Pope Says God Behind Theories Like Big Bang

You knew this was coming...

Article

Now what I find most interesting in the article was this tidbit at the end:


(Allegory: a symbolical narrative)

Discuss.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude! Why!?

For the lulz, of course. Our pizza thread died down(OVERKILL!! FATALITY!) so we must occupy ourselves with religion & politic threads.

Religion, yet again giving humans an unnecessary superiority complex and making them believe the universe revolves around their existence.

Jesus Allegory Lion!

So after all this time God was finally like sup g's, you got it all wrong. There was this big explosion and stuff and then the universe was gettin bigger and then earth was like this rock right, and then there was like volcanoes and ***, and then stuff began to dry cuz I made it rain (lol) and then there was life cuz water = life or something like that. Peace out and stop believing that genesis crap my homies.

But seriously, stating that god is behind the big bang theory is pretty messed up because it suggests that god is not all-powerful, which Catholics believe him to be. Why would he decide to create a big bang rather than snapping his fingers and making everything appear...

Wait though, before all the lulz and killing time, I find it interesting that the catholic church no longer teaches creationism.

Not only that, but is just shy of accepting evolution.

The pope even says that Genesis (old testament I believe) is to not be taken literally.

Now that's a huge change in the teachings of the church.

Religion needs to evolve to stay current.

Next thing you know they'll say that being gay is ok.

That would be huge for them.

Meh.
Spicy is still gonna be spicy and excel is still gonna be excel.
/end thread

I find it funny how the Pope says


That's not to say science has had its degree of assertion or forthcoming as things being fact or fiction; but the general nature of science is to bring forth an idea, question or theory, create hypothesis and support it with tests and tangible evidence from those given results and give the option of accepting it for what it is. It's always open to interpretation and further questioning/testing thus improving to greater discovery and knowledge from thereon.

Religion rather has this great sense of truth or absolution imposed upon its followers. This alone is a great factor why I shy away and disassociate from religion of any kind.

The current pope is attacking atheists.

I mean to accept evolution (almost), but to say "...as some would want us to believe..." clearly he's attacking them and not science per say.

I suppose. But to blanket athesists as over imposing a belief upon those of faith is no different than saying every Christian acts like a missionary.

No argument there.

This is the catholic church we're talking about here.

Just the fact that the pope is admitting the fact that Genesis is not to be used as scientific text and that it is merely a symbolic narrative, as he puts it, I think is huge in their way of thinking.

Regardless of my point of view, I can appreciate a more open and non-linear manner of thinking from a religious figure; especially the Pope no less.

This admission (about Genesis) completely changes the playing field here. It totally puts, say for example, the story of Noah in its place. A symbolic story rather than a literal one.

I created the universe with my ***.

That is a huge step, but for it to essentially take this long to come to such an epiphany, where does that leave the mass that have "religiously" followed the former line of belief with these stories?

Either they'll take to themselves and continue to follow it as fact, or they could simply accept what the Pope says and go from there. Double edged sword either way. You can think for yourself and be wrong, or you can mindlessly follow what an authority figure says and hope he knows what he's talking about.

GIFSoup

/thread

I think maybe the real question here is what has suddenly changed their mind and to announce it so quickly?



Chubbs, lol!

Then the universe would be brown.

Catholics have never really been biblical literalists. Some of the earliest Church Fathers (as they call them) were interpreting Genesis figuratively as far back as the second century C.E.

Now, if a Protestant fundamentalist leader came out and said this, then you'd really have one of those situations with poos and fans and whatnot.

The universe is brown. The planet earth is a blue M&M I ate a while back.

Would not the The Reformation contradict this though?

I'm not sure what you mean exactly. The Reformation was the "beginning" of organized Protestant thought. Most people who believe the Bible must necessarily be taken literally throughout, would fall into the camp of being Protestant (that is, standing in protest against the Catholic Church).

What I meant was the whole formation of Protestantism was based on the need for lesser restrictions on doctrine than what the catholic church was enforcing at the time.

Protestantism came up with divorce, no?

I was always under the assumption that is was a less strict form of Christianity than Catholicism.

Very much so this. The Pope just got some brownie points in my book.

Protestants emerged with the Enlightenment in Europe. For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church had dictated how people were to read and understand the Bible. The pursuit of knowledge during the Enlightenment made people pick it up for themselves. They concluded, in short, that the Catholic Church had been lying to them.

They rejected the Church, the Pope, and all their Traditions, replacing them with sola scriptura (Scripture alone) as their authority on doctrine.

This is why many of them believe the Bible to be infallible and, sometimes, even inerrant. However, this also means that many varying interpretations exist and doctrine is understood quite differently among different denominations.

Protestant fundamentalists (emerged in the late 19th century) are the most extreme in rigorous doctrine among the Protestants (these are the folks who think women shouldn't wear pants or jewelry). They rival the Catholics in strictness, for sure.

Interesting...

I always though Catholics were the hardcore ones and Protestants were the lessor bunch.