John Paul II evolution controversy

 

by

Damien F. Mackey

  

“The subsequent official English-language translation of the speech,

published October 30, 1996 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, translated the section to read that new knowledge "has led to the recognition

of more than one hypothesis in the theory of evolution"

(John Paul II 1996, this issue p 382).”.

 Eugenie C. Scott

 

 

Back when pope John Paul II issued his highly controversial statement about evolution  to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences entitled “Truth Cannot Contradict Truth” (October 22, 1996), I, pondering the matter, wrote in an article:

 

Pope John Paul II and that: «L’évolution est plus qu’une hypothèse …»

 

(1) Pope John Paul II and that: «L’évolution est plus qu’une hypothèse …»

 

I, having as I did (and still do) a great respect for the pope and his philosophical

expertise, found it very hard to accept that he had said that, as translated: “Evolution was more than a hypothesis”. Checking the French original of the speech, I wondered if it could actually be translated as “more than one hypothesis” (of evolution). According to a French academic I asked at the Geology Department of the University of Sydney, the French phrase could thus be translated into English. Though a Jesuit priest afterwards told me otherwise, that the French phrase would need - to convey my hopeful meaning - something additional like «plus qu’une seule hypothèse»

 

Now I learn that my suggestion was actually the translation provided in an official English-language translation of the speech:

Creationists and the Pope's Statement | National Center for Science Education

 

Creationists and the Pope's Statement

 

by Eugenie C. Scott

 

…. But it wasn't only conservative Protestants who objected to the Pope's statement.

 

Conservative Catholic columnist Cal Thomas, working from the Vatican press release (as were all journalists when the story broke) bemoaned the "more than a hypothesis" phrase as proof that the Pope had capitulated to the idea that humankind was a product of a gradual evolutionary process, "a philosophy that stands at the core of communism" (Thomas 1996:A18). Thomas regretted the Pope's "remarkable shift" because, "if man is not a unique creation of God, he is of no greater value and has no greater moral standing than an animal . . ." (p A18).
Fairly quickly, however, Thomas's dismay was assuaged by an apparent translation error, which he felt allowed him to reinterpret the Pope's statement. The Vatican press release quoted John Paul II as having said (in French) that evolution was "more than a hypothesis" ("la theorie de l'evolution plus qu'une hypothese").

 

The subsequent official English-language translation of the speech, published October 30, 1996 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, translated the section to read that new knowledge "has led to the recognition of more than one hypothesis in the theory of evolution" (John Paul II 1996, this issue p 382). Seizing upon the relative ambiguity of "more than one hypothesis," Thomas wrote a second column claiming, "it is clear that the Pope was not watering down or liberalizing the church's view that the origin of man remained open to debate. He said that there are several theories of origin within the scientific community" (Thomas 1997:B8).

 

Thomas was joined in his enthusiasm for the revised version by the conservative Catholic World Report, which lambasted the news media for the "more than a hypothesis" translation, claiming that the preferable "more than one hypothesis" reflected "a lack of unanimity within the scientific community itself as to which particular hypothesis best explains the theory of evolution . . ." (Delano 1996:51). ….

 

Some Australians seem to have evolution theory around the wrong way.

 

They actually think that they come from Darwin (a Milton Jones joke).

 

Darwin wasn't always an evolutionist.

He slowly became one over time.

 

How did Charles Darwin propose to his wife?

He said that she was his natural selection.

 

One day, a zookeeper noticed a chimpanzee reading two books ...

--The Bible and Darwin's Origin of the Species. Astonished, he asked the ape,

"Not only can you read, you're reading two books at once!?"
"Well," said the chimp, "I'm trying to figure out if I'm my brother's keeper,

or my keeper's brother."