ID and the Vatican

The last few months have brought an almost dizzying series of statements from various vatican officials about intelligent design and evolution. One cardinal says ID is valid, another says it's not. The Pope himself makes a statement about intelligence being behind the universe, IDers think that is an endorsement of ID, and so on. But here's an unambiguous statement from the Vatican's chief astronomer:

The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.

"Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."

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