Vatican issues defence of evolution, rejects fundamentalist creationism

November 9, 2005

The Vatican issued a defence of Darwinian evolution at a news conference Thursday.

In what many are calling a direct attack on the rising support for fundamentalist creationism in America, Cardinal Poupard, head of the Vatican Pontifical Council for Culture, stated that the Genesis description of God's creation of the universe and Darwin's theory of evolution are "perfectly compatible" if the Bible is properly interpreted.

"The fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim," he said, and that the point of Genesis is that "the universe didn't make itself and had a creator."

"The faithful should heed modern science and to guard against religion crossing over to fundamentalism if it ignores scientific reasoning."

"Science should also listen to religion. The atomic bomb and cloning are from reason with no ethical or religious link."

When asked directly about intelligent design, Mons. Basti quoted John Paul II, saying that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."