Does Catholicism believe in Evolution?

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As the name suggests, does Catholicism believe in Evolution?
 
Evolution is a scientific theory, or more accurately, theories. As such, the Church neither “believes” nor “disbelieves” various evolutionary theories because the Church teaches on faith and morals, not science.

This is a non-issue in the Church.

Also as an FYI, evolution is a banned topic on this forum.
 
TheHolyTrinity9 said:
As the name suggests, does Catholicism believe in Evolution?
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I don’t think Catholicism as a religion takes a definitive position on the theory of evolution one way or the other. Therefore, individual Catholics may believe or disbelieve in evolutionary theory. However, to reconcile their belief in the theory with their belief that G-d created the universe, faithful Catholics would have to believe that the evolutionary process was begun by G-d rather than being random or a product of the void, and that G-d maintains the order and sequence of events that occur during the process. IOW, G-d is ultimately in control of His creation.
 
TheHolyTrinity9 said:
As the name suggests, does Catholicism believe in Evolution?
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When speaking about Catholicism’s beliefs and the evolution model, one has to first present Catholic doctrines regarding human origin, human nature, Original Sin, and Christ’s moral authority.

Second. One has to recognize the fact that there are millions of living creatures which could be a part of the standard evolution model.

Therefore, it is necessary to line up the science of human evolution with the Catholic Deposit of Faith. When that is done, it will be very obvious that the Catholic Church opposes certain assumptions in the contemporary science of human evolution.

These two article links present situations where Catholic doctrines challenge scientific conclusions regarding Adam and Eve.

crisismagazine.com/2014/did-adam-and-eve-really-exist

hprweb.com/2014/07/time-to-abandon-the-genesis-story/
 
Unfortunately we’re not allowed to make a suggestion of the subject on here. A while back I had a very serious question that was shaking my faith a bit relating to geocentrism but a moderator sent me a message that it would somehow lead to arguments about evolution. I was fine with my post being taken down, but I responded asking where I could get information but I was ignored. 😦
 
namax91 said:
Unfortunately we’re not allowed to make a suggestion of the subject on here. A while back I had a very serious question that was shaking my faith a bit relating to geocentrism but a moderator sent me a message that it would somehow lead to arguments about evolution. I was fine with my post being taken down, but I responded asking where I could get information but I was ignored. 😦
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I understand that Karl Keating has a (new?) book out about geocentrism; that might give you some of the information you’re looking for.
 
meltzerboy said:
I don’t think Catholicism as a religion takes a definitive position on the theory of evolution one way or the other. Therefore, individual Catholics may believe or disbelieve in evolutionary theory. However, to reconcile their belief in the theory with their belief that G-d created the universe, faithful Catholics would have to believe that the evolutionary process was begun by G-d rather than being random or a product of the void, and that G-d maintains the order and sequence of events that occur during the process. IOW, G-d is ultimately in control of His creation.
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Well said.

Ed
 
Something to consider that is never brought up. It is a teaching of the ordinary magisterium that Eve was “miraculously” created which means Eve could not have evolved from some sub-human therefore the teaching that humans evolved from a lower form of life is negated.

On Christian Marriage Pope Leo XIII

5……We record what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by any, that God, on the sixth day of creation, having made man from the slime of the earth, and having breathed into his face the breath of life, gave him a companion, whom He miraculously took from the side of Adam when he was locked in sleep. God thus, in His most far-reaching foresight, decreed that this husband and wife should be the natural beginning of the human race, from whom it might be propagated and preserved by an unfailing fruitfulness throughout all futurity of time

Pontifical Bible Commission
Concerning the Historical Character of the First Three Chapters of Genesis
June 30, 1909 (AAS 1 [1909] 567ff; EB 332ff; Dz 2121ff)

III: In particular may the literal historical sense be called in doubt in the case of facts narrated in the same chapters which touch the foundations of the Christian religion: as are, among others, the creation of all things by God in the beginning of time; the special creation of man; the formation of the first woman from the first man; the unity of the human race; the original felicity of our first parents in the state of justice, integrity, and immortality; the command given by God to man to test his obedience; the transgression of the divine command at the instigation of the devil under the form of a serpent; the degradation of our first parents from that primeval state of innocence; and the promise of a future Redeemer?

Answer: In the negative."

Thomas Aquinas “It was right for the woman to be made from a rib of man…for the sacramental signification; for from the side of Christ sleeping on the cross the Sacraments flowed.”

Augustine “Now in creating woman at the outset of the human race, by taking a rib from the side of the sleeping man, the Creator must have intended, by this act, a prophecy of Christ and his Church.”
 
meltzerboy said:
I don’t think Catholicism as a religion takes a definitive position on the theory of evolution one way or the other. Therefore, individual Catholics may believe or disbelieve in evolutionary theory. However, to reconcile their belief in the theory with their belief that G-d created the universe, faithful Catholics would have to believe that the evolutionary process was begun by G-d rather than being random or a product of the void, and that G-d maintains the order and sequence of events that occur during the process. IOW, G-d is ultimately in control of His creation.
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The Catholic Church definitively takes a position of opposition to the science theory that the human species originated in a rather large population of random mass copulation in the hundreds to thousands. Some folks refer to this method of producing humankind as a polygenism source within a particular breeding population.

Humani Generis, Pius XII, 1950, when read from the Catholic position, that is, the Deposit of Faith (CCC Glossary, Deposit of Faith, page 874)

and thus according to “the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church” (Humani Generis, # 37 and footnote 12),

there is the clear teaching that the faithful cannot embrace the science theory of polygenism (population). Catholic teaching is that humankind originated from a population of two.

Catholic information links regarding the basic fundamental truth that Adam and Eve are the two sole real fully-complete human parents of all humankind.
crisismagazine.com/2014/did-adam-and-eve-really-exist

hprweb.com/2014/07/time-to-abandon-the-genesis-story/

The new expanded third edition of the book *Origin of the Human Species *by Catholic author Dr. Dennis Bonnette includes the article “The Myth of the ‘Myth’ of Adam and Eve” as Appendix One. Appendix Two is “The Philosophical Impossibility of Darwinian Naturalistic Evolution”

http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Human-Species-Third-Edition/dp/1932589686/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=14124676 70&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Origin+of+the+human+spe cies++Bonnette
 
grannymh said:
The Catholic Church definitively takes a position of opposition to the science theory that the human species originated in a rather large population of random mass copulation in the hundreds to thousands. Some folks refer to this method of producing humankind as a polygenism source within a particular breeding population.

Humani Generis, Pius XII, 1950, when read from the Catholic position, that is, the Deposit of Faith (CCC Glossary, Deposit of Faith, page 874)

and thus according to “the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church” (Humani Generis, # 37 and footnote 12),

there is the clear teaching that the faithful cannot embrace the science theory of polygenism (population). Catholic teaching is that humankind originated from a population of two.

Catholic information links regarding the basic fundamental truth that Adam and Eve are the two sole real fully-complete human parents of all humankind.
crisismagazine.com/2014/did-adam-and-eve-really-exist

hprweb.com/2014/07/time-to-abandon-the-genesis-story/

The new expanded third edition of the book *Origin of the Human Species *by Catholic author Dr. Dennis Bonnette includes the article “The Myth of the “Myth” of Adam and Eve” as Appendix One. Appendix Two is “The Philosophical Impossibility of Darwinian Naturalistic Evolution”

http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Human-Species-Third-Edition/dp/1932589686/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=14124676 70&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Origin+of+the+human+spe cies++Bonnette
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Thanks for the information, granny! I was not aware of this teaching of the Church, only that the randomness concept of evolutionary theory is not an option for faithful Catholics.
 
Sorry people I didn’t know we couldn’t talk on it, is there a way to delete the thread?
 
TheHolyTrinity9 said:
Does Catholicism believe in Evolution?
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From Humani Generis:
  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.
And also:
  1. Taking into account the state of scientific research at the time as well as of the requirements of theology, the encyclical Humani Generis considered the doctrine of “evolutionism” a serious hypothesis, worthy of investigation and in-depth study equal to that of the opposing hypothesis. Pius XII added two methodological conditions: that this opinion should not be adopted as though it were a certain, proven doctrine and as though one could totally prescind from revelation with regard to the questions it raises. He also spelled out the condition on which this opinion would be compatible with the Christian faith, a point to which I will return. 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.
– Truth Cannot Contradict Truth.

HTH

rossum
 
rossum said:
From Humani Generis:
36. 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.
And also:
4. Taking into account the state of scientific research at the time as well as of the requirements of theology, the encyclical Humani Generis considered the doctrine of “evolutionism” a serious hypothesis, worthy of investigation and in-depth study equal to that of the opposing hypothesis. Pius XII added two methodological conditions: that this opinion should not be adopted as though it were a certain, proven doctrine and as though one could totally prescind from revelation with regard to the questions it raises. He also spelled out the condition on which this opinion would be compatible with the Christian faith, a point to which I will return. 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.

– Truth Cannot Contradict Truth.
HTH

rossum
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In the Truth Cannot Contradict Truth link

Please note that it is in section 5, where St. John Paul II specifically opposes one of the scientific theories regarding human nature. ** incompatible with the truth about man** is strong language.
 
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