Why do so many Catholics accept evolution as fact?

[Fragile]

Give it a Billion more pages.

I believe in a young thread, should only make it to 10,000 or so…

 

[Vonsalza]

I believe in a young thread, should only make it to 10,000 or so…

If the discussion isn’t “fit enough”, it may die-out before it reaches 10,000

This will be likely.

 

[Aloysium]

. . . I think a lot of ultra-traditionalists are going to find that a lot of mislabeled “Towers of Babel” were also God-Breathed.

You think, but you don’t really know. And that’s the nature of much knowledge; some might argue, all.

We put together scenarios and possibilities based on reason and faith. Predictably so, the greater the darkness the more we cling to faith, that link which connects us to what is real. And sometimes, failing to grow, we may find reality slipping out of our grasp.

Science, as do art, music, athletics among other activities whereby we find ourselves moving mountains, and especially loving human relations, reveals the beauty, wonder and truth of existence and its Source in God. It is a human activity arising from our capacity to gain understandings into the nature of our world and to use them to participate in creation.

We build; we develop the knowledge of producing and putting together shelters, churches and towers. Science is not the issue; it really never has been. It is what we do with it. Whether or not today’s secularism is more seductive, the case is that the forces of the world have always controlled much of this realm of human activity. The misuse of science is seen in and includes abortion, weapons of war, despoiling of the environment, the list is long and depressing. We build Towers of Babel when we use our talents for vain glory, the selfish accumulation earthly possession, and to exert power on one another. We venture into the sky, into illusion and transience, seeking to make them true and eternal. Heaven cannot be taken or entered by what is corrupt. It comes down; it is offered to us. That done without love is doomed, and we are left at best, with pyramids, tombs encasing the dead.

The problem with modern understandings of our emergence into this world is that they are corrupted by a view that does not recognize God at all, let alone as the central figure in our being here. Facts come into relief through theories, which explain them and which they go on to support. It was only the minor glitch of planetary movement that sank the Ptolemaic system. There exists now a huge elephant in the room with the undeniable reality of the human spirit, its holinss and the world of the Divine. It is all just covered over, ignored. And, the further we drift, the darker and more difficult it is to see the obvious.

The hope is that we can and will encounter the Truth face to face, each of us joined in love as one humanity, in Jesus, in communion within the Trinity, looking deep into the mysteries of existence, the knowledge that transcends and encapsulates this world. We may be too enrapt with the wonder to care what dreams we had while in the shadows.

 

[grannymh]

From reading posts on here and also from listening to Catholic Answers, it seems like a lot of Catholics simply accept that evolution is a fact and then try to make it fit with the Catholic faith. As someone coming to Catholicism from the Reformed perspective who is also a creationist, this troubles me.

Why do Catholics not seem to have encountered the myriad of books, articles and videos that show the major weaknesses of the evolution theory? Sites like Answers In Genesis, Creation Ministries International and the Institute for Creation Research show that there are serious problems with evolutionary theory. There are books written by PhD scientists (including one from my alma mater, Victoria University of Wellington) that blow holes in evolution.

With such a myriad of resources at hand, why do so many Catholics try to make evolution fit with the Catholic faith when there really is no need to?

Also, are there any Catholic creationists (either young earth or old earth) on this board?

Unfortunately, there are Catholics who either do not understand the clear distinction between Genesis 1: 25 and Genesis 1: 27 or they ignore it. In addition, there is a lack of information about the Evolution Model per se which is not really an excuse because the Homo line of descent is standard education. Catholics tend to overlook Genesis 2:18. There are a few popular Catholic speakers/writers who simply do not like the first three mysterious chapters of Genesis; thus, these valuable chapters are trashed. And there are Catholics who, apparently, have not studied the first three sacred chapters of Genesis in relationship with Catholic doctrines and the protocol of the visible Catholic Church on earth. For some reason, it is difficult to understand that the Science of Human Evolution is different, unique, from the science of beavers, bacteria, bananas, and birds.

This last comment (Humani Generis) may be unique to CAF. There are some, not all, participants who have a bit of trouble with polygenism as it appears in the 1950 encyclical *Humani Generis, *Pope Pius XII, and/or they do not understand some of the principles in the beginning of this important document which is relevant today.