Pope's affirmation of evolution welcomed by scientists, educators

"For creationists," said radio commentator Paul Harvey, "it's like an atom bomb going off."

For scientists and teachers involved in the fight to keep evolution in science classrooms, it was, well, almost a godsend.

Pope John Paul II's formal statement October 24 affirming that evolution does not conflict with teachings of the Roman Catholic Church was widely welcomed by scientists and educators. Creationists, in contrast, tried their best to minimize its effect.

"New knowledge leads us to recognize the theory of evolution [as] more than a hypothesis," said the pope in a message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences meeting at the Vatican in plenary session on the theme of the origin of life and evolution.

The statement was seen as a powerful influence on religiously minded people toward the view that evolution is an accepted part of science and poses no serious challenge to mainstream religion. Scientists consider evolution through natural selection a fundamental unifying principle of biology, strongly supported by a host of interlocking evidence at all levels, from molecular and cellular biology, to physiology, ecology, and population biology, and from other scientific fields such as geology, geophysics, geochemistry, astronomy, paleontology, and anthropology.

Coming at a time when creationists have stepped up their campaigns to demand that school districts consider evolution "just another theory" that should not be taught as accepted science, the pope's statement was a much-needed reassurance from a prominent world religious leader that science and religion need not be in conflict on this point.

Newspapers worldwide gave the story front-page treatment.

"Pope Bolsters Church's Support for Scientific View of Evolution," was the New York Times top-of-the-front-page headline. "Pope Backs Acceptance of Evolution," said the Washington Post. "Pope Embraces Evolution," said the International Herald Tribune. "Pope Yields to Theories on Evolution," said the Telegraph (London). "Pope Accepts Evolution, Creates Furor," said USA Today. "Pope Bolsters Church Support for Evolution," said the Chicago Tribune. "Pope Calls Evolution Theory Compatible with Faith," said the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Pope Accepts Evolution," the Reuters news service headed its international wire report, over this lead: "Pope John Paul II has lent his support to the theory of evolution, proclaiming it compatible with Christian faith in a step welcomed by scientists but likely to raise howls from the religious right."

"I am delighted that it has received so much publicity," said Eugenie Scott, Director of the pro-evolution National Center for Science Education (NCSE), of the pope's message. "This is not a new story," she emphasized, however. "John Paul II is the fourth pope to affirm that evolution is no problem for Catholics."

Scott's comments came at a meeting of the Executive Council of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), in Alexandria, Virginia, where she and others, perhaps only half in jest, suggested that John Paul II should be the next recipient of CSICOP's "In Praise of Reason Award."

Pope Pius XII's 1950 encyclical "Humani Generis" and the conciliar Constitution "Gaudium et Spes" dealt at the papal level with the question of the origin of life and evolution.

"'Humani Generis,'" John Paul II said in his statement, "considered the doctrine of 'evolutionism' as a serious hypothesis, worthy of a more deeply studied investigation and reflection on a par with the opposite hypothesis. . . . Today more than [sic] a half century after this encyclical, new knowledge leads us to recognize in the theory of evolution more than a hypothesis. . . . The convergence, neither sought nor induced, of results of work done independently one from the other, constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory."

The pope said he was delighted that the plenary's theme was the origin of life and evolution, "a basic theme which greatly interests the church." In 1936 the Vatican's Academy of Sciences was restored by Pope Pius XI, who called the group of scientists and scholars "the Church's 'scientific senate'" and asked them "to serve the truth."

"If the scientifically reached conclusion and those contained in Revelation on the origin of life seem to counter each other," said John Paul II in his statement, "in what direction should we seek their solution? We know in effect that truth cannot contradict truth.

"In the domain of inanimate and animate nature, the evolution of science and its applications make new questions arise. The Church can grasp their scope all the better as she knows their basic aspects."

The Catholic Church has, in practice, had little conflict with evolution in recent decades. Most parochial schools teach evolution in science classes, something that cannot be said of all U.S. public schools. Likewise, the Episcopal Church, the Lutheran World Federation, the United Methodist Church, the United Presbyterian Church, the Universalist Association, and the American Jewish Congress are among the religious organizations that have issued statements on behalf of the teaching of evolution and opposing the introduction of creationism in the science classroom. (A compilation of these statements and those by education, civil liberties, and scientific organizations, along with the texts of relevant court decisions on creationism/evolution, is published in NCSE's 1995 book Voices for Evolution. NCSE, P.O. Box 9477, Berkeley, CA 94709.)