grannymh asked for judgement about the following statement:
In the 21st century, the science of human evolution directly contradicts Catholic theology regarding Original Sin.
My answer: No.
In the absence of any demonstrable contradiction between the two, I would say it is just as possible for a Catholic to be left-handed. Sorry, if you were presenting a contradiction, I just didn’t understand it. If you are pointing out that some extensions of evolution are incompatible with Catholicism, then I would say yes. You keep referring to the “21st century” version of evolution, as if it has supplanted the previous forms of the theory. It has not. I do not consider those fringe scientists to be mainstream.
To understand the “contradiction” to the Catholic doctrines on Original Sin,
Please think about “populations” found in post 107.
“Evolution is about how populations of living things change over time. You have to have populations of living things before any version of evolution even comes into play.”
Population in the
Wikipedia article about the “Eve” theory also needs some thinking.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve
Mitochondrial Eve is estimated to have lived between 99,000 and 200,000 years ago,
[3][4][5] most likely in
East Africa,
[6] when Homo sapiens sapiens (anatomically modern humans) were developing as a population distinct from other human sub-species.
snip
One misconception surrounding mitochondrial Eve is that since all women alive today descended in a
direct unbroken female line from her, she must have been the only woman alive at the time.
[8][33] However,
nuclear DNA studies indicate that the size of
the ancient human population never dropped below tens of thousands.
Now, please go back to Original Sin doctrines.
Do they explain Adam as existing before or after anatomically modern humans were developing as a population distinct from other human sub-species?
That question is for anyone who wants to jump in.
That question about the time period of Adam’s existence goes straight to the teachings on human nature. Catholicism does not describe Adam in a stage of development. He has a complete human nature, decomposing anatomy and rational spiritual soul. In addition, God gave Adam the gift of immortality so that he would not experience bodily death like the other species. Catholicism does not hint that Adam was a subhuman who needed developing into a real human.
Next, we ask - Did Adam come after an ancient human population of thousands or was he simply the only one in that ancient human population who received a spiritual soul which made him in the image of the Creator. “Evolution” research papers refer to populations before real humans and to populations of real humans. See
Wikipedia example above.
“Evolution” researchers do not posit a population of one human which Adam, according to Catholic doctrines, was. If Adam came after a human population which disappeared in order to size down to one human male, that
contradicts the Catholic teaching that all humankind is in Adam as “one body of one man”. Meaning that all humans descended from one man Adam and his spouse Eve. The words “retroactively to previous populations” do not appear in any doctrine on human origin.
Here is science of human evolution’s direct
contradiction to Catholicism’s doctrines on transmission of the State of Original Sin, which specifies that the consequences of Adam’s choice will affect all humans. The fine print is that the Catholic Church defines a human person as descending from Adam and Eve.
In evolution’s proposed ancient human populations, a human person is
either a biological descendant of the human person Adam and his spouse Eve
or the human person is a biological descendant of two other members of the population.
In
contradiction, Catholicism teaches there is no
either this set of parents
or that set of parents from the population. There is only one specific set of human parents, Adam and Eve, who, according to Catholic Church, are the founders of the human population.
Obviously, other living human members of “evolution’s” large population cannot crawl back into the womb of Eve in order to be defined as human according to Catholicism’s fine print above. Nor would it be possible for a population to commit Original Sin as defined by the Catholic Church.
Therefore, there is a
contradiction between evolution’s breeding population which produced lots of modern human anatomies and the Catholic doctrine that there was only one set of first human parents whose descendants have the right to share in God’s life in eternal joy. And there is a** contradiction** between a population and one person, Adam, who committed Original Sin.
