Pope Francis
According to an October 30, 2014 news release on the Religion page of huffingtonpost.com the pope talked at a meeting recently to some scientists about evolution being an acceptable way of viewing the method by which God created humans. This apparently has been an acceptable view since it was indicated by Pope Pius XII during the 1950's. It has not been very popular with many in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, most notably with one of the leading cardinals, who, several years ago, expressed his view that evolution did not seem capable of leading to the extreme complexity seen in humans. So the view of Pope Francis is welcome, as you can infer from many of my earlier posts.
My 2010 Evolution Insights book manuscript has Appendix 4, Chance and The Origin of Man, discussing some of the above on seven pages beginning as follows
"This appendix has been shaped largely by consideration of arguments presented by Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, author of the 2007 book entitled Chance or Purpose. His book was written to clarify his position expressed in a July 7, 2005 New York Times article titled "Finding Design in Nature". A final section will quote from an excellent new article showing that others in the religious establishment do not share the view of Chance or Purpose."
I was alerted to the Huffington Post item by another daughter who thought I would find it interesting.
The appendix noted above has a section on teleology, the philosophical belief in all things being created for and directed toward an end, and notes that it "is fine for religion, debatable for philosophy, but counter-productive for science." Seven other sections included The Faith and Morals Side, Overextending philosophy/theology, Our unique brain, why we are all so smart, Obstacles to agreement, The role of chance in evolution, Intermediate causes and the final cause, and A refreshing voice. I may leave those without comment unless interest in them is expressed.
Joseph G. Engemann October 31, 2014
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