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Part of faith is also the patience of time.  The theme you have just mentioned - Darwin, creation, the theory of evolution - is the subject of a dialogue that is not yet finished and, within our present means, is probably also impossible to settle at the moment.  Not that the problem of the six days is a particularly urgent issue between faith and modern scientific research into the origin of the world.  For it is obvious even in the Bible that this is a theological framework and is not intended simply to recount the history of creation.  In the Old Testament itself there are other accounts of creation.  In the Book of Job and in the Wisdom literature we have creation narratives that make it clear that even then believers themselves did not think that the creation account was, so to speak, a photographic depiction of the process of creation.  It only seeks to convey a glimpse of the essential truth, namely, that the world comes from the power of God and is his creation.  How the process actually occurred is a wholly different question, which even the Bible itself leaves wide open.  Conversely, I think that in great measure the theory of evolution has not gotten beyond hypotheses and is often mixed with almost mythical philosophies that have yet to be critically discussed.<ref>Interview by Peter Seewald with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, in Munich, F.G.R. (Aug. 15, 1996) ''reprinted in'' Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the End of the Millennium 31 (Adrian Walker trans., Ingnatius Press 1997) (1996).</ref></blockquote>
 
Part of faith is also the patience of time.  The theme you have just mentioned - Darwin, creation, the theory of evolution - is the subject of a dialogue that is not yet finished and, within our present means, is probably also impossible to settle at the moment.  Not that the problem of the six days is a particularly urgent issue between faith and modern scientific research into the origin of the world.  For it is obvious even in the Bible that this is a theological framework and is not intended simply to recount the history of creation.  In the Old Testament itself there are other accounts of creation.  In the Book of Job and in the Wisdom literature we have creation narratives that make it clear that even then believers themselves did not think that the creation account was, so to speak, a photographic depiction of the process of creation.  It only seeks to convey a glimpse of the essential truth, namely, that the world comes from the power of God and is his creation.  How the process actually occurred is a wholly different question, which even the Bible itself leaves wide open.  Conversely, I think that in great measure the theory of evolution has not gotten beyond hypotheses and is often mixed with almost mythical philosophies that have yet to be critically discussed.<ref>Interview by Peter Seewald with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, in Munich, F.G.R. (Aug. 15, 1996) ''reprinted in'' Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the End of the Millennium 31 (Adrian Walker trans., Ingnatius Press 1997) (1996).</ref></blockquote>
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===2007 speech===
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In a speech during July 2007 Pope Benedict XVI claimed, "There is much scientific proof in favour of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such," althrough "it does not answer the great philosophical question 'where does everything come from?'" The speech also stressed the importance of environmental conservation<ref>http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22136550-5002700,00.html</ref>
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This remains, as of August 2008, the most recent clear statement of his position on the subject.
    
==Intelligent Design==
 
==Intelligent Design==
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