Does Darwin's theory of evolution contradict Catholicsm?

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estion for science, any science. You’re not going to find God showing up in biology, climatology, hydrology, cosmology, geology, physics, chemistry, epidemiology or any of the other hundreds of areas of research. The fundamental problem appears to be that some people just cannot fathom that they are wrong in their Biblical interpretation.
All the fields of science you mention here offer something useful to man - the theory that humans evolved from mud-skippers offers no use at all; it’s as irrelevant as a fairy tale.

Why is the mud-skipper-to-man theory so important to you? Is it going to stop you getting old? Will it add years to your life? Does it make your dollar go further? Will it increase your chances of dating a super-model?
 
We can’t produce a black hole or continental drift in a test tube, so why suddenly do the goal posts have to be moved for abiogenesis research? And have you familiarized yourself with the theory at all?
That would be as pointless as studying the theory of the Tooth Fairy.
 
Evolution claims humans and plants share a common ancestor. That’s so funny!
People actually believe this stuff. That’s so funny!
 
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😶😯😮🤐😓😪😲😦😵

My reactions to this debate.

Didn’t we accept that evolution is compatible with Catholicsm already?
 
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😶😯😮🤐😓😪😲😦😵

My reactions to this debate.

Didn’t we accept that evolution is compatible with Catholicsm already?
I could start another thread more specific to Darwin’s theory if I can get 5 or more likes I will do it.
 
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“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth …”;

the “Second Creation” is described in Genesis 1:3-31 … the “six days” of creation.
What was the state if the earth prior to the start of the first of the 6 days as you understand it?
 
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Yes. It’s a false dichotomy that some people paint to say that you can only believe in either an atheistic Evolution or a theistic young earth creationism. That you have to choose either science or religion. Even before Darwin people knew the earth was quite old. Religious scientists in the 1700s and 1800s figured out there were fossils in the ground. There was an danish bishop who discovered that these triangular things in the ground that looked like shark’s teeth were actually shark’s teeth but have become fossilized over time. They discovered that the sediment gets layered over time and that these processes have been going on for eons. So, even before Darwin it was widely accepted that the earth was quite old. Charles Darwin was actually a theist and accepted that one could be a theist and believe in Evolution. And, actually the debate about the validity of Evolution was in the 1800s. It was in 1870 where Evolution was finally accepted by the scientific community as a whole. After that there was no debate in the scientific community. There is clearly a lot of evidence for Evolution even back in 1870, to sway the entire scientific community, never mind now. Now in 2017 and we are still debating this issue? Talk about beating a dead horse. Here is an interesting video I found of a person who is both a Christian theologian and an evolutionary biologist give a lecture about this very topic. He describes how it is reasonable to both accept Evolution and be a Christian in a Ted talk entitled Going beyond the Evolution vs Creationism debate.

 
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Some people seem to think that Evolution is an atheist’s fantasy when actually it was many who were religious and scientists that discovered it. It was also a priest who discovered the Big Bang.
 
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Accepting scientific evidence for Evolution or the age of the earth or of the universe doesn’t mean you have to stop being religious. It just means that a literal interpretation of Genesis would be a contradiction. But, then a literal interpretation of Genesis was a contradiction even for St. Augustine in the 4th century. Even in his day the cosmology was different then the cosmology of the book of Genesis which espoused a dome with a firmament holding back the waters above from the waters below with the sun and stars in the sky. See the video with the theologian above for more info on this cosmology.
 
The creation story asserts that God created everything and does so using the common understanding of the universe during that day. It would be like someone today asserting that God caused the Big Bang. Well, the ancient people wouldn’t know what you would be talking about if you mentioned the Big Bang. But if you said God caused the firmament above the sky they would know. We having the benefit of hindsight can reason that the author was making theological statements about God causing the universe and in a language and a worldview that the author and audience could relate to, but the passage is not claiming a particular cosmology is true. This seems obvious to anyone who does not insist on a literal interpretation of Genesis. The cosmology has even changed a few times since when Genesis was written.

Say someone wrote God caused the big bang and then much later on the big bang was proven to be false. Well then someone else could say the above statement is false. God didn’t cause the big bang. However, the assertion could still be made that God caused whatever cosmology is the current one. Because history shows that cosmologies change and evolve as we learn new things. So even if the Bible had said God caused the big bang today, someone a thousand years from now might be operating under a completely different cosmology where the big bang is disproven and therefore could say see the Bible is false. So the Bible could never really win even if written in any time period if it asserts certain scientific understandings of the time are true since science changes. So people recognize that the Bible could never be a book of science since science itself changes as we learn more. Instead the Bible asserts theological truths under the language and world view of its day.
 
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Let me know when abiogenesis scientists can produce life in a test tube - life that can also reproduce. Anything short of that is just paper science and empty talk.
Let me know when creation scientists can get God to miraculously produce life in a test tube - life that can also reproduce. Anything short of that is just paper creationism and empty talk.

You are on a dangerous road here. Abiogenesis scientists have produced lipid bilayers, purines, pyrimidines, amino acids and ribozymes in test tubes. Creation scientists have done none of these things. You are trying to fit your God into a gap in scientific knowledge. That is dangerous because science works to fill the gap, to make it smaller. If you want your God to fit into the gap, then you have to make your God smaller in order for Him to fit.

Thor and Zeus used to fit into the gap called “what causes thunder and lightning”. Do you want your God to end up like Thor and Zeus?

rossum
 
Not sure what you mean by “developmental biology”, but maybe this includes Dobzhansky’s belief that human embryos have “gills” like fish.
You will have to supply the reference from Dobzhansky to substantiate that claim.

Your source may be confusing the structures called “gill arches” (aka Branchial arches, Pharyngeal arches) in the embryo with actual gills. They are not. In fish embryos they are precursors to gills, in us they are precursors to our jaw.

If that is the case, then I suggest you find a better source, one which does not make elementary errors.

rossum
 
Evolution claims humans and plants share a common ancestor. That’s so funny!

People actually believe this stuff. That’s so funny!
We do. What goes on inside our cells is basically the same as what goes on inside a plant’s cells, so we share a lot of mechanisms which evolved from that single-celled common ancestor. Do some research on mitochondria for an obvious example.

Your obvious lack of knowledge of evolution is crippling your attempts to criticise it. You are about as effective as a non-Christian claiming that the Last Super means all Christians are cannibals. All you are doing here is displaying your ignorance of the subject. You need to learn more first: “An intelligent mind acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” - Proverbs 18:15.

rossum
 
What would be the bulk? A completely materialistic vision that sees what is clearly creation as being merely random mutation and natural selection from the very beginning? The truth behind it, that we are spiritual and material beings, one humanity descendant from two original parents features nowhere in the Theory which is touted in textbooks and the media and so superficial that it is a wonder how people can take seriously.
 
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What would be the bulk?
All of it with the exception of the parts which talk about the soul. The Catholic Church has no objection to evolution and common descent explaining the origin of the material human body. The divine origin of the human soul, and an initial pair of ensouled humans are the minimum that the Church seems to require. It is not difficult to slot that into the rest of the theory, as Ken Miller and many other Catholics have done.

$0.02

rossum
 
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