True. In Jimmy Akin’s defense, despite him not delving into the monogenism/polygenism section of the encyclical in that magazine article, I recall reading Akin defending Adam and Eve as a real couple - I just can’t recall
where I saw Akin doing that.
Certainly that Catholic teaching is defended in all of the articles I’ve seen in Catholic Magazine, for example:
Before Sin by Melinda Selmys
Genesis by Antonio Fuentes
Adam, Eve, and Evolution (a tract from 2004 that received
Nihil Obstat and
Imprimatur)
Yes, everyone defends the reality of Adam and Eve.
The difficulty is that not everyone has a full understanding of what happens when “evolution” intersects with a basic Catholic doctrine such as we are descendants from a population of two.
In science --I can never remember the exact wording – populations evolve from populations. Consider the Homo/Pan split aka a speciation event which led to the hominin branch ending in us, humans. According to the basic evolution model, we are descended from indiscriminate, random breeding, humanizing populations of thousands, over time.
The romantic Eve and Adam have never been considered as part of the evolution model.
Because of the exciting discoveries of paleoanthropologists, it is easy to see why evolution of decomposing anatomies is center stage. There is nothing unusual here. The evolution model was working perfectly. It is understandable that many persons considered that a cladogram explained the present human being. Interesting information can be found in this link
evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/_0_0/evo_07
The romantic Eve and Adam are not part of the evolution model.
Apparently the prevailing theory was that the evolution model could be applied to the human person. Also, there were some Catholics who objected. I have not researched the beginning of objections because I consider the work of the brilliant Pope Pius XII (
Humani Generis) as clearly opposed to the process of evolution.
As I said above: “The difficulty is that not everyone has a full understanding of what happens when “evolution” intersects with a basic Catholic doctrine such as we are descendants from a population of two.” This is probably why someone slips.
Humani Generis
It remains for Us now to speak about those questions which, although they pertain to the positive sciences, are nevertheless more or less connected with the truths of the Christian faith. In fact, not a few insistently demand that the Catholic religion take these sciences into account as much as possible. This certainly would be praiseworthy in the case of clearly proved facts; but caution must be used when there is rather question of hypotheses, having some sort of scientific foundation, in which the doctrine contained in Sacred Scripture or in Tradition is involved. If such conjectural opinions are directly or indirectly opposed to the doctrine revealed by God, then the demand that they be recognized can in no way be admitted.
For these reasons the Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God. However, this must be done in such a way that the reasons for both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation and measure, and provided that all are prepared to submit to the judgment of the Church, to whom Christ has given the mission of interpreting authentically the Sacred Scriptures and of defending the dogmas of faith.[11] Some however, rashly transgress this liberty of discussion, when they act as if the origin of the human body from pre-existing and living matter were already completely certain and proved by the facts which have been discovered up to now and by reasoning on those facts, and as if there were nothing in the sources of divine revelation which demands the greatest moderation and caution in this question.
When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own.[12]
