Vatican announces stance on Big Bang Theory (Not the show)

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Pope says God caused Big Bang
Though I'm not Religious I think this is a very positive step. I believe firmly in human morals, as practiced by good individuals of all faiths (representing a majority, in my opinion) or those who don't feel the call of faith. The Pope moving to make it clear to Roman Catholics that this science is reconcilable to their Bible helps the cause of science immensely and I hope in the long term will lead to a much broader perspective on the universe for all Christians.

It is also worth noting that it was a Catholic Monsignor and Physicist Georges Lemaître who first proposed what came to be knowen as 'big bang' theory.

Why is any acceptance of a scientific theory of any importance to anybody except those totally committed to the opinions of the Pope? Perhaps the Queen of England and Paris Hilton should add their confidence in the belief in the theory. That should down any doubts in the scientific community whatsoever.

It is mostly symbolic.

Because you know, many priests and brothers are scientists working in things like the Vatican's telescope and they don't deny the big bang theory or evolution for that matter. This announcement works just as a way to tell them that they are not going against their faith and is also a PR stunt, which the Caths could really use nowadays...

It is not relevant to anyone but Catholics, but there are many Catholics in the world...

I'm not sure that anything the pope thinks has much relevance to science. If he chooses to think in a scientific manner, then maybe he might be worth listening to, but until then he's just making noise.

Sure, there may be a lot of people who will now be willing to consider the idea because the pope said it's okay, but someone who has to rely on another person's permission to think is just relying on an ideology. It would be far better if people made more of an effort to think for themselves rather than rely on the pope's opinions.

^^^^

I personally do not take all that seriously the comments made by Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens on the subject of God. They are not trained philosophers or theologians and can only really make statements as laymen. I would however think it quite valuable if one of them decided to state that religion and science were not at odds with one another (which is something that most religious people and scientists believe anyway).

Smugness becomes you. I wonder how you acquired the authority to speak for most scientists and religious people.

My apologies, I did not intend appear smug, merely to mirror the argument that appeared previous to mine by writing an interesting opposite.

Sometimes a slip of the tongue is very revealing.

It is, I probably am smug.

Courage. It's not an insoluble problem. By now I'm sure you are well aware of my own character deficiencies..

One of them, of course, is smugness.

Are you doing anything about it?

At some time in ones maturation there are personality faults that can only become delightful. In all my encounters here I have been eminently unsuccessful in moving any opinions even a fraction of any particular measurement in any direction so it is futile for me to even make much of an effort. The general foolishness running rampant in this sector has become a kind of delightful and highly amusing farce with various proponents of outrageously idiotic ideas performing such mental acrobatics that comedy can be the only outcome. A buffer of a modicum of smugness is sometimes a necessary precaution to preserve one's equilibrium in such mentally roiling atmospheres.

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On the contrary, the fascist, Mafia-like politician Pope of Rome - year 2011 - is a symbol of a criminal who has hidden child crimes/child abuse from the secular police - so no one today (2011) believes anything the corrupt Pope says on any topic at all. Also, if God created the universe, it was the God of Judaism (aka Moses's God) and not the child crime hiding false God of the Italian Catholic Church from the country of Italy (Source: the Bible). The Italian Catholic Church worships the corrupt Pope as God and has thrown the God of the Bible out the window including Jesus Christ from Israel (not Italy) and the Holy Ghost from Israel (not Italy). The corrupt Pope is not a scientist and the Pope's track record is putting Galileo under house arrest and threatening Galileo with physical torture if Galileo continued to believe the earth revolved around the sun. The corrupt Pope of Italy today (2011) is as believable of Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The Pope belongs in jail and has no business pretending he's a good astronomer/scientist. The World Court of Europe should have arrested the Pope, put him on trial, and put him in jail for life for hiding Italian Catholic pedofile ministers from the secular police around the world. There has been zero international justice delivered to the corrupt Pope of Rome at all regarding this criminal matter. Hitler (WWII) was relieved of office but the child crime/pedofile protecting corrupt Pope of Europe still is in office in Rome fibbing (lying) to people every day on a variety of topics.

Actually, I think that you will find that there are many people who believe what he says. Corruption and concealing abuse, notwithstanding.



The dotrine of the New Covenant suggests that the Gods of Israel and Christianity are one and the same. You might argue that the forms of worship have been corrupted, but the essential characteristic remains.



I think you will find that it was a different Pope who perpetrated that. It is important to distinguish the Pope form the papacy.



The question of whether or not he is criminally liable does not diminish the fact that his voice has weight for a very great number of people. You might not like that, but your dislike of his influence will not make it go away.

I agree that it is a positive step.

With importance way beyond catholics.

By saying god created the big bang hes admited that there WAS a big bang, and that the universe is billions of years old.
By implication he's admitted that for most of time that creation has existed it was evolving without God's assistence=- or atleast not god intervening in a miracalous magical way.

Thats huge. It means you can be a christian, and keep your brain!

Its a step towards marginalizing the biggest threat to the survival of christianity- which is the YEC movement.
The YEC (young earth creationists- what they used to call biblical literealists) are accidental apostates who threaten the faith for two rrreasons: they give the impression that you cant be christian and keep your brain ( thus scaring off potential reentry into chuch by the secularized), and to be a YEC is to proclaim your total LACK of faith (if your ffaith is threatened by something as harmless as Charles Darwin than you dont have any faith).

Im a long time fan of Jane Goodall.
I was leafing through a book in a store about the current activities of Jane Goodall (the chimp lady) who is now involved with animal rights, and crusading against bushmeat and so forth.
She talked about ethics which she said she got from her Episcopalian upbringing in Scotland.

I dont know how religious she actually is, but jane goodall even mentioning christianity struck me as interesting. A lady whose whole life's work was inspired by Charles Darwin ( the world would not giva a rats about chimpanzees if werent for Darwin) has christian leanings!

So if you're a Christian there is hope that your religion may survive. The Pope says you can keep your brain, and not have to subscribe to idiocy like YECism. And there are starting to be role models, like Jane Godall, to help show the way towards modern religous thought.