Well I choose the Lord and scripture. I hardly know a lot about evolution and it puzzles me how we came from monkeys. I wanted to see what facts this thread would produce in hopes of finding out how evolution is wrong or not. I am still unsure about evolution and it’s authenticity, seeing that there is a debate where one side says Catholicsm is compatible with evolution and the other side saying it isn’t.
Good choice.
We don’t come from monkeys. But, our individual physical being does start in the form of one cell, which multiplies and gradually grows sufficiently to survive outside the womb and continues from infancy to childhood, to adolescence, adulthood and old age. This all happens because we incorporate matter outside of ourselves. Although there’s plenty more data available now, there’s nothing more of substance known today about who we are than there was at our beginning. We’ve always known ourselves to be made of matter and physically similar to mammals. It seems to me that we are created individually as we were as one humanity. God began to mould our physical structure from the very beginning. Animals are male and female, not because it is adventageous for survival, but because it is not good for us to be alone -'we are designed for love, to give of ourselves and thereby unite to what is other. Genesis provides the basics and science should seek to clarify the details, but it’s gone astray as a result Its assumptions about the true nature of existence.
I have accepted that my understandings can only be partially correct. Our perceptions are ordered in accordance with our expectations. We generally see the world as we believe it to exist; above we conceive there to be a blue dome or more recently perhaps Hubble images. Our beliefs are the link between ourselves and reality. These beliefs are inculcated within us by society and developed through there contemplation. They are solidified through our contact with the world about us. Sometimes they spring anew when our foundations are shaken and we are confronted with eternity. We don’t like to fall into the abyss and many of us close ourselves up, lock our souls in a golden cage of pseudo rationality, feeling superficially safe but no longer able to soar. We then can no longer see all things as they are in themselves, but only through the narrow cracks of this cavern, which seems brilliant but only reflects ourselves.
There is some truth within the current hodgepodge of ideas that together form the scientific view of evolution. I believe they will eventually approach the truth. That truth is to be found in the teachings of the Catholic Church, which can be understood by people in all times and of all cultures, and are far broader in their scope as they are presented in the Bible and expanded upon within a tradition that includes the Catechism. In the end, it all boils down to our relationship with God and our being loving persons. If one’s beliefs assist us to that end, they are valid; if not, run!!
