Evolution in a nutshell!

[HolleyWilliams]

Hello

My friend has just started RCIA and says she has issues with evolution and Adam and Eve.

I told her that it wasn’t necessary to take the ‘seven days’ literally as we are not fundamentalists, but would have liked to give her a more complete answer.

I need some help putting the Church’s position on this in an easy to digest answer please!

Many thanks.

 

[judechild]

Hi Holly!

The Church believes:
That Adam and Eve were real historical persons.
That they experienced a real, historical Fall.
That the soul was specially created; it is not a product of evolution.
And that humans are not simply “more advanced animals”.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

Catholic teaching does not exclude the possibility of God’s use of evolution to create the world. One must simply recognize that we had two first parents, whom we know as Adam and Eve that were created in the image and likeness of God-- they were given eternal souls and lived in the friendship of God. Up until that point, any humanoids that may have existed as part of the animal kingdom were not in the image and likeness of God. All of modern humankind descended from these two parents. And because of their fall from grace, all of humankind needed a Savior to repair the life of grace that had been given to Adam and Eve.

The six days of creation is not literal in my opinion, though Catholic teaching allows one to believe that it is. However, to me it is just absurd to think that God created the world in six days and then made it look like it took millions of years. Sorry, I don’t buy that.

 

[tobinatorstark]

Hello

My friend has just started RCIA and says she has issues with evolution and Adam and Eve.

I told her that it wasn’t necessary to take the ‘seven days’ literally as we are not fundamentalists, but would have liked to give her a more complete answer.

I need some help putting the Church’s position on this in an easy to digest answer please!

Many thanks.

What exactly are issues with Adam and Eve? A better term would be that we don’t take in a literalist sense instead of literal. There are differences. Also evolution cannot contradict with God being the creator. I personally reject evolution and will continue to reject evolution

 

[buffalo]

Focus on the constant teaching and understanding of the Church. Catholics do not practice “private interpretation”. Neither should she.

 

[tjm190]

Hmm… Never knew the Church required two literal human parents. And here I was being proud of my religion for not being in a state of denial about our origins. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[zach_dunn]

Hmm… Never knew the Church required two literal human parents. And here I was being proud of my religion for not being in a state of denial about our origins. Thanks for the heads up!

Who says we’re in denial? It’s ok for Catholics to believe that God used evolution to create Adam and Eve, you just have to believe that they actually existed.

Zach

 

[buffalo]

Who says we’re in denial? It’s ok for Catholics to believe that God used evolution to create Adam and Eve, you just have to believe that they actually existed.

Zach

Here is what you have to believe:

Adam and Eve - we all are descended from
Eve from Adam
Bodily immortality
freedom from irregular desire
infused knowledge
freedom from sickness

all the preternatural gifts

original sin

 

[tjm190]

Who says we’re in denial? It’s ok for Catholics to believe that God used evolution to create Adam and Eve, you just have to believe that they actually existed.

Zach

Given that evolution would require a great number of human beings, rather than just two, at the dawn of man, the Church is clearly rejecting evolution.

 

[grannymh]

Given that evolution would require a great number of human beings, rather than just two, at the dawn of man, the Church is clearly rejecting evolution.

Your given is not necessarily a given. Evolution theory in itself does not require any set population number for any species. Nonetheless, opinions run the spectrum for any species’ population.

The Catholic Church only rejects those theories which directly contradict a specific teaching on faith and morals.

A good source for Catholic teaching is the on-line Catechism:

Blessings,
granny

All human beings are worthy of profound respect.