Science and Religion
Let’s say it simply: science does not deny the existence of God. Science simply explains what we observe in the universe in a mechanical sense. It is fully possible to accept both science and religion wholly. Science only “contradicts” certain religious doctrines in the interpretations, and these details are when the doctrine attempts to use scripture to establish science. Historically, religion has always evolved to accept what science has found; where churches attempted to establish religious-based scientific dogma (the concept that the Earth was the center of the universe being the best example), they eventually changed the dogma to accept what science showed was true. It often took a great deal of time and they wound up cowing and punishing a lot scientists along the way, but it always happened. And so it will with evolution. It’s just a question of how long it will take the fundamentalists to “forgive” the scientists for reporting what they see.
Several years ago, the Vatican (i.e. Pope) said that the theory of evolution (dna mutation leads to change in species) is probably true, after denying it for many years.
Yet I believe they believe that God created the universe, and since then, it has evolved.
Precisely. There is nothing in science to say that God does not use evolution to create life. No contradictions at all. Science is not about determining whether God exists. In a religious sense, you could say that science is about identifying which tools and manners God used to create the universe and to create life.
Obviously, the fundies still have a ways to go here, and it is rather surprising to me that the Vatican is so quick on the uptake only a bit more than a century to take evolution into the fold. That in the light of the fact that it took them 400 years to officially “forgive” Galileo for his sin of speaking the truth that he saw rather than the truth the church demanded he see.