From: Ellen K. 

Re intelligent design, I saw the following quote from George Gallup recently:

"I could prove G-d statistically.  Take the human body alone -- the
chances that all the functions of an individual would just happen is a
statistical monstrosity."

On Sat, 5 Nov 2005 08:49:57 -0500, "Rich Gauszka"
 wrote in message :

>Uh Oh.  Some in the religious right might not like this
>
>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051104/ap_on_sc/vatican_science
>
>
> VATICAN CITY - A     Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should
>listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion
>risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.
>
>Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, made
>the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help end the
>"mutual prejudice" between religion and science that has long
bedeviled the
>Roman Catholic Church and is part of the evolution debate in the United
>States.
>
>The Vatican project was inspired by     Pope John Paul II's 1992 declaration
>that the church's 17th-century denunciation of Galileo was an error
>resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." Galileo was
condemned for
>supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the
>sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.
>
>"The permanent lesson that the Galileo case represents pushes us to keep
>alive the dialogue between the various disciplines, and in particular
>between theology and the natural sciences, if we want to prevent similar
>episodes from repeating themselves in the future," Poupard said.
>
>But he said science, too, should listen to religion.
>
>"We know where scientific reason can end up by itself: the atomic bomb and
>the possibility of cloning human beings are fruit of a reason that wants to
>free itself from every ethical or religious link," he said.
>
>"But we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with
>reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism," he said.
>
>"The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern
>science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in
>consideration as an expert voice in humanity."
>
>Poupard and others at the news conference were asked about the
>religion-science debate raging in the United States over evolution and
>"intelligent design."
>
>Intelligent design's supporters argue that natural selection, an element of
>evolutionary theory, cannot fully explain the origin of life or the
>emergence of highly complex life forms.
>
>Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or
>Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul's 1996
>statement that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."
>
>"A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said.
>"(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."
>
>He was asked about comments made in July by Austrian Cardinal Christoph
>Schoenborn, who dismissed in a New York Times article the 1996 statement by
>John Paul as "rather vague and unimportant" and seemed to
back intelligent
>design.
>
>Basti concurred that John Paul's 1996 letter "is not a very clear expression
>from a definition point of view," but he said evolution was assuming ever
>more authority as scientific proof develops.
>
>Poupard, for his part, stressed that what was important was that "the
>universe wasn't made by itself, but has a creator." But he added, "It's
>important for the faithful to know how science views things to understand
>better."
>
>The Vatican project STOQ has organized academic courses and conferences on
>the relationship between science and religion and is hosting its first
>international conference on "the infinity in science, philosophy and
>theology," next week.
>
>

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