(04-22-2014 02:02 AM)Fatalisk Wrote: (04-21-2014 02:23 PM)Funslinger Wrote: (04-21-2014 12:46 PM)Eagleholic Wrote: (04-21-2014 12:45 PM)UofMemphis Wrote: Logic and reason is the hip thing these days
Not in Washington DC.
Zing! You are definitely right on that one. We have sent all the Neaderthals to Washington.
A lot of research suggests Neanderthals had superior intellect to humans. I know you were speaking figuratively, but it's actually interesting. Google "Neanderthal intelligence."
To the Christians- 93% of the members of National Academy of Science are atheists. Given that the intelligentsia don't believe, why would God punish those who utilize the reasoning ability he granted?
Speaking of the National Academy of Science:
The following quotation from H. J. Muller, "One Hundred Years Without Darwin Are Enough" explains the point.
"There is no sharp line between speculation, hypothesis, theory, principle, and fact, but only a difference along a sliding scale, in the degree of probability of the idea. When we say a thing is a fact, then, we only mean that its probability is an extremely high one: so high that we are not bothered by doubt about it and are ready to act accordingly. Now in this use of the term fact, the only proper one, evolution is a fact."
The National Academy of Science (U.S.) makes a similar point:
"Scientists most often use the word "fact" to describe an observation. But scientists can also use fact to mean something that has been tested or observed so many times that there is no longer a compelling reason to keep testing or looking for examples. The occurrence of evolution in this sense is fact. Scientists no longer question whether descent with modification occurred because the evidence is so strong."
What I don't understand is why so many Catholics deny the existence of evolution when the Catholic Church accepts it as fact. In a July 2004 statement endorsed by Cardinal Ratzinger, then president of the Commission and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, later Pope Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, includes this paragraph:
"According to the widely accepted scientific account, the universe erupted 15 billion years ago in an explosion called the 'Big Bang' and has been expanding and cooling ever since. Later there gradually emerged the conditions necessary for the formation of atoms, still later the condensation of galaxies and stars, and about 10 billion years later the formation of planets. In our own solar system and on earth (formed about 4.5 billion years ago), the conditions have been favorable to the emergence of life. While there is little consensus among scientists about how the origin of this first microscopic life is to be explained, there is general agreement among them that the first organism dwelt on this planet about 3.5–4 billion years ago. Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related, it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism. Converging evidence from many studies in the physical and biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of evolution to account for the development and diversification of life on earth, while controversy continues over the pace and mechanisms of evolution."
Kenneth R. Miller a prominent Catholic scientist widely known for opposing Young Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design writes, concerning Emeritus pope Benedict XVI, that "The Holy Father's concerns are not with evolution per se, but with how evolution is to be understood in our modern world. Biological evolution fits neatly into a traditional Catholic understanding of how contingent natural processes can be seen as part of God's plan...a careful reading suggests that the new pope will give quarter neither to the enemies of spirituality nor the enemies of evolutionary science. And that's exactly as it should be.
