Creationism is Paganism, says Vatican

Archy reports that the papal official astronomer said so:

Believing that God created the universe in six days is a form of superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno claimed yesterday.

Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a "destructive myth" had developed in modern society that religion and science were competing ideologies.

He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools alongside evolution, as a "kind of paganism" because it harked back to the days of "nature gods" who were responsible for natural events.

And, as Archy reminds us, Intelligent Design Creationism is just one form, the slickest and most dishonest, of Creationism. Now, who will tell the Protestants....

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The article is dated May 5, 2006, but the key point to me, is why it did't get wider play in the USA? (That's a rhetorical question BTW!)

But I could have used the you are going to Go To Hell line with Creo's a hell of a lot more.

This article will make the holidays more fun for me though, so thanks.

I'm thinking the whole reason they are Protestant is because they don't listen to the Catholic Church to begin with.

It is refreshing to hear that not all religious institutions are full of nutjobs. It's so hard to tell these days.

No need to listen to the Vatcan. Any creationist will tell you that Catholics aren't REAL Christians and are therefor unbelievers.

Dude, it's a top-down organization. It doesn't matter what the Vatican astronomer or the Vatican custodian says.

By Tegumai Bopsul… (not verified) on 07 Dec 2007 #permalink

Teg--True.

But it's still nice to hear a sane voice coming from the worl of religion.

Unfortunately His Holiness has already described what he understands by evolution a micro-interventionist deity which chooses which mutations to test.

In other words, to the mediaeval litany of diseases which are indications of divine displeasure, we must now add things like cancer (the deity chooses to damage your DNA but not mine) and pandemic influenza (it's constantly shuffling the genes like some celestial card sharp).

By Ian Kemmish (not verified) on 07 Dec 2007 #permalink

Since when we have Astronomers teaching Church Dogma ??