{"id":2720,"date":"2014-10-28T12:48:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T12:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=2720"},"modified":"2014-10-28T12:52:31","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T12:52:31","slug":"pope-francis-declares-evolution-and-big-bang-theory-are-right-and-god-isnt-a-magician-with-a-magic-wand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=2720","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis declares evolution and Big Bang theory are right and God isn&#8217;t &#8216;a magician with a magic wand&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not \u201ca magician with a magic wand\u201d, Pope Francis has declared.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pope made comments which experts said put an end to the \u201cpseudo theories\u201d of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.<\/p>\n<p>Francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator \u2013 arguing instead that they \u201crequire it\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen 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,\u201d Francis said.<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cHe created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Catholic Church has long had a reputation for being anti-science \u2013 most famously when Galileo faced the inquisition and was forced to retract his \u201cheretic\u201d theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun. http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Pope-Francis-and-a-dove1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2721\" alt=\"Pope Francis and a dove\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Pope-Francis-and-a-dove1-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Pope-Francis-and-a-dove1-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Pope-Francis-and-a-dove1.jpg 555w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not \u201ca magician with a magic wand\u201d, Pope Francis has declared. Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pope made comments which experts said put an end to the \u201cpseudo theories\u201d of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[114,113,28],"class_list":["post-2720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-catholic-church","tag-evolution","tag-pope-francis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Pope-Francis-and-a-dove1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-HS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2723,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2720\/revisions\/2723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}