If you want any solid proof that a Pope is as flawed, ignorant, and uneducated as the rest of us, look no further than Benedict XVI. When he isn’t busy making controversial statements about Islam, he likes to take a breather by trying to dismantle evolution by means of Natural Selection by perpetually pointing at dusty old tomes. His latest blunder comes care of an off collar remark asking: “[h]ow many of these people are there today? These people, fooled by atheism, believe and try to demonstrate that it’s scientific to think everything is free of direction and order.“

Ratzinger is not a complete fool; although he lacks any training and understanding of evolution, he knows enough to realize it seriously undermines the role of his creator God, which therefore puts his cushy job in jeopardy.

For the Vatican, it’s a departure from John Paul II comments claiming evolution was more than a theory, and was not incompatible with Christianity. In July, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said that John Paul’s statements were ‘vague and unimportant’, and himself backed the notion a designer must have been responsible for the complexity of the universe.

I don’t know about you, but I’m personally sick and tired of priests, cardinals and popes (the vast majority of them having no scientific training whatsoever) telling every scientist that they are wrong about the natural world. These are the same men who devote their entire lives to the study of the supernatural, which by definition can never be measured, or even properly understood. Never mind the fact that two Popes, who are supposed to be the infallible avatars of God, never seem to agree on anything; the simple fact is their authority extends no further than their own secluded belief structure. The very act of trying to extend their sophisticated form of fantasizing to the natural world only demonstrates their own hubris. These people may have power and influence, but if those in power still determined the truth, we would never have escaped the hell of the Dark Ages.

Benedict XVI should go back to the one activity that does absolutely no harm: praying. Since it’s a well demonstrated fact that prayer has no effect whatsoever, at least he can stop meddling in affairs which don’t concern him. If someone wants to know how many angels, fairies, or dragons can fit on the end of a pin, then they can give him a call. Otherwise, for any questions concerning the real world, don’t have him on your speed dial.