"Bill Nye the Science guy"- I remember watching his program as a kid. Well, Bill Nye is making news after claiming that Creationism is not good for kids.
He says:
"I say to the grownups, 'If you want to deny evolution and live in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we've observed in the universe that's fine. But don't make your kids do it,'"Nye adds that teaching kids Creationism will make the the United States of America fall behind in science. To a certain degree he is right. We cannot read the accounts of Creation in Genesis literally. This will bring about many problems.
The Catholic Church does not have an official position on creation only that God created us. However, Evolution seems to be the side the Church takes. The recent pontificates of Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have publicly voiced approval of the theory of Evolution.
The first mention of evolution was in the encyclical Humanis Generis. Pope Pius XII states:
"The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experiences in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God."
Pope Pius XII basically says that evolution can be accepted as long as the teaching that souls are immediately created by God is held alongside it.
Blessed John Paul II had this to say to the Pontifical Academy for the Sciencesin 1996:
"In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points.... Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies—which was neither planned nor sought—constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory."
Here the late Pontiff states that evolution and faith are not in disagreement. He even goes as far as giving merit to the theory of evolution as being supported by evidence.
Pope Benedict XVI as Cardinal Ratizinger wrote:
"We cannot say: creation or evolution, inasmuch as these two things respond to two different realities. The story of the dust of the earth and the breath of God, which we just heard, does not in fact explain how human persons come to be but rather what they are. It explains their inmost origin and casts light on the project that they are. And, vice versa, the theory of evolution seeks to understand and describe biological developments. But in so doing it cannot explain where the 'project' of human persons comes from, nor their inner origin, nor their particular nature. To that extent we are faced here with two complementary—rather than mutually exclusive—realities." -In the Beginning: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall
Evolution is an important theory to teach our children. The story of Creation is also important to teach. However, this story must be taught in a way that children can understand it in relation to what we know today via evolution. Who cares if we came from slime, fish, apes or a rock. The important thing is that God created us and we are here now.
In 1987, the United States Supreme Court ruled the teaching of Creationism unconstitutional. In light of this, I think Bill Nye is a bit paranoid and going down a slippery slope. Our children will learn evolution regardless of their faith.
Evolution does not disqualify God as Creator. If anything, it shows the genius of God and how He uses natural processes in order to bring about life.
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/bill-nye-science-guy-creationism-evolution_n_1835208.html
http://news.yahoo.com/bill-nye-science-guy-says-creationism-not-good-101837975.html
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