Saturday, August 26, 2006
Coyne Undergoing Chemotherapy
As many readers know, RSR has been suspicious that the replacement of Rev. George Coyne as director of the Vatican Observatory was due to his outspoken criticisms of creationism and intelligent design.
Now, in the comments to one of our posts, Wolfwalker has alerted us to an article in an Italian newspaper that clears up the mystery. Since the issue has received a lot of attention in the blogosphere, we wanted to pull it out of the comments section and post it where everyone might have a chance to read it:
Now, in the comments to one of our posts, Wolfwalker has alerted us to an article in an Italian newspaper that clears up the mystery. Since the issue has received a lot of attention in the blogosphere, we wanted to pull it out of the comments section and post it where everyone might have a chance to read it:
Unfortunately, the article also reports that the Pope is scheduled to "brainstorm on evolution with a top theologian [Schoenborn] accused of championing controversial theories that rubbish Darwin."Coyne, who is undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer, has been forced to quit because of the pressures of work at a prestigious astronomy lab that has offshoots all over the world, including Arizona in the US .
Shortly before filing his retirement request this month, the stargazer penned an article for the authoritative science monthly Newton in which he said "God isn't a designer and life is the fruit of billions of attempts.""People who want to see designers...should go to Milan or, if they're looking for engineers, to Dubai where they're building a whole new city," Coyne wrote.
The Vatican has denied a report in the London-based Daily Mail that the ailing prelate was "removed" because he had "irritated" the pope.
