Vatican: don't ignore scientific reason

[Psephos]

"VATICAN CITY - A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into fundamentalism if it ignores scientific reason. Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help end the "mutual prejudice" between religion and science that has long bedeviled the Roman Catholic Church and is part of the evolution debate in the United States."

<snip>

"But he said science, too, should listen to religion."

full text here:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Vatican_Science.html

[maxsolomon]

1. if evolution threatens your belief in G-d, then

your concept of G-d is quite limited.

there is no reason to consider one a refutation of the possibility of the other.

thank you Vatican. now go away.

[realisticphish]

3. precisely my own view

I'm a christian, but that doesn't make me ignorant. i'm a firm darwinist

[FreedomAngel82]

12. Yes

I as a Christian believe in God and I believe God created everything which includes evolution. Evolution tells us how it happens. I think all the fundies who are against evolution are really limiting what God can do and it shows their lack of faith. Just because I believe in science and evolution doesn't mean my faith in God is going to waver or anything. I don't know what they're afraid of.

[proiowadem]

19. I remember one priest told me

that time wasn't created until the fifth day so the fourth day was millions of years long and all of the dinosaurs and everything that happened millions of years ago took place then. I always liked that grasp for substance.

[porphyrian]

2. Why should science listen to religion?

Religion offers claims they can't support with evidence, then they complain when the scientific community stops listening. Speculation is useless to science until the subject is proven in a replicable manner. Until religion wants to play by the rules of science, science isn't playing with religion.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. And some of the most fascinating

scientific studies deal with religious stuff like prayer.

Everybody should listen to everybody else...

then go do what they want!

[FreedomAngel82]

13. Very true

In Genesis all that's there is God saying for this to happen and it happens. You can't prove God exists but you can't prove God doesn't exist either.

[proiowadem]

20. My own view is

I'm 75 percent certain that there is no god, There is no greater explanation than the greatest accident of all time.

15 Percent questioning that if there is a god It consits of everything in the entirety of the universe

7 percent thinks the Greeks were right and I need to start praying to the Zeus

2 percent thinks I was sneezed from a turtle

and 1 percent thinks the rest of me is crazy

[kwolf68]

4. Science should listen to religion

Excuse me, but what the hell does that mean?

[proiowadem]

7. Well the big thing that Science hasn't done of yet

is to give a scientific explantaion of Morality, and what actualy is Right and wrong. I know I'm being a bit broad with "Science" but ask yourself this, Without useing religion explain why killing someone is wrong? We're all pretty sure it is, but the Why is kinda hard to explain

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. Hmmm

killing is scientifically wrong because it is a dysfunctional behavior that hurts the species?

Interesting question.

[proiowadem]

10. But (Don't be offended I'm only playing devils advocate here)

The mentaly retarded are themselves a dysfunctional part of society that offer little if nothing to the benifit of the species so why not kill them, (Again I do not advocate this position at all, my nephew has down syndrom, and I love the kid like theres no tommorrow) Also why is it dysfunctional?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

11. ooooh my brain hurts

let's see. Dysfunctional. Great teacher word, by the way. I guess anything that kills members of a species is dysfunctional for the species.

UNLESS there is a population glut. Then it would be functional. I've read that our propensity for war might just be ritualized child maltreatment, and the purpose is to thin out the population and eliminate the most violent among us.

But what the hell do I know? I think Anne of Green Gables is great literature.

[proiowadem]

15. Next question why is suicide wrong? Is it wrong at all?

Without religion its extremly hard to anwser.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

21. Well, I can give you one perspective on that

as a teacher I have attended the funerals of probably half a dozen parents of my kids who committed suicide. And I have followed up with every one of those students with emails, visits, letters, etc. They are part of my life and all of them..every ONE of them has a substance abuse problem and serious issues. I've seen kids get through divorce, jailed parents, gender changes..but I have never seen a kid successfully navigate parental suicide. There is such a sense of guilt and also anger, abandonment of the worst kind.

So I guess that's one reason why suicide is not a functional behavior. And of course, I am not talking about assisted suicide of terminally ill people.

Now, genetically, or rather evolutionarily? I don't know..maybe weeding out the "weak"? But then suicide after breeding... oh well, I have a headache now.

[htuttle]

14. There are plenty of ethical frameworks that don't involve religion

But it's not 'science', really. You should look into the philosophical discipline of ethics if you are truly interested in this.

Take Mill's version of Utilitarianism, for example -- simply put, it says, "judge things by whatever creates the most good for the most people." Countless other philosophers have written on ethics over the centuries, and few of them have much to do with 'God'. (not to mention the writings of non-Western authors on this, such as Confucius).

And YES, it can be 'hard to explain', but that doesn't mean it hasn't been explained already -- it's just that you never encountered the explanation. Again, read up on ethics. It's all about this stuff.

[proiowadem]

16. Very True, the vast confinfines of history hold many volumes

[Boo Boo]

23. I don't want to be murdered; therefore, murder is wrong.

Next?

[proiowadem]

5. Reason, the most amiable aspect of man

Its good to see the vatican take a step in the right direction

[Gman]

9. Truth Cannot Contradict Truth

Address of Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (October 22, 1996)

http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm

-----------------------

JPII says that faith must never conflict with reason. When it faith does conflict with reason or truth, faith must be reevaluated.

[yorkiemommie1]

17. parochial school 12 years

Mass every Sunday while growing up and not a single priest or nun or lay religion teacher ever disputed evolution!

i got a good grounding in the sciences and have no problem separating bible stories from science. of course, this was before fundie influences started taking over.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

22. I went to a girl's boarding school

and Adam and Eve were presented by the nuns as a lovely myth given to us by God because we are too dumb to understand it any other way.

I don't know what the issue is with creationism and why now? I thought that was all over after the Scopes trial. I guess there really is nothing new in life.

[hatrack]

18. This coming from the guys offering Exorcism 101?

Whatever.