Quoting Elizabeth502:
Catholic doctrine on the soul is incompatible with the notion of evolving souls. You are describing gradual development, i.e., evolving, i.e., heterodoxy.
Quoting StAnastasia:
Not true - it is compatible.
I cited twice in this thread the denunciation of two Popes regarding evolving souls. Show me where Catholic doctrine – not a theological theory by your own peer group, an author speaking against doctrine, etc. – supports the evolution of the human soul.
Quoting Elizabeth 502:
But that is less interesting to me than the shift in your worldview (whether that evolved over time, or you have always maintained this), that theology is modified by science, and under science’s dominion.
Quoting StAnastasia:
Saint Thomas Aquinas would be the first to acknowledge that our interpretation of theology changes as our scientific world view changes. His articulation of theology – constructed in light of the Aristotelian philosophical corpus (recently rediscovered in the twelfth century – looked very different from the theologies articulated in previous centuries in light of Platonistic philosophy.
That has nothing to do with science modifying doctrine. For someone with a graduate degree, you seem to have trouble with precision when responding to others (not just to me, I’ve noticed). Someone makes a particular statement, and you answer with a generality that does not address the particular.
I don’t need a lecture about Aquinas; I’m possibly more acquainted with him than you are. He was extremely clear that science does not modify
doctrine. You continue to interchange the word “understanding” with the word “doctrine.”
They are not interchangeable. Doctrine in this context is Roman Catholic term which indicates a definitive, settled teaching, not understandings in process. Theology involves dialogue; doctrine does not. Doctrine is the end point of theological study, not a midpoint.
You are implying to all the posters, lurkers, and inquirers to the Faith on CAF, that Church doctrine changes. Explanations of doctrines change; language about doctrine changes; the way that doctrine is re-situated within the larger body of doctrine can shift. But that is not the same thing as equating “having a conversation [about a concept]” with “changing Church doctrine.”
Quoting StAnastasia:
Theology is not "under science’s dominion, as you suggest, but rather in dialogue with it.
But the dialogue about spirituality is not ultimately subject to scientific views about the material world. And as far scientists making suppositions about the non-material world, they can do so all they want, but, as grannymh has reminded us, Revelation is decidedly different from scientific discoveries about the material world. Science cannot assume, for example, that evidence of animal species showing care about each other is evidence of morality per se. Those of us who have studied anthropology have read a lot about the grieving of animals, the adjustments animals make in response to new needs of their group, etc. That’s evidence of feeling, and evidence of social adjustment.
Quoting Elizabeth502:
And I find it ironic that this is the exact opposite of the universally understood message of Genesis: that all of creation, including how creation “works” (however primitvely they misunderstood such workings), is dwarfed by the majesty and power of God, who contains human knowledge and authored the physical laws of the universe.
Quoting StAnastasia:
Ah, but it is not the opposite at all. Read Archbishop Josef Zycinski’s God and Evolution (2006), in which he shows that what we know from physics and biology is incorporated into the divine reality!
That’s precisely what I said! You obviously had trouble understanding that.