Pope Francis accepts big bang theory adding that evolution is compatible with Christianity

POPE Francis has tacitly accepted that man evolved by claiming that the big bang theory is not only consistent with biblical teachings but is are essential to understanding God and the way He works.

 

Over the years, theologians have dismissed any talk of evolution as heresy even when it is backed with irrefutable scientific evidence. However, yesterday, Pope Francis sought to distance the Catholic Church from this past by telling a plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that the big bang theory is essential to understanding God.

 

Pope Francis 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 fulfilment.

 

“He gave autonomy to the beings of the universe at the same time at which he assured them of his continuous presence, giving being to every reality, 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 earth’s origins were not chaotic but were created from a principle of love."

 

According to Pope Francis, the theory of evolution did not contradict the Bible or church teachings, as creationists claim. He made the speech while unveiling a bust of Pope Benedict XI, his predecessor, adding that biblical teachings gave humans the responsibility to care for the earth and its inhabitants.

 

“God is not a demiurge or a magician but the creator who brought everything to life. Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.

 

Demiurge, the manual labourer who created the physical world in Plato’s origin myth, was translated in some accounts as divine being. In the Book of Genesis, God commanded Adam to name everything and to go ahead through history, which makes him responsible for creation, so that he might steward it in order to develop it until the end of time,” Pope Francis added.

 

Catholic teaching has not traditionally been opposed to evolution, unlike evangelical Christianity, although a close associate of Pope Benedict XVI criticised the scientific theory in a 2005. During his speech, Pope Francis warned that it was a grave sin against God the creator to destroy the environment, adding that scientists held a special responsibility to protect God’s creation.