
The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes.
A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. “In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God,†said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The Vatican also dealt the final blow to speculation that Pope Benedict XVI might be prepared to endorse the theory of Intelligent Design, whose advocates credit a “higher power†for the complexities of life.
Organisers of a papal-backed conference next month marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species said that at first it had even been proposed to ban Intelligent Design from the event, as “poor theology and poor scienceâ€. Intelligent Design would be discussed at the fringes of the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University, but merely as a “cultural phenomenonâ€, rather than a scientific or theological issue, organisers said.
The conference is seen as a landmark in relations between faith and science. Three years ago advocates of Intelligent Design seized on the Pope’s reference to an “intelligent project†as proof that he favoured their views.
– Times Online, Richard Owen in Rome
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5705331.ece?Submitted=true


“The conference is seen as a landmark in relations between faith and science.”
STFU, this is fucking stupid. fuck the pope and the rest of the child molesting assholes who claim to know god
Wow, it must be nice to have your kind of intelligence. Does it hurt caring around that MASSIVE BRAIN OF YOURS?
Give the Catholic church a few hundred years and they always come around. I’m fairly certain they’re ok w/ Copernicus and Galileo now.
Outstanding evidence of Catholic hypocrisy!
@Dreth: Dude, don’t be fucking ridiculous.
The Sun orbits the Earth, and the Earth orbits the moon.
And that’s that.
Does anyone else think this is a sign of the Church slowly giving up to Science?!?! Well after a while of logical thinking, I think it’s inevitable
@Avias: Except for this.