Catholic View on Evolution

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thunderballs75 said:
For some reason a lot of Catholics think you can only believe in creationism. The popes (even before Vatican II) taught that evolution is compatible with Catholic theory, so long as the faithful would not deny that the Triune God created the universe ex nihilo, and that God gave each human a soul.

However, evolutionary theory does not concern the teachings of faith or morals, so they would not make an authoritative statement, especially considering that the Church is a Church and not a scientific organization. You are free to believe in evolutionary theory or creationism.

Keep in mind that Gregor Mendel, the father of Genetics, and Georges Lemaitre, the father of the Big Bang theory, were both Catholic priests (pre-Vatican II, even).
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You gotta source for this before Vatican II?

Catholicism has been defending against evolution since the very beginning.

You are free to believe if:

Adam and Eve are first parents (no polygenism)
Eve from Adam
Bodily immortality
freedom from irregular desire
freedom from sickness
infused knowledge

preternatural gifts.

…and every Catholic is a creationist. God created exnihilo.
 
buffalo said:
You gotta source for this before Vatican II?
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You mean besides Pope Pius XII?
  1. For these reasons the Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God. However, this must be done in such a way that the reasons for both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation and measure, and provided that all are prepared to submit to the judgment of the Church, to whom Christ has given the mission of interpreting authentically the Sacred Scriptures and of defending the dogmas of faith.
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buffalo said:
Catholicism has been defending against evolution since the very beginning.
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Too bad nobody told this to Pope Benedict XVI:
Pope Benedict XVI said the debate raging in some countries — particularly the United States and his native Germany — between creationism and evolution was an “absurdity,” saying that evolution can coexist with faith.
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And Pope John Paul II:
Today, almost half a century after the publication of the encyclical, new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.
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redhen said:
How did Adam and Eve use pride/hubris to disobey God?
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2.The Sin of Adam and Eve and its Consequences
Consider the other great sin described for us in the Scriptures. The disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, the Fall of man and its consequences. The root of the sin as indeed of all sin was pride. They refused to obey God, preferring their own way. As a consequence they lost the grace of God, that supernatural life that God had given them and with it all the other privileges which were theirs. There came into the world death, pain, suffering. It may truly be said that at the moment they committed the sin they began to die. Matter returned to its own law – corruption and death. That is why St. Paul says:
*The wages of sin is death. *(Rom.6: 23)
Death of the body here; spiritual death, that is, the loss of God, here and in the next world.
No doubt there are many things we do not understand about these two examples. But it is enough to know the facts and to realise the consequences.
By thinking over these we can realise more readily the consequences of our own sins, the disaster sin must bring to ourselves and others, even though we do not immediately see those consequences.
By thinking of the evils which sin brings in its wake we can realise just what an evil thing sin is in itself.
 
Does Pope Benedict mean by that that we (humans) are not accidental? This would mean that we were (are) intended, and that God knew that we would be the outcome of a particular evolutionary branch. God being the originator of all things, including the process of evolution. That’s my understanding and also how I reconcile my faith in God with scientific evidence of evolution.
 
Fran65 said:
Does Pope Benedict mean by that that we (humans) are not accidental? This would mean that we were (are) intended, and that God knew that we would be the outcome of a particular evolutionary branch. God being the originator of all things, including the process of evolution. That’s my understanding and also how I reconcile my faith in God with scientific evidence of evolution.
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“Of all visible creatures only man is ‘able to know and love his creator’. He is ‘the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake’, and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity.”
—from Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part One, Section Two, Chapter One, Article 1, Paragraph 6, 1:356
 
:rolleyes:

Come on man. You’re going to have to face the fact sooner or later. You are *allowed *to believe in evolution.

I understand that you probably never will, because you choose not to. That is fine, because this is allowed. However, don’t get the wrong idea that everybody else has to believe in pseudo-scientific theories.
 
buffalo said:
You gotta source for this before Vatican II?

Catholicism has been defending against evolution since the very beginning.
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Pre-Vatican II:
newadvent.org/cathen/05654a.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humani_generis

Popes and the Catechism:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_and_the_Roman_Catholic_Church

Read the quotes by JPII, BXVI, and the Catechism (these are the official teachings of the Church).

And actually, this is what a Catholic must believe (this is also pre-Vatican II, 1952 in fact):
Code: 
* All that exists outside God was, in its whole substance, produced out of nothing by God.
* God was moved by His Goodness to create the world.
* The world was created for the Glorification of God.
* The Three Divine Persons are one single, common Principle of the Creation.
* God created the world free from exterior compulsion and inner necessity.
* God has created a good world.
* The world had a beginning in time.
* God alone created the world.
* God keeps all created things in existence.
* God, through His Providence, protects and guides all that He has created.
Now, where are *your *authoritative sources of this “defense against evolution”?
 
Fran65 said:
Does Pope Benedict mean by that that we (humans) are not accidental? This would mean that we were (are) intended, and that God knew that we would be the outcome of a particular evolutionary branch. God being the originator of all things, including the process of evolution. That’s my understanding and also how I reconcile my faith in God with scientific evidence of evolution.
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Some quotes from Pope Benedict:

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, …

What came first? Creative Reason, the Spirit who makes all things and gives them growth, or Unreason, which, lacking any meaning, yet somehow brings forth a mathematically ordered cosmos, as well as man and his reason. The latter, however, would then be nothing more than a chance result of evolution and thus, in the end, equally meaningless.

Since evolution occurs without purpose, direction or intelligence it cannot be the cause and origin of human life. An unintelligent, unconscious, blind process cannot create conscious intelligence and the faculties of the human soul.

This basically refutes the molecules-to-man version of evolution.
 
reggieM said:
Some quotes from Pope Benedict:

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, …

What came first? Creative Reason, the Spirit who makes all things and gives them growth, or Unreason, which, lacking any meaning, yet somehow brings forth a mathematically ordered cosmos, as well as man and his reason. The latter, however, would then be nothing more than a chance result of evolution and thus, in the end, equally meaningless.

Since evolution occurs without purpose, direction or intelligence it cannot be the cause and origin of human life. An unintelligent, unconscious, blind process cannot create conscious intelligence and the faculties of the human soul.

This basically refutes the molecules-to-man version of evolution.
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First of all, a denial is hardly the same as a refutation. Second, none of that necessarily follows from Benedict’s quote. It could be, for example, that God set up the initial state of the universe with the foreknowledge that it would result in a spectacular physical abiogenesis and biological evolution on the then-future planet earth.

In the end, though, science and religion can and do clash, which means you’re going to have to make one of three choices: first, you can leave your religion flexible to conform to science; second, you may reject science in favor or religion; third, you can give up religious beliefs.

So where do you want to place your confidence: the scientific method, or Holy Tradition?
 
hatsoff said:
Second, none of that necessarily follows from Benedict’s quote. It could be, for example, that God set up the initial state of the universe with the foreknowledge that it would result in a spectacular physical abiogenesis and biological evolution on the then-future planet earth.
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I think this point has merit.

When a dart flies through the air, the interaction between gravity, aerodynamic drag and inertia is an “unintelligent, unconscious, blind process”, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the point on the board where the dart landed wasn’t aimed at by a thrower.
 
thunderballs75 said:
Pre-Vatican II:
newadvent.org/cathen/05654a.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humani_generis

Popes and the Catechism:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_and_the_Roman_Catholic_Church

Read the quotes by JPII, BXVI, and the Catechism (these are the official teachings of the Church).

And actually, this is what a Catholic must believe (this is also pre-Vatican II, 1952 in fact):
Code: 
* All that exists outside God was, in its whole substance, produced out of nothing by God.
* God was moved by His Goodness to create the world.
* The world was created for the Glorification of God.
* The Three Divine Persons are one single, common Principle of the Creation.
* God created the world free from exterior compulsion and inner necessity.
* God has created a good world.
* The world had a beginning in time.
* God alone created the world.
* God keeps all created things in existence.
* God, through His Providence, protects and guides all that He has created.
Now, where are *your *authoritative sources of this “defense against evolution”?
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  1. *] God keeps all created things in existence. (De fide.)
    *] God co-operates immediately in every act of His creatures. (Sent. communis.)
    *] God through His providence, protects and guides all that He has created. (De fide.)

    1. *] The first man was created by God. (De fide.)
      *] The whole human race stems from one single human pair. (Sent. certa.)
      *] Man consists of two essential parts–a material body and a spiritual soul. (De fide.)
      *] The rational soul is per se the essential form of the body. (De fide.)
      *] Every human being possesses an individual soul. (De fide.)
      *] Every individual soul was immediately created out of nothing by God. (Sent. Certa.)
      *] A creature has the capacity to receive supernatural gifts. (Sent. communis.)
      *] The Supernatural presupposes Nature. (Sent communis.)
      *] God has conferred on man a supernatural Destiny. (De fide.)
      *] Our first parents, before the Fall, were endowed with sanctifying grace. (De fide.)
      *] The donum rectitudinis or integritatis in the narrower sense, i.e., the freedom from irregular desire. (Sent. fidei proxima.)
      *] The donum immortalitatis, i.e., bodily immortality. (De fide.)
      *] The donum impassibilitatis, i.e., the freedom from suffering. (Sent. communis.)
      *] The donum scientiae, i.e., a knowledge of natural and supernatural truths infused by God. (Sent. communis.)
      *] Adam received sanctifying grace not merely for himself, but for all his posterity. (Sent. certa.)
      *] Our first parents in paradise sinned grievously through transgression of the Divine probationary commandment. (De fide.)
 

  1. *] Through the sin our first parents lost sanctifying grace and provoked the anger and the indignation of God. (De fide.)
    *] Our first parents became subject to death and to the dominion of the Devil. (De fide.) D788.
    *] Adam’s sin is transmitted to his posterity, not by imitation, but by descent. (De fide.)
    *] Original Sin consists in the deprivation of grace caused by the free act of sin committed by the head of the race. (Sent. communis.)
    *] Original sin is transmitted by natural generation. (De fide.)
    *] In the state of original sin man is deprived of sanctifying grace and all that this implies, as well as of the preternatural gifts of integrity. (De fide in regard to Sanctifying Grace and the Donum Immortalitatus. D788 et seq.)
    *] Souls who depart this life in the state of original sin are excluded from the Beatific Vision of God. (De fide.)
 
Catholic Answers.com/faith/faith tracts states:

"The Catholic Position

What is the Catholic position concerning belief or unbelief in evolution? The question may never be finally settled, but there are definite parameters to what is acceptable Catholic belief.

Concerning cosmological evolution, the Church has infallibly defined that the universe was specially created out of nothing. Vatican I solemnly defined that everyone must “confess the world and all things which are contained in it, both spiritual and material, as regards their whole substance, have been produced by God from nothing” (Canons on God the Creator of All Things, canon 5).

The Church does not have an official position on whether the stars, nebulae, and planets we see today were created at that time or whether they developed over time (for example, in the aftermath of the Big Bang that modern cosmologists discuss). However, the Church would maintain that, if the stars and planets did develop over time, this still ultimately must be attributed to God and his plan, for Scripture records: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host [stars, nebulae, planets] by the breath of his mouth” (Ps. 33:6).

Concerning biological evolution, the Church does not have an official position on whether various life forms developed over the course of time. However, it says that, if they did develop, then they did so under the impetus and guidance of God, and their ultimate creation must be ascribed to him.

Concerning human evolution, the Church has a more definite teaching. It allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from previous biological forms, under God’s guidance, but it insists on the special creation of his soul. Pope Pius XII declared that “the teaching authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions . . . take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God” (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36). So whether the human body was specially created or developed, ***we are required to hold as a matter of Catholic faith that the human soul is specially created; it did not evolve, and it is not inherited from our parents, as our bodies are. ***
While the Church permits belief in either special creation or developmental creation on certain questions, it in no circumstances permits belief in atheistic evolution."

This is how some people in the scientific community can remain devout catholics.
 
JanetF said:
Catholic Answers.com/faith/faith tracts states:

"The Catholic Position

What is the Catholic position concerning belief or unbelief in evolution? The question may never be finally settled, but there are definite parameters to what is acceptable Catholic belief.

Concerning cosmological evolution, the Church has infallibly defined that the universe was specially created out of nothing. Vatican I solemnly defined that everyone must “confess the world and all things which are contained in it, both spiritual and material, as regards their whole substance, have been produced by God from nothing” (Canons on God the Creator of All Things, canon 5).

The Church does not have an official position on whether the stars, nebulae, and planets we see today were created at that time or whether they developed over time (for example, in the aftermath of the Big Bang that modern cosmologists discuss). However, the Church would maintain that, if the stars and planets did develop over time, this still ultimately must be attributed to God and his plan, for Scripture records: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host [stars, nebulae, planets] by the breath of his mouth” (Ps. 33:6).

Concerning biological evolution, the Church does not have an official position on whether various life forms developed over the course of time. However, it says that, if they did develop, then they did so under the impetus and guidance of God, and their ultimate creation must be ascribed to him.

Concerning human evolution, the Church has a more definite teaching. It allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from previous biological forms, under God’s guidance, but it insists on the special creation of his soul. Pope Pius XII declared that “the teaching authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions . . . take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God” (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36). So whether the human body was specially created or developed, ***we are required to hold as a matter of Catholic faith that the human soul is specially created; it did not evolve, and it is not inherited from our parents, as our bodies are. ***
While the Church permits belief in either special creation or developmental creation on certain questions, it in no circumstances permits belief in atheistic evolution."

This is how some people in the scientific community can remain devout catholics.
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Evolution would have to reconcile itself with Adam and Eve as our first parents, Eve from Adam, bodily immortality, etc…

IDvolution does.
 
gearhead said:
It does?

How, exactly?
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God created the language of DNA and set it into the kinds. From there we see the diversity of life through the power of this language and adaptation. The Language of DNA is amazing in its power.
 
buffalo said:
God created the language of DNA and set it into the kinds. From there we see the diversity of life through the power of this language and adaptation. The Language of DNA is amazing in its power.
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Wait… how is this ID?

And are you trying to say that this statement is reconcilable with ID (i.e. “evolution alone would be incapable of creating all the varieties of life we see today”) but not theistic evolution (i.e. “evolution was used as a tool of God in His Creation”)?
 
gearhead said:
Wait… how is this ID?

And are you trying to say that this statement is reconcilable with ID (i.e. “evolution alone would be incapable of creating all the varieties of life we see today”) but not theistic evolution (i.e. “evolution was used as a tool of God in His Creation”)?
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It is not ID alone.

It is ID (DNA) coupled with adaptation. Maybe I should rename it IDapt. :hmmm:
 
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