Teaching evolution at a catholic school

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Spanky1975 said:
The concept that’s difficult to reconcile are the millions of years of evolution seems to put limits on God’s creative power and design.
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This is a non-sequitor. The conclusion does not follow from the premise. There is no reason that evolution should mean that God’s creative powers are limited. He simply chose to work over a huge span of time rather than a small span. Either way, it’s still his power behind it. I’ve always considered that evolution made God greater, not lesser ,because it shows the depth of His dedication and power.
Spanky1975 said:
For if he allowed things to evolve for that period of time at what point were the angels ( good and eventually rebellious ) put into the equation?
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There were not put into the equation at any time. The Angels do not exist within our universe in the way we do, and are therefore not subject to the concept of time as we perceive it. They probably have their own sort of time since God is the only truly eternal being, but the question of time as it relates to the angels doesn’t really make sense.
Spanky1975 said:
Did not Christ say that the devil was a liar from the beginning?
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Yes, he is, but what does that have to do with anything? Or are you saying that the devil is responsible for he concept of evolution?
Spanky1975 said:
Also in genesis there is language to describe day and night as being 1 day, not 1,000,000 days.
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When I look back on the last few months I say that it feels like it’s been years. Figurative use of language is nothing new. Add to that the fact that, in the original Hebrew, Genesis has the structure of a poem, and it lends credence to the notion that the creation account is poetic allegory.
 
The Micro vs Macro-evolution dichotomy was artificially created by Creationists…these are not accepted scientific terms. Evolution is an empirically demonstrated biological process. What you’re referring to as “macro-evolution” is simply the same process that we have observed gradually unfolding over a period of millions of years… we’ve seen new species arise, so we know it can happen…and we can observe its evidence over time in the fossil record.
 
twf said:
The Micro vs Macro-evolution dichotomy was artificially created by Creationists…these are not accepted scientific terms.
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False, an evolutionist came up with is almost a century ago.
 
twf said:
we’ve seen new species arise, so we know it can happen…and we can observe its evidence over time in the fossil record.
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Speciation is lineage splitting with a subsequent loss of reproductive ability with the former. This lineage splitting leads to eventual extinction as the information loss is not regained.
 
I’ve often wondered which would be easier to do. Have each new species just show up, or have each new species evolve from a previous one. Since I can do neither, I haven’t worried a lot about it. I just let God handle it.

Pax
 
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@Spanky1975

Evolution is a scientific subject so the students wouldn’t be able to - for example - mark down incorrect answers about the subject matter and then expect to get points. That is just a matter of academic integrity.

People, including minors, are allowed to have personal opinions so I’m not sure what counts as ‘insubordinate behavior’ unless they’re trying to talk over other people in class. You would have to be more specific.

Peace.
 
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I think it’s good to be honest with one’s self about one’s docility to the Church.
With some people we have a “buffet line” type of Catholicism that accepts the Church’s thinking on some things but veers off into individualism on other issues.

Catholicism isn’t a cafeteria buffet line. And in all honesty, you should follow your conscience. If fundamentalist Christianity is really what you accept and believe, you ought to admit it.
 
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Spanky1975 said:
The concept that’s difficult to reconcile are the millions of years of evolution seems to put limits on God’s creative power and design.
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Is God limited in His power because of how long a time it took for Jesus to be born?
 
The kids are not allowed to question the teachers explanation of his or her understanding of creation vs evolution because it puts them “on the spot” if they can’t answer the question due to conflict of sequence events and scripture. Think about what scripture says about how sin brought death into the world. If there was no death in the world for billions of years could the small earth sustain all of life?
 
buffalo said:
Is God limited in his power to create instantaneously?
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No, He’s not, and no Catholic has suggested that. He could have created instantaneously had He chosen to. The evidence seems to indicate that He didn’t. I truly cannot comprehend why this is a problem. Either option is a display of power, just different displays.
Spanky1975 said:
If there was no death in the world for billions of years could the small earth sustain all of life?
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It is generally understood, even apart from evolutionary theory, that there are two possible understandings of death. Human death, and spiritual death. It could be that humans alone were intended to be spared death (a reasonable conclusion considering we are the only rational species). The other option is that the death being spoken of here is spiritual death, the loss of salvific grace, and the potential for the death of the soul (damnation). This position could be supported by the fact that Christ’s teaching focused on the question of spiritual life and death rather than physical life and death.

Either way, reasonable explanations exist.
 
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buffalo said:
Scientism has done its best to deny this possibility.
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Scientism, yes, but I’m not talking about scientism. I am talking about science. There is a diffrence. The science clearly indicates an old Earth, and an evolutionary process of some kind.

Sceintism denies the possibility of creationism for two reason. One, the science does not support it, and in their minds science is the only possible source of knowledge. Two, if creationism is true then God is real and scientism is false. Given that their entire worldview is wrapped up in a scientistic outlook, it’s no surprise they would reject this option.
 
buffalo said:
Therefore, God’s revealed word about what happened has to be watered down.
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No, it doesn’t. It has to be properly understood. There is a difference, though in my past debates with you I recall that you seem incapable of making that distinction.I’m out of energy for the debate, I’m pretty sure you an dI have had it at least once before here, and i don’t really see a point in trying to retread ground when you’ve already shown yourself in this thread unwilling to consider alternate explanations. have a good one.
 
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ProdglArchitect said:
and i don’t really see a point in trying to retread ground when you’ve already shown yourself in this thread unwilling to consider alternate explanations. have a good one.
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I have an alternate explanation which you reject and have seen several times. For the benefit of the original poster here it is again.

IDvolution - God “breathed” the super language of DNA into the “kinds” in the creative act.

This accounts for the diversity of life we see. The core makeup shared by all living things have the necessary complex information built in that facilitates rapid and responsive adaptation of features and variation while being able to preserve the “kind” that they began as. Life has been created with the creativity built in ready to respond to triggering events.

Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on Earth have the same core, it is virtually certain that living organisms have been thought of AT ONCE by the One and the same Creator endowed with the super language we know as DNA that switched on the formation of the various kinds, the cattle, the swimming creatures, the flying creatures, etc… in a pristine harmonious state and superb adaptability and responsiveness to their environment for the purpose of populating the earth that became subject to the ravages of corruption by the sin of one man (deleterious mutations).

IDvolution considers the latest science and is consistent with the continuous teaching of the Church.

http://www.idvolution.org
 
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