Harry's Blog

Rev. George Coyne, the Vatican's chief astronomer has said that intelligent design "isn't science, even though it pretends to be."

He has said that if the theory is taught in schools it should be in religion or cultural studies, not within science classes.

Intelligent Design is a strange theory in that most people that promote the view, don't actually believe it. It's merely an attempt to allow creationists a wedge into the world of science to expound their views.

George Coyne isn't fond of the approach. "If they respect the results of modern science, and indeed the best of modern biblical research, religious believers must move away from the notion of a dictator God or a designer God, a Newtonian God who made the universe as a watch that ticks along regularly." He wrote in the Catholic magazine Tablet earlier this year. He explained that he believed God isn't "continually intervening, but rather allows, participates, loves."

The Catholic Church of late, although backward when it comes to human rights and issues such as contraception, has increasingly taken an intelligent and reasoned approach to science. Ironically the old church shows a more enlightened view of many branches of modern evangelical Christianity, which increasingly seems to be on an anti-intellectual crusade.

The thing that's interested me most about this story is not only does the Vatican have an astronomer, it has enough astronomers that it needs a chief one. What are they doing? Planning a manned trip to Mars or something? Maybe Dan Symon's Hyperion Cantos is coming true.