14 DAY TRIAL // The Pontifical Gregorian University will host a series of scientific meetings on the origin of life and its evolution, for five days, a move meant to mark 150 years since the death of British naturalist Charles Darwin, the one who first proposed that theory of evolution. But the organizers have not invited the very organizations and groups that share his beliefs on how things evolved, those proposing intelligent design and creationism. These organizations ad groups have protested the Vatican's decision, but organizers have said that they wanted a truly scientific and theological debate, and not endless fights between two equally-sized groups.
The US John Templeton Foundation, a non-profit organization, has partially funded the meetings. As a group, it vehemently opposes the idea of intelligent design (ID), and the Discovery Institute has used that in its protest, saying that it was not invited to attend simply because it strongly advocates the idea of ID. This is adopted by those who believe that some of the things going on in the world today are simply too complex to be explained through a process such as evolution alone, and that a higher being, regardless of its name, has had a part to play in the creation of the world and the Universe as we know them.
“We think that it's not a scientific perspective, nor a theological or philosophical one. This makes a dialog very difficult, maybe impossible,” Gregorian professor of philosophy of nature Rev. Marc Leclerc, who is also the director of the conference, explains. He also denies the Discovery Institute's allegations on the Templeton funding, by saying that “Absolutely not. We decided independently within the organizing committee, in total autonomy.”
Currently, the Vatican itself is split between advocates of evolutionism, creationism and intelligent design. Some officials have even spoken dismissively of fundamentalist religious people in the US, who are keen on having their children learn ID or creationism in schools. The representatives maintain that this attitude is undesirable, and that the youngsters should have the opportunity to decide for themselves. One of the cardinals close to Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, is an active and declared proponent of ID, as he himself admits.
Representatives of the John Templeton Foundation uphold that, even though they have supplied half of the money for the conference in the form of a grant for the Vatican, they have done so with no strings attached. That means that anyone could have been invited, as far as they are concerned. “They sent us the proposal after they had most of the speakers already. We decided to make the grant in part because it is a really good speakers' list,” JTF Science and Religion Programs Director Paul Wason shares.