Pope Denies the Teaching of Genesis, Says Evolution Not Incompatible with the Bible

In an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope Francis said that the Bible is not incompatible with evolution. He said, "When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so. He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment. And so Creation continued for centuries and centuries, millennia and millennia, until it became which we know today, precisely because God is not a demiurge or a magician, but the Creator who gives being to all things. The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it. … Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve" ("Pope Contradicts Genesis Account," Christian News Network, Oct. 27, 2014). Theistic evolution has long been the position of the Roman Catholic Church.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 21, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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