Religion and science have never been comfortable bedfellows, because at their core they sharply contrast each other. Science only deals with cold, hard, incontrovertible facts, whilst religion is based on faith: “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”

This has led to several huge battles in the past, mainly the church’s persecution of scientists whose findings often contradict the tenets of religion. Ironically, the Catholic Church remained at the forefront of said persecution for centuries.

One big contention has always been the origins of the world, creation vs. evolution, God vs. Darwin. It is the quintessential religion vs. science debate, and the two have always been seen as mutually exclusive, discouraging religious folks from entertaining the huge possibility that evolution was in fact our origins, since it sharply contradicts the creationist perspective.

But the father of the biggest sect of Christianity worldwide, Pope Francis, has passed comments which point to the veracity of the evolution movement. According to him, the two theories need not cancel each other out, but can co-exist to both explain mankind’s origins.

According to the Independent, the pope was speaking to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. His position sharply contradicts that of his predecessor Benedict XVI as well as centuries of papal doctrine.

“When we read about creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so”

I thought that’s what omnipotent meant.

“He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment”

“The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.

“Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”

You can see him trying to straddle the thin line between the two, trying to admit to evolution without discrediting creationism, but it just does not work like that.

The science of the big bang totally invalidates creation. The pope cannot go there so tries this half-hearted attempt to merge the two. Still, the fact that he even admits to the scientific theories is kind of huge news.

I need to get some thinking done because I always thought of God as a magician with a magic wand.