Darwinian Before it was Cool

For centuries, aspiring theologians have flocked to Rome to study with the best of the best. Those who have studied there, however, often lament the miserable quality of the education. A professor at Santa Croce, a Pontifical University run by Opus Dei and, reputably, a center for orthodoxy, gives an unexpected peek into the quality of contemporary thinking that goes on at the heart of the Catholic church. In an article in the The Times (London) on the current attempt to rehabilitate Darwinian evolution with those who think that God and Genesis might have something important to say about our beginning, we read the following:

Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, said that Darwin had been anticipated by St Augustine of Hippo. The 4th-century theologian had “never heard the term evolution, but knew that big fish eat smaller fish” and that forms of life had been transformed “slowly over time”. Aquinas had made similar observations in the Middle Ages, he added.

Augustine and Aquinas knew that big fish eat smaller ones! What more do you need? These great intellectual lights were Darwinian even before it was cool!

Che idiota!