Perhaps the new Pope isn’t all bad after all. The Vatican just issued a strong defence of Darwin and evolutionary science, effectively completely repudiating ID proponents who argue based on the Biblical account of Genesis.
Apologies for the short diary, but I don’t think there’s really much relevant analysis here.
And they aren’t being subtle about it, either. Cardinal Poupard’s words can’t be interpreted two ways, and really can’t be spun. He’s very strongly objecting to any kind of a scientific or literalist reading of Genesis
Of course, the news agencies are still trying to preserve the controversy. I expect we’ll see more claims like the one at the end of the linked article, saying that the Vatican agrees with ID proponents about the necessity of an intelligent designer in principle. Actually reading their words, however, makes it very clear that this isn’t so. To them, creator-less science is perfectly adequate for explaining how the world works.
While I don’t expect this to actually quiet down the ID crusaders in the USA, this does give progressives some ammo. It’s very prominent, inarguable evidence that science and religion are not necessarily hostile to each other, and that a scientific, humanistic, sectarian government or world-view does not necessarily have to be hostile to religion.
