The Catholic Church succeeded in getting the attention of Catholics, Satanists, and everyone in the vast spiritual spaces in-between on Tuesday after Pope Francis embraced the theories of Evolution and the Big Bang. While he didn’t endorse either theory, he argued that they are not at odds with Catholic teachings, saying “Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve,” and “The 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.”
The pontiff’s comments were delivered at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and reported by the Independent. They mark a significant shift for the Catholic Church, which has been seen as anti-science and behind-the-times since it declared Galileo a heretic for proving the Earth revolved around the Sun.
Even the Church of Satan finds the comments “fascinating.” Founded in 1966 by Anton Szandor LaVey, the Church of Satan sees the devil as a “symbol that best suits the nature of we who are carnal by birth” and believes that the cosmos are “indifferent to our existence.” It is, at its core, an atheist philosophy that preaches pride, liberty, and individualism — the very qualities deemed as sinful or evil by the Catholic church. High Priest Magus Peter H. Gilmore, also known as the Black Pope, seemed to be both amused and skeptical of the Catholic Church’s new position on science. Below is a statement he wrote to ANIMAL via e-mail:
Fascinating that Pope Francis is trying to sweep aside some of the nonsense that has long been part of the beliefs of his church. As Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote back in 1999, “Christianity must change or die” and seeing that such an attitude has seemingly been embraced by the head of the world’s largest Christian denomination, I and other secularists might dare to expect that reason could begin to replace superstition in this and other theist belief systems.
In his remarks, Pope Francis also dismissed creationism and intelligent design as “pseudo theories.” He said that “When 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.” It’s unclear, however, how far the Catholic Church is willing to go to support the Pope’s statements. It might take a miracle.
(Photo: Church Of Satan)
