yes, Evolution is a theory, just like gravity. Try avoiding gravity tomorrow. Anybody with the slightest knowledge of biology knows that the general theory of evolution is proven to the degree of certainty. The great biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky said 'Nothing in Biology makes sense, except in the light of Evolution'.

To try and deny evolution and favour Intelligent Design is utterly ridiculous, and only highlights the lack of rationality of the religious.

Phil, Hexham, England

As a general proposition:

Whenever Faith and Reason disagree about the state of Nature, Faith is the one which ends up looking Foolish.

Does anyone have counterexamples to this? I would be curious.

Charles, Charlottesville, USA

Contrary to the pope's assertion, he is using god of the gaps, only the gaps aren't scientific gaps, but general philosophical gaps. Oh, we don't know x y and z in philosophy? Why is God an appropriate explanation? Oh, nobody has any idea, they just assumed it was because traditionally it has been. Pfft.

Oh, and common descent of all life on earth has been proven beyond reasonable doubt, and the process of evolution as a biodiversity-creating natural mechanism is factual, it's theoretical too because it makes predictions.

Oh, and don't play the quote-mining games, science-hating evangelicals, that's so lame it's untrue. Neo-darwinism is not dead by any stretch, anyone can go outside and watch it in action right now.

Ryan, Bolton, UK

Actually, all that Pope said was so far Theory of Evolution has not been scientifically proven. It is still a theory. It might be true. It might turn out to be unture. Whatever the case, it certainly needs modifying at it currently stands. And teaching it to children as a matter of fact is dishonesty on part of scientific fanatics.

Z Hussain, Rochdale, UK

Leading evolutionist Lynn Margulis said at the world summit on evolution in the Galapogos in 2005, "Neo-Darwinism is dead." I wish leaders in the Church would stand up and quote evolutionists. It would be clear its not science at all.

Tony, Indianapolis, USA/IN

The Bible seems to be the only source that is used to substantiate the existence of God, and the only record of the alleged "creation". If someone takes the Bible literally, then the Earth is a mere 6,000 - 7,000 years old, Adam and Eve are the first people to live on the planet, and Neanderthal-man never existed.

IMO, the countless gods that have been invented over the millennia, were created to explain things that people at the time had no concept of. It was (and is) easier to say; "God did it".
For me? I'll go with science any day. Man has advanced despite religion, not because of it. There is a lot of solid evidence that supports evolution, yet none to support the notion that
"God did it".

Slate, Pocono Mountains, PA [usa]

How can the leader of the Catholic Church say that something is “not finally provable”. Religion is one big "finally unprovable" thing so where is logical point of this debate?

Andy, London,

In the U.S. our Foundational Document is the Declaration fo Independence. It is stated in Title 1 of the United States Code that the Declaration is part of the Organic Law of our Nation.
That document states that Man is endowed by his CREATOR with Inalienable Rights.
America is a Creationist Nation. Lawyers who argue otherwise are guilty of Treason in the Highest Order, for without RIghts of Man from G-D, Government has no proper function other than to oppress the weak and unenfranchsed for the sake of the beautiful, monied, and empowered who represent the most evolved of humanity, who decide who has RIghts and how important they are..
The rest are destined to be Troglite Slaves.
The Oath of Office and Lawyers is to uphold the Law, the can exist only to preserve the RIghts of Man. Sir Winston Churhill said under the Magna Carta any in Office who make laws contrary to that purpose, they and their whole families are to be seized.
EVOLUTION = TREASON

Thurston Bell, Knoxville , USA TN

I could care less what the head necromancer of a bizarre cult has to say about anything.

Bob Russell, Winnipeg, Canada

Evolution is not compatible with the bible.
You cannot mix and match.
If you view the vast evidence of the mud layers (from Noahs flood) in the mountains, as such, you have evidence for the flood. A fact that proves the bible true.
creation ministries international or creation research or answers in genesis are great links to follow this topic.
Well done the Pope for coming out on the side of bible belief, but lets be consistent, believe one or the other, and as a leading Christian, please beleive the bible. that way you set a great precident for the other believers.

Chris Leathers, Hitchin, England

Luke 3:23-38 traces man's roots one generation at a time back to Adam. The scientists who so fervently believe in evolution claim they can observe a bone fragment and tell me that it is 50 million years old--not 49 but 50. If these scientists are that smart, then they should have no problem going one step further than a simple Jewish physician and tell me who Adam's earthly father was--in which case I will believe in evolution.

mike, sherman, tx

The Lie: Evolution

The Truth: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day." Genesis 1:31

He did it in 6 literal 24-hour days, and He did it about 6,000 years ago.

"By the word of the LORD were the heavens made;
and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. . . .
For He spake, and it was done;"

Psalm 33:6,9

Robert E ODonnell, Woodstock, USA/GA

Quack Quack Quack!.

The fundermental problem is that some people start any thought based on the assumption that there is some devine entity, and work from there. People like myself start by saying, "what can we observe, and can we glue it all together".

I also do not know of any scientific theoy that isn't being researched and subtly changed every day. That said, I trust them enough to literally put my life in their hands - I know that what science we have is a close enough model of reality to get us by.

Unlike religion thats says "god did it, now we don't have to think". Luckerly some people did think, or we would still be back in middle ages.

Hang on - looks like the Vatician still is!

Ian, Perth, Aus

Can't we put a stop to woolly thinking? Theories are attempts at explanations. They are subject to change as scientific knowledge increases. The theory of evolution explains very nicely how life has developed and is still developing on earth. It does not try to tell us where life came from. Science doesn't either. But that is no reason to believe in archaic fairy-tales (religion) that try to tell us they can explain everything. The intelligent person will say in all humility "There are things which I do not understand and which science has not yet been able to explain either." That's something I can live with. I don't need to be gullible enough to be taken in by priests, popes or the like who try to tell me they are in possession of the ultimate truth. They aren't. The pope, I hear, has been at pains to claim there is no incompatibility between reason and belief. Is it then reasonable to believe in something which is unreasonable, or rational to believe in the irrational?

alan, cologne,

I think Pope being archaic can't understand that God was the first Darwinist. Being clever He surely created not only this world but as well theory of evolution in it which in turn created all the variety of life on Earth (and I'm sure in Space) and the Pope himself.

Serguei, Rossosh, Russia

How can there be evolution when Catholics are exactly as ignorant and bigoted as they were 2000 years ago.
Solid proof evolution doesn't exist.

Adam, eastcote, middx, UK

I simply think that creationism is a consolatory idea. I would really like to think that there's a "thelos", a good "thelos" in our reality, in our life, but - as Dave Malantowicz says - "one has to be blind to see the reality around us intelligent".
Moreover, belief in an intelligent design ends up forbidding scientific research, limiting and banishing human curiosity and search for knowledge, human freedom. And that's a moral question.
I'm Italian and I am agnostic. However, I appreciated for many reasons Pope John Paul. Now I regard Benedict XVI as a danger for christians, Italians, scientists, and other religions too.

Roberta B., Venezia, Italy

The Theory of Evolution is based upon facts, but that is not the same as it being proven.
It can only be proven scientfically once man can replicate it . That means man creating life in a sea of amonia which contains no life at all and getting it to evolve. When man can so create life then he can confirm the Theory of Evolution. As far as I know he hasn't managed it.
Currently the Theory of Evolution right now is the theory accepted by most people in the West as to why we are here. But that also does not mean it is a proven theory. Until it is proven there will continue to be arguments about it.

Bob, Manchester, UK

'The irreducible complexity of life' is a convenient fantasy dressed us as science invented by those who want to believe something and will do anything to justify it.

If you want to believe in your supernatural nonsense then that is your affair. But please don't pretend it is science or has any logic to it whatsoever. You want proof of evolution happening before your eyes? Take a look at superbugs in hospitals developing immunity to our drugs or bird flu evolving as we speak possibly to kill millions.

The fact that we cannot explain something absolutely and completely is not an opportunity to shoehorn God into things. It merely means we have more to learn just as people did when they thought the Earth was flat. In centuries to come the current attempts by believers to deny scientific advance will look as ridiculous as the flat earthers do to us now. Even now it looks like desperation by those who will believe a book full of fantasy and contradiction but not physical evidence.

Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK

The template of Humanity, the anthropos, is a universal emanation. Our divine Mother Earth, Gaia Sophia, is the perfect environment for this Generation we call mankind. Also according to gnostic seers there are other types and generations of humanity in other worlds. The anthropos is located in the Orion constellation.

terton, London, England

The idea that evolution is still considered serious science is beyond laughable. EVERYBODY who listens knows why evolution keeps being touted like an ancient mantra to ward off evil spirits: because the spirit they are trying to ward off is theism. This is indeed a philosophical and religious war, as the proponents of evolution see materialistic socialism as the "hope" of the future.

Evolution stopped being serious science when Pasteur proved spontaneous generation was a lie. And when no missing link of ANY species could ever be proved (except the perpetual frauds). And when the bird beaks went back to their original shape and the moths to their original colors. And when the statistics of the theory went off the charts from unlikely to absolutely miraculous if any appropriate mutation takes place in this universe.

It truly is the Big Lie. Meanwhile, Genesis just keeps on educating.

J. T. Wheeler, Charlotte, NC, USA

Intelligent Design Theory is misrepresented here as:

"Intelligent design (ID) argues that life forms are too complex to have evolved randomly, and must have been created by a higher power."

This is far too simplistic an explanation of it and leads to "straw man" attacks on it by its detractors.

It would convey a more accurate scope of ID to say, for example, that Intelligent Design challenges the possibility of macroevolution on the scientific grounds of thermodynamics, informatics, and biochemistry.

Intelligent Design theories are explored in laboratories and classrooms, not churches.

Jon Klement, St. Charles, MO, USA

Darwinism is not just an idea, Darwinism is a theory deducted by the observation of life in the past and present of this planet. It's not perfect, but no theory can be perfect. Intelligent Design is just an idea that has no need to be verified, like every religious subject. If you believe in God, you can think of a God who creates an evolving universe, our universe; or maybe you think that He's not Intelligent enough..

Raffaele, Milan,

When religious people question the facts behind evolution, they often insist that it has to be explained and proved in minute detail before it could possibly be believed. When people like the Pope say God created everything, they give no explanation and think saying 'God did it' is enough proof. Either he is completely stupid, or thinks everyone listening to him is. May be there is more description in the Bible, but I wouldn't know. I prefer the fiction books I read to be a bit shorter!

Eleanor, London,

“We cannot haul 10,000 generations into the laboratory.”

Actually, we can. Unless the Pope wants to attack the "theory" of bacteria. And not all science is done in the lab. Perhaps someone who doesn't actually know how science works shouldn't be given so much space to spout opinions on science?

Boo, washington, dc

Explain the evolution of human consciousness in a way that is understandable. Why did male and female sexual reproduction evolve in higher life forms when self reproduction would seem to make evolution so much easier and certainly much more probable? Explain the genesis in humans of love, patience, joy, gentleness, faithfulness, kindness and self control in the context of Darwinian evolution. Oh, and finally tell me a story about the certain probability and common occurrence of matter self organizing.

Matthew Peters, Richmond Heights, Missouri

I support and applaud Pope Benedict for pubicly stating this. From the very beginning of this article Mr. Owen links evolution with science. Why? Whether he intended to I don't know. Is evolution a proven theory or an opinion or more accurately a belief? It is a belief, but we've been taught for decades that it is part of proven science and it is not. You can't prove either side of this debate because you can not duplicate the processes in a laboratory. The 1953 experiment by Miller and Urey didn't work, by the way. You have two different theories based on facts and evidence found just like in a crime scene. I urge anyone inerested in this subject to stick to just the facts and I think you will find that they overwhelmingly point to an intelligent design/ creation.
Luke, AR U.S.

Luke , AR,

One poster here talks of the 'vaste mountain of evidence that supports evolution'.

Strange, then, that despite all that supposed evolution over all those millions of years, not one fossil of anything half way between one species and another has ever been found.

David, Bristol, England

The natural world is full of instances of cruelty, destructiveness and waste.

Why do many religious people wish to implicate God in all this by rejecting the only coherent explanation of life's diversity, that of natural selection?

Ian, London,

Pete from perth, you say that scientists can not create a human body and so can not explain its origins. However, I doubt that you can create a human body or that the ancient scriptures of India could either and yet both apparently can explain the origins of the human body.... hmmm.

James, Parma, Italy

Coudn't God have created Darwinism?

Graham Schuil-Brewer, Blomac, France

Much as I admire the Pope's encyclical and his Bonn lecture (seriously misquoted!) I am afraid he has come up with an oxymoron - there's no such criter as "a complete
scientifically proven theory".

Brian Ward, Prenton, UK

Hey! Maybe we don't exist at all, maybe we just think we do. I think, therefore I am?

S.S., Abbeville,

Lots of atheists posting here. If there is no God, then what are you? Just a soulless computer made of meat, with no free will. Is that really what you are? I think you know differently. Your atheism is really rooted in self-will, the very quality you cannot possibly have if you are just a biological machine.

Eric, Camas, WA

Well, let's see.

The Book of Genesis was written in an era which believed the following:
You had to sacrifice animals for forgiveness.
The earth was the center of the universe.
All the animal species in the world lived within walking distance of Noah's house.

Since the advent of modern scientific knowledge, we know that all of the above is false.

Maybe for spiritual enlightenment, the Bible is a really good resource, but for scientific knowledge and history, no way.

Oze McCallum, Marietta, GA, USA

Much as I admire the Pope's encyclical and his Bonn lecture (seriously misquoted!) I am afraid he has come up with an oxymoron - there's no such criter as "a complete
scientifically proven theory".

Brian Ward, Birkenhead, UK

Reuters' more detailed reporting suggests that the Pope's argument is more subtle and insidious than merely denying the process of evolution. He seems to be saying that God "chooses" which mutations to test.

This of course is a return to the mediaeval idea of a microinterventionist God, but instead of opening the daisies each morning, this one chooses how your parents' chromosomes divide to create eggs and sperm, how they unite at conception, how DNA is transcribed when your body needs to synthesise a protein, even how the sun's rays damage your DNA.

Five hundred years ago, haemophilia and stillbirth were seen as indications of God's displeasure. To these, it seems our modern Pope wants us to add drug-resistant TB and skin cancer.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

That is a bit rich when he is the figure head of something akin to disney in the made up fantasy stakes.

Jason, York, England

I know for a fact that there is a God but i don't need proof to know He's real.

h, san antonio, tx

Go on scientists - explain who made your "Big Bang". God created the wonders of this earth that man discovers and thinks himself wise. With all his science, the breath of life cannot be created by man, it is Divinely given - and taken away.

Phil Anslow, Brentwood,

Dear Pope:
Unfortunately for you and your followers I have to tell you that there is no God and therefore no creationism. We are all ( that includes you ) the result of a whole bunch of weird accidents and coincidents. This has overwhelmingly and abundantly been proven.
I love the way you are dressed and I love Mozart as you do, but I really think you should stop this non sense.

ciao,

patrick, VANCOUVER, BC

The pope's conclusions are a typical example of someone completely missing the bloody point of what evolutionary theory is all about. The theory of evolution makes absolutely no claims to philosophy. A philosophy that I do hold, however, is that the pope is the leader of a sect of a particular religion, that we will henceforth refer to as a fairy tale that somehow managed to elevate itself above that of myth, that is no more credible in any mystical sense in explaining our existence than any other man made explanation. Why can't these people see that particular irony?

Jacques, Montreal, Quebec/Canada

Does this mean the Pope is satisfied in the scientific proof of God?

Those who believe the logic of Darwinism must be Fools!

Matt, Singapore, Singapore

The human body is the most complex designed living entity in this world, and has solely come into creation by God; this is the work of the highest most intelligent Supreme Being God. The intrinsic greater details are explained in the ancient scriptures of India, which also explains the vast planetary system and countless universes.

No modern day science can come close to explaining the soul that drives this human form, and even though medical science has progressively advanced benefiting mankind throughout the ages, scientists cannot manufacture a human body, nor the essential elements; blood, heart, etc.., so how can they even explain the origins of the human body.

Pete, Perth,

One based on fact the other on fiction, the Vatican has taken a step backwards in my view, not that I care what they think. All that pomp & ceremony is against what Jesus & his church is all about

P Sword, Warsaw, Poland

Nice. I had to look up that word: bane. Very nice comment.

warren, modesto, us

Evolution simply means CHANGE...I love it when people start quoting the bible and stating that GOD's plan would never involve something so necessary for life to progress such as change and adaptation. Hey, did you guys know that life isnt real.. yea, turns out that we are all living in a matrix of some sort...creating electricity for the machines.... thats what the bible says.

MAC, Pittsburgh, Pa

Isn't it strange that Scientists must prove Darwinism to get any credibility, whereas the Pope and his supporters do not have to prove anything about "intelligent design" Its a bit one sided.
However heres one for all you Creationists out there. If God designed everything. Who designed God?

Malcolm, Sydney,

I love this pope.

Every day he drives more and more people away from the idea of having an invisible friend.

Good.

Bill Bird, Wallasey, United Kingdom of Great Britain

The pope is entitled to his opinions just as everyone else should be entitled to theirs. Although the pope's opinion on evolution, marriage, birth control, etc. has not changed in 60 years, he is behind the times and as a result he is rapidly leaving most of his flock somewhat bewildered. Did he really say those things? I thought the Catholics were more advanced than that.
Bob Louisville KY

Bob Stewart, Louisville, KY

As a Roman Catholic I am dismayed to see claims that some of our hierarchy following the line of so many evangelical crackpots and extremists. Darwinism is science fact. Even J.P the 2nd accepted this. There are plenty of forward thinking people in the church and plenty of scientists. Surely its not too hard to understand that the bible's interpretation of creation is not literal and that the story was made for simple people thousands of years ago.. what next biblical charcaters apparently a couple of hundred years old ... possible fact! Get a life! lightning bolt here I come!

Richard Garcia, London, England

Facts are undeniably the bane of creationism.

Steve S., Hershey, PA, USA

One has to be blind to see the reality around us "intelligent"

Dave Malantowicz, Warsaw, Poland

I don't know of any science laden with so much proof as the science of Darwinism.
But at St. Peters Square they are still recovering from the fact that the earth is not the centre of the universe. Even the thought that we do not descent from Adam and Eve is just too much for them right now. Just give them another 400 years, if mankind still gets that many, that is.

bob, VANCOUVER, BC

How can the Pope say that a theory is not provable when he preaches that we must have faith in God.
Faith means "firm belief in something for which there is no proof" (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)
There is more evidence that supports Darwin's Theory of Evolution than there is for the existence of a god, for which there is not one whatsoever.

Marçal Silva, São Paulo, Brazil

iS there God? Yes, there is God,that is my humble opinion,and that of millions and billions of others.
As far as Darwin and his fantacis of and old man are concerned, they are just the opinion of one man who thought he discovered the key to the creation of Universe and nothing more.
Can a stone create another stone? can nothing create soemthing if it is nothing ?
In order to create one must invent to be able to create,there must be the first. The first and the last is only God, No God no creation. It takes wto to create a baby,not one but two.
As far as the nonsense theory of the Big Bang, tere r is nothing but Big talk and nothing more.Who then created the Big Bang and how the Big Bang came to be a Big Bang if no one created it? To believe in God is wonderfull, is free of charge and it makes one feel good.not to believe that is wrong because what if then ther is a God and you did not believe in Him when you die?
What then> So my fellow humans keep believing in God, in His goodness.

Vespasianus, Paramus. N.J, United States

This is the same Church which first said the earth was flat, and then when its sphericity was proved, insisted that no people could exist in the Southern Hemisphere, as that would violate Scripture. They were quite grumpy when some actual people were brought back from the Antipodes, and burned a few heretics out of pique.

It's also the same Church which claimed that lightning rods were blasphemous because they interfered with the will of god, who punishes the wicked by throwing lightning bolts at them. Also according to scripture.

And the same Church which, for many centuries, taught that rain is made by angels, who open the windows of heaven and let some of the water stored there by God fall to earth. Really, that's how the bible explains rain. No mention of evaporation, condensation or precipitation.

What a surprise that this pope doesn't believe the vast mountain of evidence that supports evolution! Evolution isn't mentioned once in the Bible. How could it be real?

E Carpenter, New York, USA

I wonder what the Pope's learned opinion is on the theory of electricity and the theory of gravity. After all, both of these are the same as the theory of evolution - they are "not a complete, scientifically proven theory.”

Richard, Sydney,

The report that the Pope is moving towards a less unfavourable view of the theory of "intelligent design" is a worry to those who had hoped that the relationship between science and religion had been finally stabilized by the late Pope John Paul II.

A logically consistent reconciliation of those two points of view, which avoids the arbitrariness of intelligent design, runs as follows. When God created heaven, earth and everything else, as reported in the first chapter of Genesis, he also created what we know as the laws of nature. These determine the functioning of the physical world - physics, chemistry and biology. The evolution of humans and other living beings that has taken place over the ages is the consequence of the working out of these laws. In other words, evolution is God's method of creation, operating according to natural law.

There is no need to invoke the arbitrary interventions of intelligent design. Indeed, that notion even seems to suggest that God was not smart enough to construct, in the beginning, the laws of nature that led to the evolution of which we and the living world are products.

Andrew, Canberra ,

It seems stupidity is becoming Vatican's trade mark.
First it was the absolutely and unnecessary remarks about Islam. Than something equally unnecessary but equally stupid about marriage. Soon after, Karl Marx was praised for his concern about the poor (his views about religion were forgotten, as the genocidal results of his ideas ). The lack of diplomacy and good sense is sad. But the lack of scientific knowledge is a tragedy. Now we understand why the Vatican's chief astronomer father George Coyne was removed. So was Galileo. Stupidity.

Carlos Alberto B. Netto, Santo André, S. Paulo/Brazil

The irreducible complexity of life is undeniably the bane of evolution.

Les, Ramsgate, UK