Why do so many Catholics accept evolution as fact?

[WingsOfEagles]

It’s my understanding that Pope JPII basically stated that Catholics are welcome to accept the Theory of Evolution if they wish to. Catholics do not follow a completely literal Bible interpretation and as a result of this, the Theory of Evolution does not need to conflict with Catholic beliefs.

 

[Dorothy]

Of course they already had bodies.

If you read Genesis with a fresh mind, you can see that God breathed into a naked body (supernatural mouth to mouth?) and Adam became a living soul.

Nowhere does it say that any other being required Divine help to breathe; it wasn’t natural breathing God gave at that moment, but the human soul.

ICXC NIKA

Thank you!

 

[Della]

Were they part of God’s original creation? If so, God has a very strange concept of “very good”, and according to Gen. 1:31, he applied that term to “every thing he had made,” not just humanity. I absolutely cannot accept that he would apply that term to the kinds of creatures that we are talking about.

Merely because you don’t see their lives as good, doesn’t mean God doesn’t. He created them and they serve his purposes, which makes them good.

God is the God of life, all life, from human beings done to the simplest one-celled creatures. No matter how beneficial we think them or destructive we think them, they are alive and therefore what God created for the greater good.

Physical life isn’t the greatest good, especially for human beings in our fallen state. And one day there will be a new heavens and a new earth–exactly what nature will be like then we cannot know but we are told that the wolf will lie down with the lamb and the child play with the adder and come to no harm. So biology will be different. Perhaps it will transcend “very good” for “perfect.”

 

[edwest2]

However, textbook biological evolution can show the origin of man’s physical body accurately.

rossum

That is incorrect. The origin of our first parents means they were created by God.

Ed

 

[Michael_Mayo]

That is incorrect. The origin of our first parents means they were created by God.

Ed

The origin of all things means all things were created by God. Just how is a question for science.

 

[edwest2]

The origin of what our Church teaches about out first parents, called Adam and Eve, is clearly outlined in Scripture.

Genesis 2:18

Parallel Verses
New International Version
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

New Living Translation
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

English Standard Version
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Genesis 2:20

Parallel Verses
New International Version
So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

New Living Translation
He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.

English Standard Version
The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

Adam was alone. There was no suitable helper for him, then God fulfills His promise with Eve to which Adam says:

Genesis 2:23

Parallel Verses
New International Version
The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

New Living Translation
“At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’”

English Standard Version
Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

There was no one suitable for Adam until God performed a miracle.

Ed

 

[Wesrock]

As it stands now, and the way I understand it (without alienating myself from true doctrine)…it is possible that at some point in time our Lord infused souls into our first parents, who may already have had bodies.

Speculation on my part, but I think Adam and Eve would have been infused with rational souls at conception, making them the first metaphysical humans (not just physiologically). Their parents would not have had rational souls. Still, that doesn’t mean the parents wouldn’t have had complex behavior patterns and social skills compared to everything else.

Anyway, we know evolution isn’t a teaching of the Church, and the Church doesn’t teach exactly how it would be compatible (though Catholics have expressed ideas, of course). It just believes that reason and faith are not contradictory and that the Bible was not making scientific claims regarding the origin of man (though it does require believing that all humans [and we can understand this as to be something that is fully, metaphysically human, not just physiologically] can trace their ancestry back to Adam and Eve in their tree), and if the most reasonable, current explanation we have for the physiological origin of man is evolution, then it’s perfectly reasonable to believe in that.

 

[Wesrock]

That is incorrect. The origin of our first parents means they were created by God.

Ed

Which is something we can still say about everything that evolved.

 

[edwest2]

Which is something we can still say about everything that evolved.

In the case of human beings, we have our first parents and the reason for Original Sin.

From Catholic Answers:

"Adam and Eve: Real People

"It is equally impermissible to dismiss the story of Adam and Eve and the fall (Gen. 2–3) as a fiction. A question often raised in this context is whether the human race descended from an original pair of two human beings (a teaching known as monogenism) or a pool of early human couples (a teaching known as polygenism).

"In this regard, Pope Pius XII stated: “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 either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parents 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 that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own” (Humani Generis 37).

“The story of the creation and fall of man is a true one, even if not written entirely according to modern literary techniques. The Catechism states, “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (CCC 390).”

Ed

 

[rossum]

That is incorrect. The origin of our first parents means they were created by God.

Ed

Name one thing in the universe that was not created by God. (Excepting God of course.)

Being created by God is nothing special.

Evolution merely fills in some of the details. Evolution does not deal with souls, just with the physical part of our makeup.

Genesis says “Let the earth bring forth…” That gives us earth → animals → apes. All God has to do is to take some earth (which is now an ape) and give it a soul.

Evolution takes us from earth to the ape. After that, theology can take over.

rossum

 

[Pondero]

Fact is, not all Catholics do accept evolution as fact, I certainly don’t…

kolbecenter.org/

Neither do I, it just doesn’t make sense to me.I am not a young earth creationist, as I find the age of the the universe as 13.5 billion years and the age of the earth to be 4.5 billion million years more plausible.

 

[goout]

And another excellent reason why it is a banned subject: Not many people understand it and, for example, think we are descended from apes.

I would also venture that fewer than 1% of even faithful Catholics have read or understand the Church’s position (or lack of) on science.
Evolutionary science is a well accepted branch of discovery. That horse left the barn a long time ago and is not going back in.

 

[inocente]

Why do so many Catholics accept evolution as fact?

Because they are admirably wise.

 

[Richca]

Fact is, not all Catholics do accept evolution as fact, I certainly don’t…

kolbecenter.org/

Neither do I. Evolution theory is not a fact by a long shot but a theory which could be erroneous with many unanswered questions which will probably never be or can be answered by the methods of modern science or the fossil record. The theory involves many assumptions some of which are either unreasonable or contrary to the fossil record; and assumptions are not facts. Facts for me are 100% certainties such as the fact of my parents still living, the existence of the sun, the rotation of the earth, and the truths of divine revelation.

 

[Bradski]

I would also venture that fewer than 1% of even faithful Catholics have read or understand the Church’s position (or lack of) on science.

Maybe somebody can dig out the church’s position on gravity. Maybe Catholics are allowed to make up their own mind about that as well.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

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?

I’ll just make a clarification that the Catholic Church teaches that it is alright to accept evolution on the proviso that we also believe the “soul is provided by God upon conception”.

Catholics are free to believe the Adam and Eve story OR evolution. It doesn’t matter.

The reason it doesn’t matter what we believe in regard to our creation is because it is a non-salvific issue. That is, what we believe in regards to this does not determine whether we spend eternity in heaven or hell.

 

[Wesrock]

All consistent with what I said.

 

[Dorothy]

In the case of human beings, we have our first parents and the reason for Original Sin.

From Catholic Answers:

"Adam and Eve: Real People

"It is equally impermissible to dismiss the story of Adam and Eve and the fall (Gen. 2–3) as a fiction. A question often raised in this context is whether the human race descended from an original pair of two human beings (a teaching known as monogenism) or a pool of early human couples (a teaching known as polygenism).

"In this regard, Pope Pius XII stated: “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 either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parents 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 that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own” (Humani Generis 37).

“The story of the creation and fall of man is a true one, even if not written entirely according to modern literary techniques. The Catechism states, “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (CCC 390).”

Ed

I believe in monogenism as is stated in the first paragraph above. I hope I made that clear in the several posts I made.

 

[cfauster]

The origin of all things means all things were created by God. Just how is a question for science.

The new Society of Catholic Scientists promises to be a helpful resource.

 

[Gorgias]

What’s a banned subject? And where is it banned?

It’s banned on CAF. Causes too many intense, uncharitable arguments, I guess…