understand they don't look at genesis as being literal. What brought on evolution belief, when it isn't even mentioned in their book? nothing near it from what i understand.. what lead the pope from however many decades ago to become pro-evolution?

[Shukhov]

I understand they don't look at genesis as being literal. What brought on evolution belief, when it isn't even mentioned in their book? nothing near it from what i understand.. what lead the pope from however many decades ago to become pro-evolution?

Some catholics may think that genesis is allegory but that does not mean that they accept theory of evolution. As for what brought the change - I suppose it's sheer absurdity of genesis and scientist ever deepening understanding. Not all catholics are hardcore literalists after all, in Poland for example it's more about feels and forcing taboos onto others than about knowing the Bible.

Also not even PR pope Francis is exactly pro evolution - He [god] created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment. It's the same tired, old crap but with new spin.

[Mike Cl]

Also not even PR pope Francis is exactly pro evolution - He [god] created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment. It's the same tired, old crap but with new spin.

This--some of my catholic friends are all gooey feel-good about this new pope.  They think he is into change.  So far he has rephrased some things, put a new bit of makeup, so to speak, but has changed nothing.  He is trying to be a new and better PR guy.  Nothing has changed for the catholic religion--and it can't, for if it does it will no longer be catholic.  For them, change is death.

[doorknob]

What Mike Cl (sorry) says is true. Catholics pride them selves on never changing a thing in their religion. That is one of their illogical reason that Catholicism is the only true form of Christianity.

How can the Pope claim evolution? Simple Catholics don't take the bible word for word literally. It is a collection of books inspired (not written by) god. So you do not take the story of genesis literally. It is a story with a lesson attached. And an explanation for original sin.

While I think the lesson is shitty (women deserve to be subservient?) And humans are born with original sin now so we are all sinners until you get baptized.

I can give you most of their excuses for why we do this or don't do that any more because I was a devout catholic. Catholics don't memorize bible verses though. It's moral of the story they focus on.


Most of them are full of bullshit. I've heard the same stories told and interpreted in different ways by two different priests. So much for consistency.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Catholic update brought to you by Damnitol! When you just get tired of it all just damn it all! 
They're everywhere!  They're everywhere! 

That is all..

[Shukhov]

This--some of my catholic friends are all gooey feel-good about this new pope.  They think he is into change.  So far he has rephrased some things, put a new bit of makeup, so to speak, but has changed nothing.  He is trying to be a new and better PR guy.  Nothing has changed for the catholic religion--and it can't, for if it does it will no longer be catholic.  For them, change is death.

He is Gorbachev of the church at least in regard to having good PR. I hope though he will go into his footsteps and in trying to reform absurd and inhuman system will cause it's downfall. But that's hard to imagine as I don't see pope making some real changes.

[Poison Tree]

The Catholic position is that evolution happened but that, at some point, god stepped in and created man in such a way that there was a literal fall (taking fruit from the serpent) which created original sin. They are in the awkward but not unusual position of no longer being able to ignore the evidence for evolution while still trying to have a more-or-less literal creation story. Although the below video is mostly about Evangelicals, it does a good job of laying out the basic problem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXOvYn1OAL0

[Unbeliever]

I understand they don't look at genesis as being literal. What brought on evolution belief, when it isn't even mentioned in their book? nothing near it from what i understand.. what lead the pope from however many decades ago to become pro-evolution?

I, too, wonder what's up with some of that catholic stuff - like how can Peter be considered the first pope, after he denied Jesus 3 times? Jesus said anyone who denied him would be denied by the Father God. So how can the pope claim to have the ear of God, being the supposed successor of Peter?

Then again, the very word "pope" means papa, or father, which God expressly forbade us to call anyone other than God the Father. And yet here's this religion allegedly coming from Jesus, in which, not just the pope, but all the priests as well are called Father!


Mat 23:9:

And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

[widdershins]

Catholics are weird, even for Christians.  Forget the fact that their every service is a series of creepy, archaic rituals unchanged for centuries, but they also believe that they are lead by a guy who is infallible when he says something they agree with, but not when they disagree with him.  They can quote his infallibility in one breath when they're explaining away some complaint you have and then bitch about his liberal views and how wrong they are in the next when they're holding on to some old dogma or prejudice they just don't want to let go.  And they liked the creepy guy before this pope better.  Yeah, he protected child molesters in the church instead of protecting the children from them, often resulting in hundreds more victims, but he had extreme right political views, which is far more important than a guy who will protect kids in the church from the church.

Catholics cannot be explained.  They are the one church I know of where you can't just look up what their church teaches about a given subject to figure out what they believe.  Hell, they can't even agree amongst themselves whether Joseph was the dumbest guy on Earth, believing God impregnated a wife he had never touched, or even DUMBER than that, believing that meant he could NEVER have sex with her and that was okay.  They can't even agree whether or not it was IMPORTANT that Mary remain a virgin her entire life or just long enough for the virgin birth.

[marom1963]

I understand they don't look at genesis as being literal. What brought on evolution belief, when it isn't even mentioned in their book? nothing near it from what i understand.. what lead the pope from however many decades ago to become pro-evolution?

The Catholic Church has never been that close w/the Bible, anyway. It was more the teachings of the Church fathers that mattered. Verbum incarnatum = the incarnate word, one of the titles of the pope. In other words, the pope was the incarnate word of God on Earth and what the pope had to say outweighed the Bible by far. Pius XI accepted the Big Bang Theory. John Paul II accepted evolution. Both are now official church dogma. By the by, the Big Bang theory was produced by a catholic priest, Georges Le Maitre.

[marom1963]

John Paul II removed Darwin's books from the banned list and officially apologized to Galileo - yes, he's dead, but it was symbolic and very important that he did so.

[Unbeliever]

Maybe JPII realized that books on the forbidden list (the Index) were more likely to be read and disseminated?

[Shukhov]

@Marom1963
Wasn't it Pius XII who claimed that BB isn't in conflict with catholic myth of creation? As for JPII he merely acknowledged that there are significant arguments for evolution. More importantly he also added some mumbo-jumbo about soul in the same speech.

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[marom1963]

@Marom1963
Wasn't it Pius XII who claimed that BB isn't in conflict with catholic myth of creation? As for JPII he merely acknowledged that there are significant arguments for evolution. More importantly he also added some mumbo-jumbo about soul in the same speech.

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I would have thought that it was Pius XI b/c he was on the throne when Le Maitre proposed the BBT and was the one who wrote the mash notes to Le Maitre. Pius XII was the one who had the NAZI trouble during WW II, I think ... Of course, the pope was not going to deny the soul - what he said was "Evolution is more than a theory".

[Shukhov]

I would have thought that it was Pius XI b/c he was on the throne when Le Maitre proposed the BBT and was the one who wrote the mash notes to Le Maitre. Pius XII was the one who had the NAZI trouble during WW II, I think ... Of course, the pope was not going to deny the soul - what he said was "Evolution is more than a theory".

Wikipedia said something abot Pius XII 'accepting' evolution. As for JPII he still insisted on soul.

But what matters more pope Francis while willing to accept both theorirs see them as a god works. As long as curch will try to inser god into science I don't think that we could talk about it genuine acceptance of said theories.

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