Pope Replaces Intelligent Design Critic at Observatory

[deadparrot]

Vatican City, Aug. 21--Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a new director of the Vatican Observatory, replacing the Rev. George Coyne, a long-serving Jesuit astronomer and a vocal opponent of "intelligent design" theory.

It was unclear if the replacement of Coyne, the observatory's director since 1978, reflected a sense of disapproval within the Vatican over his opposition to intelligent design -- the idea that the world is too complex to have been created by natural events alone.

Coyne has frequently attacked the theory as a "religious movement" lacking scientific merit. He could not be reached for comment.

There was no mention of Coyne in a brief statement released by the Vatican on Saturday (Aug. 19) announcing the appointment of the new director, the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, who is also a Jesuit.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/198/story_19838_1.html

[arcane1]

1. the Vatican has an OBSERVATORY??

Wow, um... I'm not really sure what to think of that :crazy:

[paparush]

2. This pope has a viscious streak a mile wide...radical right wing ..

conservative Opus Dei type...

[geardaddy]

4. Don't forget...

He was a Hitler Youth. I know, I know, all the kids were, but that has to do something to you growing up in an environment like that.

[regnaD kciN]

3. Since when does astronomy have anything to do with biology...?

Considering that the Vatican has already declared the theory of evolution to be correct, trying to read any ulterior motive into this strikes me as really a tinfoil-hat matter.

[alfredo]

5. Astronomy is geology for those who don't

want to get their hands dirty.

Astronomy does deal with creation of the universe. It has a timeline well beyond the 6 thousand years the creationist/whatever the latest argument the religionist put forth.

[charlie]

6. Cardinal Schonborn

has been "refining" and "clarifying" John Paul's declaration that evolution was "more than a hypothesis." He wrote a NY Times article saying that natural selection and random mutation were bunk, that evolution was an expression of design. Coyne published a rebuttal and after 25 years on the job, was sacked. Hardly a matter of tinfoillery.

[Cobalt-60]

7. Agreed

True they declared "Intelligent Design is not science".
I learned about evolution from nuns in the 60s.