Pope Francis on Board With Science: Evolution and the Big Bang Are Real, God's Not a "Magician"

Already pioneering pontiff may have done more for acceptance than any of his predecessors when it comes to the gay community, and this certainly doesn't hurt his image

Well, this is something.

Not deterred by a Catholic synod's recent watering down of his views on the gay community and divorce, Pope Francis on Monday continued to please those who most appreciate his frequent breaks from traditional Catholic teachings, telling the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that he agrees with, well...science.

"The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes its origin to something else, but it derives directly from a supreme principle that creates out of love," the already pioneering pontiff said, per NBC News. "The Big Bang, that today is considered to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the creative intervention of God; on the contrary, it requires it. Evolution in nature is not in contrast with the notion of [divine] creation because evolution requires the creation of the beings that evolve."

Saying, basically, that God put it all into motion and let the evolutionary chips fall where they may, the former Rolling Stone cover boy and Time Man of the Year diverged from the preached beliefs of his immediate predecessor, proponent of creationism Benedict XVI, and joined the club that included the groovy Pope Pius XII and Vatican II proponent Pope John Paul II, who once said that evolution was "effectively proven fact."

So while he wasn't the first to head down this road, his promisingly evolved stance on gays and lesbians being a more consequential piece of social trailblazing, Francis has once again shown himself to be a student of the school of rational thought.

God created man "and let them develop in accordance with the internal laws that he has given to each one," Francis continued. "When we read in Genesis the account of Creation [we are] in danger of imagining that God was a magician, complete with a magic wand that can do all things. But he is not."

"The pope's statement is significant," Italian astrophysicist Giovanni Bignami told London's Independent. "We are the direct descendents from the Big Bang that created the universe. Evolution came from creation."

?Pope Francis continues to surprise and amaze!? #LNSM pic.twitter.com/S9xq84qud5

? Late Night (@LateNightSeth) October 28, 2014