Evolution according to the Catholic Church

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Eric_Hyom said:
Why would God measure his day by some almost insignificant star and planet that he has created?
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He made it for man understanding His creation of a 7 day week and a day of rest. It would not work so well if it was a month or a quarter or year. 7 days is a good organizational plan for man.
 
buffalo said:
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niceatheist:
Since we’ve actually witnessed speciation, this is simply not a true statement.
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Speciation is lineage splitting with subsequent loss of genetic information and ability once had leading to extinction.
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That’s your own private definition. Extinction can caused by all kinds of things. A meteor strike is going to kill all kinds of species regardless of “genetic information”, and “loss of genetic information” is not how speciation happens. That’s some sort of strange definition invented by guys like Answers In Genesis.
 
buffalo said:
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niceatheist:
with those that advocate for a literal reading of Genesis.
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Until recently there was no question about how to read Genesis.
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I’d argue the opposite. Hellenic Jews certainly read Genesis 1 differently than the ancient Israelites, largely because Hellenic Jews had been exposed to Aristotlean and Platonic thought, philosophical and metaphysical systems that didn’t even exist when Genesis was first composed.
 
I think even Augustine said the time in Genesis was unknown since days to God are known to Him only.
 
“Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth , the heavens, and the other elements of the world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics ; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.”
St. Augustine
 
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buffalo said:
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niceatheist:
“loss of genetic information
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Genetic entropy is real.
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Uh huh. What does that even mean? Our genome is littered with genes which propagate because there is neutral pressure on them. Species don’t go extinct because they somehow lose genes, they go extinct because they are unable to adapt to their environment; either through competition or significant environmental change.

This is a Creationist strawman that doesn’t really even make sense.
 
I’ll be blunt. Your interpretation of Scripture is pretty much the interpretation I grew up with. When i stopped believing in Creationism, I stopped believing in the beliefs I’d been raised with. Maybe I was wrong to make the all or nothing decision, but it’s because people around me insisted that my accepting of evolution and geology put me at opposition to their interpretation of Scripture that I decided that clearly Scripture was wrong.
 
niceatheist said:
Species don’t go extinct because they somehow lose genes, they go extinct because they are unable to adapt to their environment; either through competition or significant environmental change.
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We now know about cell directed mutations and the cell runs the organism. There are several reasons for extinction. Genetic entropy causes them to be less fit over time. Mutations that may confer a temporary advantage break existing genes making the organism less fit over time.

There is much happening in current biology. Textbooks are out of date.
 
niceatheist said:
but it’s because people around me insisted that my accepting of evolution and geology
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Many people have fallen for the science claims. There is no problem accepting microevolution. Universal common descent is not empirically proved. Therefore, your position is one of evolutionism.

I tend to stick with biology, so I won’t comment on geology at this time.
 
kapp19 said:
For the sake of argument, I say a whale is a fish - it lives in the ocean and swims with fins. It could be called something else based on different criteria but… it need not be.
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This is and example of the sort of intellectual acrobatics required to align literal Genesis with science. How do you manage to explain the talking snake?
 
FiveLinden said:
How do you manage to explain the talking snake?
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First issue - it was not a snake, it was called a serpent.

Humans can be possessed and the demons can take over their speech. Jesus Himself cast them out of animals.

No acrobatics needed.
 
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The Church does not have official teachings on evolution. It talks about it, and it’s acceptability in relation to the faith.
The purpose of the Church is not to verify science…
 
Do you have a magisterial document to support the claim that the earth does not really have a dome over the sky, as mentioned in Genesis?
No Catholic scientist takes this section as a literalist, and yet here is no magisterial pronouncement.
?
Whats up with that?
 
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