VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Big Bang theory and evolution do not eliminate the existence of God, who remains the one who set all of creation into motion, Pope Francis told his own science academy.

And God’s existence does not contradict the discoveries of science, he told members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

“When we read the account of creation in Genesis, we risk thinking that God was a magician, complete with a magic wand, able to do everything. But it is not like that,” he said. “He created living beings and he let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave each one, so that they would develop and reach their full potential.”

God gave creation full autonomy while also guaranteeing his constant presence in nature and people’s lives, he said.

The beginning of the world is not a result of “chaos,” he said, but comes directly from “a supreme principle that creates out of love.”

“The Big Bang, which today is held as the beginning of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator, but requires it,” he said.