Cardinal Christoph Schonborn makes an Important Distinction

FAITH Magazine January-February 2008

From an interview with Paolo Gambi published in the Catholic Herald last October.

I wrote in the New York Times about the overwhelming evidence of design. I did not say, as I think the intelligent design school seems to affirm, that through scientific methodology, through natural sciences, it is possible to prove design in nature. But what I said - and what I still say - is that it’s really possible for the human intelligence to discern design in nature. This is an affirmation that goes beyond scientific methodology. It is a philosophical and, perhaps, a religious affirmation. It’s an affirmation that is grounded in human intelligence, human reason. As Pope Benedict has often stated, this primordial question is whether at the origin of all there is a logos or there is pure causality, randomness. And, as Pope Benedict again has said, this fundamental question, which isa question we have to answer with our intelligence sustained by the light of faith, is that if we discern reason in the world, in nature - if nature is understandable - the question arises; where does this come from?