Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna clarifies his stance on evolution, “evolutionism”, and intelligent design in an interview at Beliefnet.
Schönborn set out his sometimes misunderstood views, clearly distinguishing between evolution and what he calls “evolutionism.” He explained that while he believes that God is the intelligent designer of the universe, his position on evolution springs from a philosophical rather than a scientific standpoint. His main concern, he said, was not to denigrate evolution as a natural process but to criticize atheistic materialism [the idea that only matter, not spirit, exists] as the dominant philosophy of today’s secular societies.
I can understood the secular science antagonism to intelligent design, but I can’t understand the antagonism from Catholics and other Christians.
At its basis intelligent design says that God is the Uncaused Cause, the Prime Mover of the universe. Everything springs from Him. It also says that some biological systems are irreducibly complex and that it would be difficult to say that such systems spontaneously evolved according to Darwin’s natural selection. This isn’t to say that evolution is always wrong or that evolution and intelligent design can’t co-exist.
Yes, there are those who equate ID with creationism, but they are wrong. They are not the same.
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