Anti-Catholic Atheist to Deliver Diatribe on Evolution at Jesuit’s LeMoyne College

An outspoken atheist philosopher who has called for the Catholic Church's eradication will be speaking at LeMoyne College on the subject of science and religion in modern America.

An outspoken atheist philosopher who has called the Catholic Church “corrupt” and called for its eradication will be speaking at LeMoyne College in New York later this month.

Michael Ruse, PhD., who calls himself a non-believer, will be speaking at the Jesuit college on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, at 7 p.m., to discuss "Does Evolution Have a Purpose?" Ruse has stated that “there is a flat-out contradiction between the claims of modern biological science and the theology of the Roman Catholic Church” and criticized Pope Benedict XVI for saying life was designed by God.

Ruse, a professor and director of the history and philosophy of science program in the department of philosophy at Florida State University, has called birth control a “blessing” and supports a right to abortion. But worse than that, in the pages of the Huffington Post, Ruse called for the eradication of the Catholic Church:

I stress that although I cannot share the beliefs of Christians, I respect them and applaud the good that is done in the name of their founder. But I do now think that as presently constituted, the Catholic Church is corrupt and should be eradicated.

You might argue that this is to go too far. But what is the alternative? Vatican Three, perhaps? The Church could open its doors to married priests, give women a proper role (if we can appoint a woman to the Supreme Court, why cannot a woman become a member of the College of Cardinals?), make a place within for gays and other minorities. It could recognize birth control for the blessing that it is and stop insisting that the moment the sperm gets to the ovum, nothing else matters but to preserve this entity, even though such a stand causes unnumbered cases of pain and sadness (and certainly does little to reduce the abortion rate) and leads the Catholic bishops to oppose universal health care, quite apart from the fact that it all flies in the face of the official philosophy of the Church, Thomism. And I could continue.

The talk is part of the college’s ongoing “Science and Religion in Modern America” lecture series. The stated goal, according to the university’s website, is “to engage members of the campus community…in a candid, respectful conversation about the complex and seemingly disparate subjects of science and religion.”

Originally published by The Cardinal Newman Society's Catholic Education Daily on 11 October 2013.