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Why the Pope Shuns Creationism But Supports Exorcism
http://news.discovery.com/history/religion/why-the-pope-shuns-creationism-but-supports-exorcism-141105.htmThe pope’s statement supporting the importance of exorcists came on the same day that he reaffirmed that Catholic teachings do not stand in opposition to evolution and the Big Bang. In statements made at an assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, he said: “‘When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,’ Francis told the gathering. God, Francis said, ‘created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment.’”
The Catholic Church has long accepted that evolution by natural selection is a proven scientific fact and doesn’t contradict Catholic doctrine. Pope Pius XII stated this in 1950, and Pope John Paul II reiterated the point in 1996. The wrinkle is, of course, that God created the universe and everything in it before evolution took over.
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Pope Francis can afford to distance himself and the church from creationists — especially young-Earth creationists who believe that the planet is only about 6,000 years old — but dismissing Satan is a whole other matter. To deny the existence of demonic possession would question the existence of the Devil, an important character in Catholic theology.
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Tom Flynn, editor of the secular humanist magazine Free Inquiry, told Discovery News: “Like every Christian religion, Catholicism needs a solution to the problem of evil: If God is all-good and all-loving, how can there be evil in the world? Satan solves that problem (more or less) by serving as God’s adversary, the author of all the moral and physical evils that the faithful would prefer not to attribute to God. The whole drama of salvation is depicted as an epic battle between God and Satan. So Catholicism can’t part with Satan in the way it can jettison something more genuinely incidental, like creationism. Satanism is baked into the Catholic worldview at too deep a level for that.”
The Catholic Church has long accepted that evolution by natural selection is a proven scientific fact and doesn’t contradict Catholic doctrine. Pope Pius XII stated this in 1950, and Pope John Paul II reiterated the point in 1996. The wrinkle is, of course, that God created the universe and everything in it before evolution took over.
...
Pope Francis can afford to distance himself and the church from creationists — especially young-Earth creationists who believe that the planet is only about 6,000 years old — but dismissing Satan is a whole other matter. To deny the existence of demonic possession would question the existence of the Devil, an important character in Catholic theology.
...
Tom Flynn, editor of the secular humanist magazine Free Inquiry, told Discovery News: “Like every Christian religion, Catholicism needs a solution to the problem of evil: If God is all-good and all-loving, how can there be evil in the world? Satan solves that problem (more or less) by serving as God’s adversary, the author of all the moral and physical evils that the faithful would prefer not to attribute to God. The whole drama of salvation is depicted as an epic battle between God and Satan. So Catholicism can’t part with Satan in the way it can jettison something more genuinely incidental, like creationism. Satanism is baked into the Catholic worldview at too deep a level for that.”
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