Church apologises to Darwin

[naomi24]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/rel igion/2958018/Church-to-make-posthumous-apolog y-to-Charles-Darwin.html

What do you make of this?

[China Doll]

Absolutely and utterly meaningless. I agree entirely with Dr Brown and Andrew Darwin.

Plus an apology generally means that you won't do the same thing twice as you have acknowledged you were in the wrong and have learnt from it. I hardly think the church will being calm and reasonable over the next discovery that questions their God... You'd think they'd have a little faith really.

[Lonnie]

Hi Naomi,
I actually think the apology is a good thing, (better late than never), but it probably would have been recieved better if the Church had also said that he was right, after all, regardless of your own religious beliefs, relgion, some at any rate, evolves with time, and God and Evolution can go hand in hand.

[flobadob]

So where does this leave the whole idea of the world being a few thousand years old and man created in god's image then lonnie? Because if you believe evolution you believe the earth is billions of years old and man evolved from apes of some sort. Any theories on that?

[fagidill]

Good old THICKIE bible thumper's , they think everyone is stupid except them . How i loath them .

[Lonnie]

flobadob, the way i'm thinking, is that there are quite a few practicing Christians and people from other religions, who now accept Darwins theory, but still believe in God,

That being so, and it is, the church with its apology, could at least have mentioned that or similar, then I think the apology may have been accepted.

[naomi24]

Hi Lonnie, It seems contradictory to say that some Christians and people from other religions now accept Darwin's theory, but still believe in God. If they believe that God made man in his own image, how can they possibly accept evolution? That would mean that the only creature on earth that hasn't evolved is man. Since we know that isn't true, it would seem that God looks very different to what we imagine, and we now look nothing like him.

[keyplus90]

Naomi � I agree with what Lonnie said. I know we are talking here about church. But in response to what you said to Lonnie. I have said this before that Man was created by God, other animals might have evolved as my faith does not stop me believing in that and actually supports the idea.

Going back to human, you said that according to you it is not true that man was not evolved. Can you please elaborate on that and let me know of any fact that you might be aware of.

[terambulan]

Keyplus where are the facts that God created man. Please, not biblical/koran as they are not facts but fiction/beliefs made up by a bunch of arabs long ago.

[naomi24]

Keyplus, no, I said that humans HAVE evolved, and therefore if God created us in his image, God must look very different to what we imagine.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Plenty of Christians believe in evolution; Kenneth Miller is perhaps one of the best known. Despite what fundamentalist Christians (and Muslims) would have you believe, theism and evolution are not mutually contradictory, which is why it's so galling when they make such a big deal out of something that they feel the need to lie about it, when it could sit alongside their faiths.

[WaldoMcFroog]

There is, of course, a wealth of evidence that supports the view that humans evolved.

Here's the Christian evolutionary scientist Ken Miller on one of the best proofs that we have: http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/evol07. sci.life.evo.genconnect/

[jake-the-peg]

I think what you are seeing here is the Catholic church positioning itself as more forward thinking than Protestantism.

Think about it. The Protestant church rejected the role of priests as intemediaries to God that left them with the Bible as a source of authority.

The trouble with that of course is that is that if you then reject one part of the Bible say Genesis you undermine your whole authority which is why Bible literalists are so up the creek without a paddle - Bless!

Because the Catholic church also has so much doctrine that is "revealed" all the Mary stuff for example it has a greater ability to move with changing scientific knowledge.

What you are seeing is the Pope basically saying:

"Look at us we're progressive. Not like that lot that think the Dinosaurs were killed in the flood - No more questions on condoms please!"

[WaldoMcFroog]

Er, the Pope issued a statement last year(if not the year before) essentially saying evolution was true. This is about the CoE.

[naomi24]

Theism and evolution aren't mutually contradictory - unless you believe that man hasn't evolved, and that God looks like us.

[jake-the-peg]

So it is!

Well I always like to think of the CofE as the Roman Catholic church in drag anyway!

Theism may not be contradictory to evolution but a literal interpretation of the bible sure is!

There are also rather awkward questions for theists about evolution.

When and how did humans first acquire a soul is a good one for starters

[keyplus90]

Naomi � God looks like us or God created man his in his image is Christian philosophy. Muslims do not agree with it.

Waldo � After reading your link why can�t we say that Human was created by God and then monkeys and apes evolved (with the intention and will) of God from human. Why do you believe that Human instead evolved from monkeys or so?

[WaldoMcFroog]

Firstly, as always, no one thinks that man evolved from the modern apes or monkeys. We all evolved from a common ancestor. And, of course, the below is just part of the answer. It's a weight of evidence from numerous areas that combines to give weight to the idea as the most plausible explanation of the evidence.

Did you view the film as well as read the background essay?

I'm not sure what can be added to that explanation, or why you don't understand it., but here goes:

Take the issue of the telomeres - the markers at the end of DNA sequences. The fact that we can find one in the middle of chromosome 2 suggests that two stands have fused. The same DNA sequences either side of that telomere exists in apes but as separate strands.

The combined chromosome two isn't found in apes, which is what you would expect if they had evolved from us.

[naomi24]

God looks like us or God created man his in his image is Christian philosophy. Muslims do not agree with it.

We aren't talking about Muslims, so what's your point?

[flobadob]

Keyplus watch that Darwin thing that was on Channel4 a few weeks ago, and then see that all apes today, including humans, evolved from a single being which diversified in the past somewhere. Twas an interesting show and yes, there is proof shown in it.
Also, as humans evolve, I wonder if what we look like in 50,000 years time will still be what god looks like. I suppose it could be argued that god once looked apelike and evolved along with us to what we are now.
By the way that last bit just popped into my head while typing so not a lot of thought went into it. Ah well.