Pope Benedict's comments on evolution: Hey, don't read too much into media spin

There's been a fair amount of speculation based on media reports. But media reports are almost never a good source of information on Catholic teachings, so let's wait and see. Most deadtrees see their role as promoting materialism. So even if they understood what the Pope was saying, reporters would feel duty bound to garble it.

Jay Richards, a research fellow at the Acton Institute and co-author of Privileged Planet [remember the Smithsonian uproar? No no, not the one that involved Rick Sternberg, the other one] offers some thoughts as to why such reports are almost never a useful source of information:

I suspect there's a translation problem here. Reading between the lines, it looked like Benedict said some pretty strong things. Of course he's challenging scientism and calling for a broader concept of reason than is contained in experimental science.

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