I doubt I'll ever be a practicing catholic again

[Marle]

But this Pope gives me the warm fuzzies. This is what I grew up knowing. This is how I was taught to be a Christian.

Even when I am still convinced they pulled a "death to smoochie" trick on the church... Well hopefully the good guy wins in the end. Like smoochie.
aattp.org/pope-francis-declares-the-big-bang-theory-and-evolution-are-true-god-isnt-a-magician-with-a-magic-wand/

[rosiedozie]

All of my catholic friends are up in arms because apparently this isn't breaking news for a pope to say this. Let me see if I can find a link.

[elleblue]

Oct 29, 2014 22:37:58 GMT -5 rosiedozie said:

All of my catholic friends are up in arms because apparently this isn't breaking news for a pope to say this. Let me see if I can find a link.

It's my understanding Pope Jon Paul was of a similar mindset and thought religion and science could both be true, but Benedict set everything back (not a Catholic, could very well be mistaken). 

[gretchenindisguise]

Remember that there is that whole Jesuit wing to Catholicism. They like science.

[Deleted]

Oct 29, 2014 22:37:58 GMT -5 rosiedozie said:

All of my catholic friends are up in arms because apparently this isn't breaking news for a pope to say this. Let me see if I can find a link.

It's not. I remember JPII being pro-evolution in 1995ish. I don't know whether he was the first or not.

[Marle]

Yes! I grew up in a catholic country during JPII papacy. So yes, I know it's not new. it's the familiarity that makes me soft.

As an adult I grew away from organized religion in general and my last thread to Catholicism was JPII. So yes this is comforting in a strange way.

[hisno1girl]

www.ucatholic.com/blog/pius-xii-1951/

Not new news

[sandyapples]

We learned about evolution in Catholic grade school 20 years ago. Also that the bible is not all literal. I think people get Catholics and evangelical Christians confused sometimes.

ETA: I am no longer a practicing Catholic.

[eclaires]

I went to Catholic schools from k-12the grade. We were always taught evolution and in religion class we were taught that all the stories in the Old Testament were not to be taken as fact or literally but as stories to teach you something. So I say not new news. I remember being shocked the first time I encountered creationism.

That said, my perspective is skewed because I grew up Catholic. My BIL who is an atheist (but grew up Methodist) was surprised that I was actually taught science at a Catholic school and was surprised when I explained the above to him. He could just be clueless though. But I guess I can see why this would be news to some people.

At the end of the day, post Pope Benedict especially and the years of cover up of abuse, the Catholic Church has a PR problem (or did). A lot of the things Pope Francis is coming out and saying are things that I've always been taught or came to the same conclusion on if not specifically said, but I think Pope Francis recognizes the church needs rebuilding and a better image. He also understands how to accomplish that. That's not to say I don't think he is genuine because I absolutely do. I just think he, better than his predecessor, understands what the Church needs to do. Many times during Benedict's time as pope, the Church did some really boneheaded things that managed to make things worse, especially in the court of public opinion.

[gummybear]

Oct 30, 2014 7:21:48 GMT -5 eclaires said:

I went to Catholic schools from k-12the grade. We were always taught evolution and in religion class we were taught that all the stories in the Old Testament were not to be taken as fact or literally but as stories to teach you something. So I say not new news. I remember being shocked the first time I encountered creationism.

That said, my perspective is skewed because I grew up Catholic. My BIL who is an atheist (but grew up Methodist) was surprised that I was actually taught science at a Catholic school and was surprised when I explained the above to him. He could just be clueless though. But I guess I can see why this would be news to some people.

Same for me. I actually went to a Catholic university as well. The notion that Creationism was something that actually happened was foreign to me. We were taught the same thing, that the stories were basically "fairy tales" to teach the Word of God. We also learned about birth control, and my one 6th grade teacher even told us Jesus had "relations" with Mary Magdalin and that Mary may have been a virgin when she got pg. with Jesus, but that she and Joseph had a typical married relationship that included sex. 

I do think there is general misunderstanding with Evolution and Catholics. Many non-Catholics I have encountered have had the assumption we believe in Creationism. It's never been that way, at least in my experience, and I have been deeply entrenched in Catholic education my entire life.

[Deleted]

But am I crazy to think that Benedict backed off of that? So while this may have historically been what the church taught, it changed during the predecessor pope, so this actually is something new?

[coribelle26]

I don't recall there ever being any lapse in the "pro-evolution" department. I mean it's in the Catholic catechism and everything.

If I remember correctly the official Catholic teaching doesn't even go so far as to suggest that Intelligent Design concept (that God kind of directed the whole evolution of species). I don't know which denominations adhere to that but everything I ever learned in Catholic school was basically God created whatever was there in the beginning and then a bunch of other stuff happened, lol.

Truthfully I don't ever remember God being mentioned at all in science class.

[litebright]

Oct 30, 2014 9:17:50 GMT -5 jamaicam said:

Oct 30, 2014 7:04:45 GMT -5 socratic said:

I am also not a practicing Catholic anymore but I agree this is not new news.

I thought that the extreme anti-evolution was a fairly recent protestant phenomenon... am I wrong?

Don't smear all of us Protestants with the same brush! I'd say it is an Evangelical Christian phenomenon - denominations like Methodists and Presbyterians have no issue with science.  

The Methodist church that we were doing to for awhile had Einstein's equation in one of its stained glass windows. 

I thought that was so cool.