What the Media Got Wrong about Pope Francis and Evolution

Have you heard about Pope Francis’ recent comments about God, evolution, and Creation? If so, chances are you’ve heard wrong. Brantly Millegan with ChurchPOP asked me to write a post clearing up some of the confusion. Here’s the first of my three points:

No, The Pope Isn’t an Atheist

Amazingly, the popular news site Independent Journal Review (IJ Review) ran — and as of this writing, is still running — the following headline:

“God is not a Divine Being”? We’re supposed to believe that the pope got up, denied that God was actually God, and that everything just went on as business as usual?

Obviously, this story is false. It’s the result of two things: bad translating, and atrocious journalism. What Pope Francis actually said that God wasn’t a “Demiurge” … the pagan idea of a “god” who forms the world out of chaos. [The IJReview article relied upon an earlier Raw Story piece that originally ran the same bad translation; unlike IJReview, they’ve since corrected the record.]

In other words, God isn’t like a Demiurge, forming the world out of chaotic raw materials. He’s infinitely bigger than that, creating the entire universe ex nihilio, from nothing. This is a ringing endorsement of God’s Deity, not a denial.

Here’s the original comment, in context, which makes it clear he neither said nor meant that God was less than Divine:

God is not a demiurge or a conjurer, but the Creator who gives being to all things. The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes its origin to another, but derives directly from a supreme Origin that creates out of love. The Big Bang, which nowadays is posited as the origin of the world, does not contradict the divine act of creating, but rather requires it. The evolution of nature does not contrast with the notion of Creation, as evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve”.

Does that sound like a denial of God’s deity? Even if you don’t know what the word “Demiurge” — or the Italian word “demiurgo” — means, context and common sense should clue you in that Pope Francis isn’t announcing his newfound atheism in the middle of a speech he’s given in honor of the unveiling of a statue.

Given how absurd the IJReview headline is, you might think, “there’s no way anyone would fall for that.” But you’d be wrong: the IJReview piece currently has over 300,000 views and has been shared on Facebook 45,000 times.

Check out the whole post here.

5 comments

  1. Back in 2011, I wrote to the then Pope, and the Vatican, concerning the Truth of Genesis. Look for the article “The Truth of Genesis: A Challenge to the Pope!”. One place where you can find it is http://thyblackman.com/2011/05/02/the-truth-of-genesis-a-challenge-to-the-pope/. The Pope and the “Holy” See refused to respond, and correct their false statements.

    The Jesuit Order of the Catholic church takes an oath to destroy Protestantism. Part of the Jesuit oath is the following: “That I will go to any part of the world, whatsoever, without murmuring, and I will be submissive in all things whatsoever communicated to me”.

    Also, “I do further promise and declare, that I will, when the opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals (free thinkers), as I am directed to do to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth, and that I will spare neither sex, age nor condition, and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants’ heads against the wall, in order to annihilate their execrable race”. Does this sound like followers of the Lord Jesus Christ?

    I would think that most Roman Catholics would be shocked if they knew what Catholicism really teaches. Much of their outward, and all of their inner doctrine, contradict the Bible. For example, on page 129, the book Catechism of the Catholic Church, it teaches: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods”. Notice that they did not capitalize the pronouns which are referring to Jesus. That book was published by Image Books, 1995. Why would anyone want to remain in the Catholic religion, after reading such heresy?

    The Catholic Civilization is a periodical published by the Jesuits in Rome, since 1850. Before WWII, it was written “For today Rome considers the Fascist regime (to be) the nearest to its dogmas and interest. We have not merely the Reverend [Jesuit] Father Coughlin praising Mussolini’s Italy as ‘a Christian democracy’, but CatholicCivilization, house organ of the Jesuits, says quite frankly…’Fascism is the regime that corresponds most closely to the concepts of the Church of Rome.”, Days of Our Years, (New York: Hillman-Curl, 1939), p. 465. So if the Catholic (Jesuit) Church ever rules the world, they will take away your liberties and freedoms, kill Protestants and non-Catholics, and make you subject to the will of the (black) P ope.

    Wake up Catholic laity! Catholicism always was a religion of the occult. That is why Constantine, a worshiper of Mithra, wouldn’t allow Christians and Jews to the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

    Anything that the Pope and Catholicism says about Genesis, and the Bible, should be considered false, because they believe in God and the Bible, as much as President Obama believes in Christianity and traditional marriage.

    Herman Cummings

    [email protected]

    1. Herman,

      That theory is, um, interesting. There are a lot of places that I could start, but here’s an easy one: the Jesuit Oath that you’re describing is a long-discredited Protestant forgery. If you don’t believe me, try fact-checking it on some credible, neutral website. Or, better yet, here’s a novel idea: go to a Jesuit ordination. They’re open to the public, you know. If you catch anything about ripping babies out of their moms, lemme know.

      I.X.,

      Joe

  2. I’ve long been uneasy with the notion of a God who had to tinker with his creation in some ad hoc manner. I’ve long found it more consistent to think God could form matter ex nihilo and the rest followed naturally.

    By the way, the Big Bang was discovered by Jesuit priest Georges Lemaitre. Let Herman chew on that.

  3. Maybe you will think that stupid people only believe creationism. I am a Catholic, i am educated but i don’t believe in evolution. I can’t imagine God letting people evolve from animals over millions of years while he can do it by just a simple word. I can’t see people dead, stupid and God is just watching till the perfect moment to choose a man and a woman and give them souls.

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