by Hilary White
RIMINI, August 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Christoph Cardinal Schönborn has asked for a “reasoned, ideology-free” debate on the nature of the Darwinian proposition for the origins of life. He hoped that the shorcomings of Darwin’s theory of evolution could one-day be discussed freely in schools.“This should be discussed in a serene manner. If a theory is scientific and not ideological, then it can be discussed freely,” he said.
The archbishop of Vienna and a primary author of the Catholic catechism, clarified again that the Catholic Church does not adhere to the “creationist” theory that takes its information on the origin of life exclusively from the bible. But he said pure materialist Darwinism that precludes the action of God is unacceptable and unscientific.
“The alternative to the process of pure chance is not absolute determinism but rather the interaction between the actions of creatures and the divine creator who sustains their actions,” he said.
Speaking from Rimini, Schönborn announced that Pope Benedict XVI would be meeting September 1 to 3 at Castel Gandolfo, the Papal summer residence with a number of his former doctoral students. He implied that one of the topics under discussion would be the origins of life.
The creationist position is one that is largely held by American Protestant evangelicals among whom there is also much debate on the relationship between the action of God and the scientific evidence. The tarring by the media of the creationist theory as anti-intellectual and retrograde has become a major source of tension between American Christian groups and the scientific community.
Schönborn was careful to distinguish in his speech between the scientific theory that species change and develop from one form to another and the quasi-religious ideology that denies any possible intervention of God in the origin of life.
There is “no conflict,” Schönborn said, “between science and religion.” The debate lies, he said, “between a materialist interpretation of the results of science and a metaphysical philosophical interpretation.”
Despite the Cardinal’s call for a reasoned debate, the mainstream media, having already made up the Pope’s mind, is spreading the story around the world that Benedict is preparing, as the UK’s Guardian put it, “to embrace theory of intelligent design”. The Taipei Times led the story with, “Pope edges closer to accepting theory of intelligent design”; the Sydney Morning Herald posits, “Meeting could move Vatican closer to theory of intelligent design”.
The assumption that the “debate” is closed and Darwin has won, is a major part of the arguments being made, especially in the US, against the teaching in high school biology classes of Intelligent Design, or any other theory of the origins of life, in addition to the pure materialist Darwinian proposal.
Cardinal Schönborn’s 2005 article appearing in the New York Times called for clarification of the difference between the “theory of evolution” and the secularist ideology of “evolutionism.” The Cardinal cited Marxist materialist theory as an example of where ideological Darwinism can lead when it is taken out of its scientific boundaries. He warned against the current infusion of Darwinian materialism into bioethical issues, where, he said, they have given rise to a revival of eugenics.
On Wednesday, Schönborn said, “The open questions of the theory of evolution should be exposed,” which questions, “(Darwin) himself recognised and regretted” .