How many Catholics are YEC

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bradskii
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Now I’m confused, too.

What I was getting at was that most people believe in a Creator-God who created the universe.
The Catholic intellectual tradition is compatible with the Big Bang theory. This theory was developed by a Catholic priest. Most Catholics and Protestants agree with this theory.
A smaller minority believes in the literal interpretation of Genesis, a six thousand year old universe.
The title of this thread is How Many Catholics Are YEC. That’s what I’ve tried to confine my answers to.

I think Ed West is referring to “at what point or points did God intervene to directly influence evolution”

And my answer is “it depends who you ask”.

The teaching of the RCC is that humans were created by an intentional act of God, but the specific hows and wherefores aren’t all spelled out.

Does that answer the question?
It’s very possible I’m completely missing the point because it’s the wee small hours of the morning of an overnight shift.
 
edwest211 said:
What’s wrong with crickets and tumbleweed?
Click to expand...
They represent the silence you make when asked a question.

You can ask me anything at all, Ed. I will do my very best to give you as honest an answer as I possibly can. Give it a go, why don’t you?

If I ask you anything, you duck and weave. So if I ask you the age of the planet…crickets and that old weed again.

Beats me why you bother logging on to a forum: ‘a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.’

You don’t seem to want to exchange anything.
 
twf said:
I’m pretty sure OECs exist.
Click to expand...
Oh yes, I’m one of them or at least I have no problem with creationism and an old universe or earth. As at least one poster has said, the days of the Genesis creation narrative do not necessarily only mean 24 hour days but they could be interpreted to mean an indefinite space of time too. It’s not like the eternal God had to be in a rush in creating and putting the corporeal universe together. He could do it instantly, in six days, or six billion years. As that one poster said quoting scripture, a day to the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day or as a watch in the night.
 
Last edited:
Good documentary on NetFlix about them. Fascinating. I do admire their devotion.
 
Richca said:
40.png
twf:
I’m pretty sure OECs exist.
Click to expand...
Oh yes, I’m one of them or at least I have no problem with creationism and an old universe or earth. As at least one poster has said, the days of the Genesis creation narrative do not necessarily only mean 24 hour days but they could be interpreted to mean an indefinite space of time too. It’s not like the eternal God had to be in a rush in creating and putting the corporeal universe together. He could do it instantly, in six days, or six billion years. As that one poster said quoting scripture, a day to the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day or as a watch in the night.
Click to expand...
So you believe the planet is billions of years old. But that Man only appeared a few thousand years ago? Quite suddenly? Or as part of the natural (and God controlled) process of evolution?
 
Last edited:
I have no problem believing our planet may be billions of years old if the dating methods of modern science are at least approximately accurate. I don’t know how many thousands of years ago when God created the first man and woman, namely, Adam and Eve, but it appears to be more than a few thousand years ago. Yes, I believe they appeared suddenly at that time God created them and not from an evolutionary process but from a supernatural and immediate creation and formation, body and soul.
 
Last edited:
Why would God confuse us, then, by creating other species with such similar DNA (chimpanzees in particular among extant species).
 
Richca said:
I have no problem believing our planet may be billions of years old if the dating methods of modern science are at least approximately accurate. I don’t know how many thousands of years ago when God created the first man and woman, namely, Adam and Eve, but it appears to be more than a few thousand years ago. Yes, I believe they appeared suddenly at that time God created them and not from an evolutionary process but from a supernatural and immediate creation and formation, body and soul.
Click to expand...
As twf just intimated: why do you believe in the scientific approach when it comes to some things, but not to others?

Why does your belief allow one but not the other? Where is the line that you draw? If God has created this world by natural processes lasing billions of years, then why reject similar processes for the emergence of Man?
 
Why is this confusing? It’s not confusing to me. God created animals who are living things with similar biological natures which is why we call them animals. Human beings have living bodies and are defined as rational animals, a spiritual soul and body composite. Plants are another kingdom of living things with similar natures but they are not animals. Rocks are beings or things with similar natures but they are not plants or animals.
 
Last edited:
You mean 'Beyond the Curve"? They seem to me to be irrational and stubborn.
 
Bradskii said:
As twf just intimated: why do you believe in the scientific approach when it comes to some things, but not to others?
Click to expand...
Obviously, the scientific approach cannot explain all of reality. For example, the scientific approach cannot demonstrate the existence of God or the human soul or the distinction between good and evil, virtue and vice, heaven and hell, or morals.
Why does your belief allow one but not the other? Where is the line that you draw? If God has created this world by natural processes lasing billions of years, then why reject similar processes for the emergence of Man?
Click to expand...
I don’t believe God created this world by natural processes alone lasting billions of years. The universe may be billions of years old but as I said above, that does not necessarily mean in my belief the stories of scientific naturalism. That God created the world and everything in it is the first article of the catholic profession of faith which is what I believe from the revealed word of God. As for the scientific approach, I draw the line between theory and fact and without necessarily interpreting the Bible or the creation or formation of the universe according to modern scientific theory stories which may be erroneous. Is it not possible that God could have created and formed the universe supernaturally himself more or less over billions of years? We do believe that even now God by his providence keeps the universe in existence at every moment and governs it and guiding it to its end. I suppose the same question could be posed to a christian theistic evolutionist, namely, where does he/she draw the line between the Creator and creature, the revealed word of God and the formation theories of the universe of modern science, and why?
 
Last edited:
I am less than optimistic about getting an answer about where the the theistic occurs in theistic evolutionist.
 
“anything” Isn’t that a stretch? A bit of hyperbole? I’ve posted this before.

The Time Question​

Much less has been defined as to when the universe, life, and man appeared. The Church has infallibly determined that the universe is of finite age—that it has not existed from all eternity—but it has not infallibly defined whether the world was created only a few thousand years ago or whether it was created several billion years ago.
  • Catholic Answers
 
Last edited:
It’s not that complicated. When life arises within a mother’s womb, it is a natural process…it happens of its own accord. Yet God designed that process and sustains that process…and beyond that, we believe God intervenes to create the soul.

I see the broader process of evolution in much the same light.
 
Two separate subjects. To say God was involved in some unspecified way is not an answer. As far as I can tell, God wound up a toy called evolution and it went wherever it went, leaving God as no more than a bystander. This is not the Catholic understanding of evolution.
 
edwest211 said:
I am less than optimistic about getting an answer about where the the theistic occurs in theistic evolutionist.
Click to expand...
It occurs at inception. God starts a universe that inherently possesses potential to develop life. This development could even have been unavoidable given the nature of the creation.
twf said:
It’s not that complicated. When life arises within a mother’s womb, it is a natural process…it happens of its own accord. Yet God designed that process and sustains that process…and beyond that, we believe God intervenes to create the soul.

I see the broader process of evolution in much the same light.
Click to expand...
Exactly. The only supernatural intervention required after the big-bang is the creation of the soul.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top