Oh, boy. He didn’t go as far as endorsing Intelligent Design, but it sure did sound from his statement that he got all his information on evolutionary biology from Michael Behe. Now even the Catholic God gets to be “God of the Gaps”!
From the AP article:
In a new book, “Creation and Evolution,” published Wednesday in German, the pope praised progress gained by science, but cautioned that evolution raises philosophical questions science alone cannot answer.
“The question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science,” the pope said.
He stopped short of endorsing intelligent design, but said scientific and philosophical reason must work together in a way that does not exclude faith.
“I find it important to underline that the theory of evolution implies questions that must be assigned to philosophy and which themselves lead beyond the realms of science,” the pope was quoted as saying in the book, which records a meeting with fellow theologians the pope has known for years.
Um, Mr. Pope, sir, science doesn’t give a rat’s patootie about answering philosophical questions. Science is about evidence and facts and verification and progress. Philosophy is. . .well, philosophy. Once philosophy starts doing controlled-environment testing, double-blind studies, and using control groups and placebo groups, it’s not philosophy anymore. It’s science. Part of the appeal of philosophy is that it is speculation that can’t necessarily be proven. It can lead to deep thinking, lively arguments, and sometimes fisticuffs, but it can’t provide results or replicable proof.
Up until about 150 years ago, the biggest challenge to biblical philosophers came from other philosophers. The philosophers from other schools of religious and non-religious thought were not much of a threat, in that their proof was just as valid as biblical proof and therefore easily dismissed as misguided and/or uninformed. Evolution, however, being a science rather than a philosophy, comes with tens of thousands of fossils, 300-plus peer-reviewed papers a day, each backed with solid research and experimentation, DNA, gene mapping, medical research, new discoveries that start with evolution-based models. . .proof, essentially. (Well, proof for us laypeople. Scientists prefer “evidence” because “proof” means you’re finished. Scientists don’t like being finished.)
What the pope, along with rabid biblical creationists around the world (but mostly in America, unfortunately) have a problem with is that evolution (and all the supporting science they ignore) contradict the biblical creation myth, and they unfortunately then equate evolution with creation, which then leads to further misunderstanding of evolution. They also forget that evolution and its supporting science also contradict pretty much every other creation myth in the world, which is why their request for science to be more “open” to biblical ideas is unreasonable. If scientists had to consider coordinating their research with philosophy, we’d never get anything done. To be fair, before embarking on any testing, they’d have to be sure that it didn’t challenge not only the bible (in all its permutations) but the Hindu Vedas, the numerous American Indian beliefs still practiced today, the Norse eddas, and almost a thousand other extant philosophies.
Essentially, what the biblical creationists are asking for is special treatment by science, which, if you’re not a biblical creationist, is patently ridiculous. Inclusion of one philosophy in science is just as ridiculous as inclusion of all of them, and we’ve seen already what has happened when a philosophy ties everyone’s hands in the form of abortion laws, insurance coverage of treatments and medications specific to women, stem cell research, and funding for medical research of certain preventable diseases. We’ve also seen that very often, research in one area produces astonishing results that apply to far more than the subject being researched, or new treatments and technology that help with something entirely different, so we know that the restriction on testing and research based on one philosophy’s moral system impedes far more advances than in just that one issue.
It’s not the responsibility of science to avoid challenging philosophy of any kind. It’s not in the interest of science to speculate on something that can’t be verified. Science doesn’t care if its evidence proves or disproves biblical creation, reincarnation, panspermia, or the timecube. Well, maybe the timecube. Science is about advancement of knowledge, finding answers that can be verified and repeated, creating new techniques and understanding that can offer evidence and open even more areas of knowledge and understanding. If it proves something you believe already, then good for you. If it disproves it, then all the whining in the world isn’t going to change that.
And that is what Pope Benedict is doing – whining because science disproves something he believes. You know, he and every other literalist can go on believing what they want, and it’s no skin off anyone’s nose. It’s the insistence that everyone else make nice and go along with them, including scientists and educators, that’s the problem. It wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t so many people around the world who actually believe that the pope is the voice of god. I think American Catholics will be more likely to take this with a grain of salt, but it still will go a long way, worldwide, towards justifying ignorance.