It’s the start of a new week, and it will be a hot one in Chicago, though not nearly as hot as Louisiana or Arizona. Severe thunderstorms plagued the Midwest (and Chicago) yesterday, with tornados in Iowa and hail the size of golfballs reported in Minnesota, and one person dying as a tent collapsed. It’s back to work for Professor Ceiling Cat, and I’m pleased to see that Hili, like me, is contemplating evolution. Malgorzata gives us a word about the book:
The title is “Examine Evolution” and it is a Catholic publication in which they deny evolution. Why we got it is a long story.
Hili’s response:
A: Do you believe in evolution?
Hili: What, can’t you see I’m in Her image?
In Polish:
Ja: Wierzysz w ewolucję?
Hili: Co ty, nie widzisz, że jestem na Jej obraz i podobieństwo.
What gives? I thought Catholics were down with evolution (except for when God discovered he had to ensoul the monkeys).
Not all Catholics accept evolution. This book was published by the most orthodox (almost fanatical) branch of Polish Catholicism. They definitely do not accept evolution.
The pope should take them to the woodshed for a little chat.
I can see there is a lot of room for argument. The recent popes have endorsed evolution in a very cautious way. “Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, a close associate of Benedict, penned a widely noticed 2005 op-ed in The New York Times that said “Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense — an unguided, unplanned process … is not.”
I think they want it both ways.
A real page turner. Or maybe the pages turn themselves.
I doubt that its original authors are catholics. They would have been hard core anti-papists a few centuries back.
Oh, the whole ID bunch wrote this pamphlet. How courteous! But I am missing Michael Behe, the model catholic from the Discovery institute.
Heh heh — the usual suspects. The translator, a Dominican priest with a PhD in “fundamental theology”, called Michał Chaberek, is a great fan of Meyer and a visitor to DI. “Enlightened” Catholic priests often try to steer a middle course, saying a kind word about “Darwinism” but adding some caveats about humans being special and having immortal souls, or the possibility of guided evolution. Chaberek, however, represents the hardline fringe: microevolution is OK, but macroevolution doesn’t happen; kinds were created separately; intelligent design is scientifically demonstrable.
What’s with that cover? I thought that was supposed to be a magnifying lens over the butterfly, but…
Magnifying lens is just a theory.
Oops, I should have read above to see that you beat me to this comment. 🙂
Great minds! 😀
Indeed, Hili is superb at doing her part to help dem mousies evolve.
b&
Don’t forget the wonderful guidance the mice give, shaping cats toward perfect, predatory catness.
Indeed — the Red Queen is the most heartless slavedriver of them all….
b&
The cover photograph appears to show the author of “Examine Evolution” has chosen a magnifying glass that doesn’t magnify the butterflies at all! No wonder they don’t appear to have learned anything from their failed attempt at doing science, they’re obviously unclear on how the whole process works.
From the cover, this book is a translation of the book “Explore Evolution”, which was written at the US propaganda group called the Discovery Institute. (Google the title, and you will find the same cover and author list.)
This is the book that the Discovery Institute (DI) has promoted as a resource for high school science students here in my home state of Louisiana.
It is my suspicion that the ‘scientific’ arguments in this book are about as ‘scientific’ as Communist propaganda from the cold war era.
Would any of the eastern european scientists who read this website be willing to read this book, and make a comparison to the propaganda they were expected to read long ago?
Even Vatican use the word “however”. They accept evolution but soul exists, and (of course) God exists, and same form of creation exists, and there is something fishy about this evolution. Polish clergy is divided, some follow the Pope and some say that science is stupid and we must believe Bible.
I’ve got this book from pulisher for reviewing. Just now I haven’t got the time but I hope one day I will give it a proper review.
I think it can’t be emphasized enough that the Vatican position is indistinguishable from the Old Earth Creationist one. Both embrace what the OECs label “microevolution” whilst adding on the exact same caveats that you list.
If the Vatican is down with Evolution, then so is Behe and the Disco’tute.
b&