Fr. Oakes on evolution

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn's recent New York Times op-ed piece has stirred up some controversy. Here is a two-part interview with Fr. Edward T. Oakes on the Roman Catholic Church's attitude towards biological evolution. Among other things, Fr. Oakes argues that his church has no difficulty with evolution as such, but it does object to those who draw atheistic implications from it as well as to those who would import it into human relations, as was done by the 19th-century social darwinists.

Tellingly, Fr. Oakes does not think much of the intelligent design movement, with which many evangelical protestants have cast their lot, primarily because he sees it improperly conflating finality and design, confusing primary and secondary causality, and reversing the relationship between art and nature. Food for thought.