

Pope Francis declares evolution and Big Bang theory are right - arunpjohny
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-declares-evolution-and-big-bang-theory-are-right-and-god-isnt-a-magician-with-a-magic-wand-9822514.html

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k-mcgrady
This isn't anything new. It's long been accepted in the Catholic church. The
problem is that catholics get lumped in with american fundamentalists. There's
a good video on YouTube with Richard Dawkins debating/interviewing a
bishop/scientist which gives a good overview of what catholics actually
believe.

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dragonwriter
As noted in the article, it is new in that it us seen as a return to the
position of John Paul II from which Benedict XVI was seen to retreat.

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k-mcgrady
The only evidence given in the article that the previous pope refuted
evolution wasn't even from him - it was from something written by one of his
advisors as the article states. Seems like it was more of a 'we can make it
sound like the previous guy backtracked so lets write a headline to make it
sound like something we thought would never happen has happened even though
the original thing never happened".

NB: Sorry if I sound a bit aggressive but this article has nothing to do with
HN and is click bait. No idea why it was submitted.

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dragonwriter
> The only evidence given in the article that the previous pope refuted
> evolution wasn't even from him - it was from something written by one of his
> advisors as the article states.

Its important to understand that, in general, fairly major shifts in the
approach of the heirarchy on issues in the Catholic Church are often signaled
by very subtle differences in wording from the Pope and/or his inner circle.

> Sorry if I sound a bit aggressive but this article has nothing to do with HN
> and is click bait.

If that's your opinion (rather than that it is relevant to HN but merely has
points that are worthy of debate), you probably should have flagged instead of
commenting.

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byjazz
Besides the fact that no scientific theory is "right":

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre)

The big bang theory itself was first formulated by an ordained "chanoine" from
the catholic church...

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baldfat
This is almost as misunderstood as Copernicus being wrongfully thought to have
been persecuted for believing that the world circled the sun, which he the
opposite is true. The vast majority of Christian and Jewish beliefs are varied
on creation. A very small subset of whom believe only in a literal 6 day
creation.

FACT: Genesis has TWO creation stories (Very much inline with Ancient near
East writing)

