Vatican is Pro Darwin

Intelligent Design belittles God, Vatican director says

Father George V. Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory, is presenting a lecture entitled “Science Does Not Need God, or Does It? A Catholic Scientist Looks at Evolution”. Advance copies of his talk have been made available:

"...He calls “mistaken” the belief that the Bible should be used “as a source of scientific knowledge,” which then serves to “unduly complicate the debate over evolution.”...

Father Coyne goes on to point out the work of Christian theologians of the past, who advocated a great age for the earth. In addition...

...He points to the “marvelous intuition” of Roman Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman who said in 1868, “the theory of Darwin, true or not, is not necessarily atheistic; on the contrary, it may simply be suggesting a larger idea of divine providence and skill...” Pope John Paul Paul II, he adds, told the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1996 that “new scientific knowledge has led us to the conclusion that the theory of evolution is no longer a mere hypothesis...”