Faithless

What a horrendous disappointment Cardinal Ratzinger has turned out to be. No moderate or liberal Catholic expected him to be great for the progressive movement within the Church, but now he's supporting another cardinal who's suggested that belief in evolution conflicts with the Catholic faith.

In the past, popes and church leaders have expressed support for evolution. When I went to Catholic school, my science classes never invoked God as a way to explain the creation of the earth or the appearance of modern-day species. I'd hate to think that's going to change now, but this NYT article certainly suggests that the Church is shifting right.

What the hell is happening in this country? Why do science and religion have to be in conflict with each other when they shouldn't even be compared to each other? One is a system of inquiry and fact-finding, while the other is a system of belief. Religious views about human origins belong in a philosophy class, and I say this as someone who is a religious person. We have hard, detailed evidence of evolution, and it's ludicrous to suggest that intelligent design or creationism merit the same attention in a biology class. I don't see why so many Christians view evolution as a threat to their faith. When I grew up, evolution and Catholicism could co-exist peacefully, and neither had to stamp the other out of existence. If your faith is so fragile that everything which contradicts it must be eradicated or debunked, well, what does that say about its viability?