OMG this is the best news to come out of the Vatican in a very long time.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19956961/

I think more importnat is his support of enviromental concerns.

It's good to read, but isn't the Pope the Antichrist? The people of Kansas will just think it is a message from Satan trying to lead them astray...

well, the muslims took his comments out of context, so the fundamentalists should get to do the same.

"the muslims took his comments out of context"

You kidding me? he called Moslems prophet a terrorist. THAT was the context.

> “Above all it does not answer the great
> philosophical question, ‘Where does everything come from?’”

They must have fired that other Cardinal who was going the other way. If one didn't know better one can imagine they visited Oz and traded a bauble or two for brain and a heart.

The pope didn't say anything about people in Kansas. Most of what he apparently said recently was paraphrased in the article so it's hard to say what he did say, especially since I can't find any source materials for this week's statement.

The pope laid out his position a couple years ago in a book he wrote called "Creation and Evolution". There, he states that "the theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory". Which is of course a correct statement.

> The pope didn't say anything about people in Kansas.

You are as literal as freshly milked cow.

> he called Moslems prophet a terrorist. THAT was the context.

Actually he quoted someone else who had said something similar, IIRC.

This just in: students from rural areas like Kansas have substantially higher proficiency in science and math than other students.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070725/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rural_students

> "Benedict also said the human race must listen to “the voice of the Earth” or risk destroying its very existence."

Wow, listen to the voice of the earth? The pope turned pagan overnight? Awesome.

As much as I despise the (institution of the) pope and his ideas on morality and sexuality, deep down the man is a scientist who knows how to separate faith and morality from science and facts. There is some hope in that.

I've been supporting the absurdity of evolution vs. creationism - 'evolution and creationism can co-exist' argument for the last couple years.  At least they don't need to "take it from me" now.  ;-D

Except before, I was supporting it by myself.  hehe.  I had never heard anyone else mention this point of view before, besides moi.  ;-)  Actually, if only I believe it, by people's reaction, that seems to make it an irrelevant argument by definition.  harhar.

The thought just struck me.  Tell me this:  If I killed off all the elephants, let's say, just like all the T-Rex' are gone.  Well, why don't they come back?  C'mon now, isn't this stuff supposed to be repeatable?  What do we need, 50 billion years, or do we need some pool of primordial soup, in an environment that the earth no longer posses?

Well, if the environment has changed that much, and it is that important, then for one thing, something like global warming really is a huge, huge concern, IMHO.

possesses

> Well, why don't they come back?

You mean something else evolves to fill the niche abandoned by the elephants (you murderer!)? Maybe it will, if you fancy waiting aronud a few million years to see.

and to think he was one of the more conservative options for pope...

it just goes to show you have far off those bible thumpers have gone.  it's like they're dropped into some kind of self imposed dark age...

The man is pretty conservative on a lot of things.  There's that whole primacy of the Roman Catholic church thing, which went over roughly like a lead balloon.

Why didn't the T-Rex come back?  Because its environmental niche was filled by some other creature(s).

Besides, isn't an alligator/crocodile a T-Rex by another name?  In that way, it never completely left.

Yay! The Pope is sane.  That helps.

----"There, he states that "the theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory". Which is of course a correct statement."----

Perhaps PE would like to expand on where it is incomplete, or not scientifically proven.

What in science is ever complete? That's why it's not religion.

Correct, but the fact that the theory of evolution does not explain the emergence of self-replicating molecules no more makes it incomplete than not explaining why people liked Oasis makes the theory of relativity incomplete.