Primordial Soup

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Faith1960

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I just stumbled on these articles tonight, when I signed on to AOL. The links are located at the bottom of my post.
Do these articles disprove the Bible or teaching of the Catholic Church, where the latter tells us this, below:
catholic.com/tracts/adam-eve-and-evolution

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< The Catholic Position

What is the Catholic position concerning belief or unbelief in evolution? The question may never be finally settled, but there are definite parameters to what is acceptable Catholic belief.

Concerning cosmological evolution, the Church has infallibly defined that the universe was specially created out of nothing. Vatican I solemnly defined that everyone must “confess the world and all things which are contained in it, both spiritual and material, as regards their whole substance, have been produced by God from nothing” (Canons on God the Creator of All Things, canon 5).

The Church does not have an official position on whether the stars, nebulae, and planets we see today were created at that time or whether they developed over time (for example, in the aftermath of the Big Bang that modern cosmologists discuss). However, the Church would maintain that, if the stars and planets did develop over time, this still ultimately must be attributed to God and his plan, for Scripture records: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host [stars, nebulae, planets] by the breath of his mouth” (Ps. 33:6).

Concerning biological evolution, the Church does not have an official position on whether various life forms developed over the course of time. However, it says that, if they did develop, then they did so under the impetus and guidance of God, and their ultimate creation must be ascribed to him.

Concerning human evolution, the Church has a more definite teaching. It allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from previous biological forms, under God’s guidance, but it insists on the special creation of his soul. Pope Pius XII declared that “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 . . . 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—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God” (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36). So whether the human body was specially created or developed, we are required to hold as a matter of Catholic faith that the human soul is specially created; it did not evolve, and it is not inherited from our parents, as our bodies are.

While the Church permits belief in either special creation or developmental creation on certain questions, it in no circumstances permits belief in atheistic evolution.>>>>

html?ref=science&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl9%7Csec3_lnk2%26pLid%3D137266

livescience.com/16495-meteor-impacts-earth-life.html
 
This has no effect on Catholic teaching whatsoever. Whether the impact of meteorites was necessary to create the proper conditions for life or even whether the organic compounds that became life as we know it were cooked up first in stars and then seeded onto our planet pose no threat to the theistic worldview. In fact, we Catholics have been blessed with an amazing intellectual tradition that actually presaged so many of our recent scientific discoveries. Thomas Aquinas, for example, taught that God’s initial creation was something very simple, but that this simple thing contained within itself potentialities that would unfold over time into more and more diverse and more and more perfect forms. This theory can perfectly enfold the Big Bang theory (which was itself the work of a Catholic scientist!) as well as evolution. In fact, one should expect that for an omnipotent being, after the initial act of creation, no further intervention would be necessary. God, if he is omnipotent, is certainly capable of creating a system that is itself capable of generating everything we see in our universe, including life. Truly, what’s more impressive? I suggest the creation of a system so intricate as to be able to generate things as complex as ourselves is a much more fantastic example of God’s glory than some act of conjuration. The former shows all at once God’s power and glory as well as his incomprehensible intelligence. The latter reduces him to some sort of super genie. 🤷 There’s my two cents; take it for what it’s worth.
 
“some act of conjuration”? How did Jesus raise the dead, give sight to the blind or cleanse the lepers? The God of the Bible has supernatural powers which Jesus clearly demonstrated.

Peace,
Ed
 
edwest2 said:
“some act of conjuration”? How did Jesus raise the dead, give sight to the blind or cleanse the lepers? The God of the Bible has supernatural powers which Jesus clearly demonstrated.

Peace,
Ed
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I am not denying that God can and does do these things, but that there is no reason to assume that it is the only means by which he can and does operate. God could have very well created the world in just that way, but the current evidence suggests He did not. And, it could be argued, for good reason, from a theological perspective. Love and freedom are intertwined. Giving his creation freedom to grow on its own is in perfect keeping with His perfect love. Like the perfect parent He is, he respects the otherness of His creation, while still nurturing and tending to it. Also, another beauty of it is that it allows us to verify for ourselves what He has already told us. Note the uncanny accuracy of the sequence of Genesis with modern cosmology and evolutionary theory. No other creation account can claim such remarkable accuracy. His bestowing upon His church of intellects of the like of Aquinas seems to have been not just a blessing, but a blessing with extraordinary foresight to the discoveries that would challenge His faithful in times to come.
On the flip side, had He created instantaneously, there would be no evidence for us to find and corroborate. It’s worth noting that the Big Bang theory posed, and still poses, an immense threat to materialistic philosophy, and also that most evolutionists are theists, contrary to what Richard Dawkins would have you believe.
Of course, I accept that I could be wrong. I, ultimately, don’t worry too much about whether or not evolution, etc. is true. I am not a scientist and don’t intend to be one. Whether or not all lifeforms descended from a single organism or not has little practical effect on my life or faith. Please view all previous statements in this post and the preceding one as speculation made upon scientific data which, for the sake of argument, I am presuming to be true.
 
I am a scientist by training, and it bothers me that the one article from livescience says,
Recent research on ancient volcanic rocks retrieved from deep beneath the seafloor during an ocean drilling expedition indicates that glass — created in the Early Bombardment scenario, by the heat of impact — may make elemental nutrients more easily accessible to hungry microbes. Scientists found fossil traces in the porous rocks that may indicate that tiny organisms ate their way through the glass contained in the samples.
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In addition, violent impacts make rocks slightly more porous and thus more hospitable for organisms, essentially providing tiny homes for any burgeoning life forms.
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Unless the definition of it has changed in the last 10 years, microbes are single-celled organisms and the latter paragraph (if you can call a single sentence a paragraph, but that is the nature of the internet) indicates that they were here before the meteorites crashed here, though the former paragraph seems to indicate that the microbes traveled with the meteorite.

In either event, the meteorites still do not answer the question: where did life begin?
 
Faith1960 said:
Concerning human evolution, the Church has a more definite teaching. It allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from previous biological forms, under God’s guidance, but it insists on the special creation of his soul. Pope Pius XII declared that “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 . . . 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—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God” (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36). So whether the human body was specially created or developed, we are required to hold as a matter of Catholic faith that the human soul is specially created; it did not evolve, and it is not inherited from our parents, as our bodies are.
Click to expand...
The following section # 37 of Humani Generis contains the Catholic doctrine that all humanity descended from one, true, human couple biblically known as Adam and Eve. This doctrine is known as monogenism.

“37. 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]”

Footnote [12]
12. Cfr. Rom., V, 12-19; Conc. Trid., sess, V, can. 1-4.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, paragraph 404 begins with
“How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam “as one body of one man.” By this “unity of the human race” **all **men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as all are implicated in Christ’s justice.” Emphasis mine.

Footnote for “as one body of one man.” is St. Thomas Aquinas, De Malo 4, 1.
 
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