Why do so many Catholics accept evolution as fact?

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Michael85

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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?
 
I was under the impression the only thing the Church holds to is that here was one set of parents, and it was they who committed an offense against God, and that offense has had lasting effects for mankind. This would be the theological side of creation. Evolution would be the scientific side of creation, which doesn’t really effect our faith or morals.
 
A banned topic is one which generally degrades quickly into angry arguments. They are topics which to not be helpful to the community here.

Banned here on the forum, not to Catholics in general.
 
Because it explains the patterns of similarity among living things.
 
MT1926 said:
What’s a banned subject? And where is it banned?
Click to expand...
There is a list of topics that are not allowed, evolution is one of them.

I believe there is a “sticky” put up somewhere that details this.

ICXC NIKA
 
I view evolution the way you can view a hurricane. God didn’t just CREATE the hurricane today, we can go back in time and observe how it formed because processes in the atmosphere moved in the direction of a hurricane forming when and where it did. It’s the same with evolution. Processes on earth lead to the development of all the different forms of life. Evolution does not affect my faith. God is worthy to be worshiped whether he literally made me from “dust” or gradually made me from some lesser ape.
 
Michael85 said:
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.
Click to expand...
There are even more problems with young earth creationism. But evolution is a scientific theory. Not a religious belief. It presents a framework for understanding observations in nature. It is THE most accepted and workable theory in biology and anthropology.
 
MT1926 said:
What’s a banned subject? And where is it banned?
Click to expand...
Evolution. Not because of the topic itself, but because when discussion on evolution took place it frequently turned nasty. There isn’t a large enough mod staff to moderate those discussions.
 
It is a fact – as far as any scientific theory can be considered a fact.

How far can a scientific theory be considered a fact? It depends.

On one hand you have the Theory of Gravity. On the other, String Theory.
 
What we as Catholics are not to accept of the theory of evolution is that everything happens by chance/changes over time alone. For example, we are to believe that we all came from one set of parents–Adam and Eve because it is revealed truth–that cannot be proved by science–at least not with what we currently know /can discover with what we know.

Besides, there is more than one working theory of evolution–not just the Darwinian version. As I understand it, many scientists do not use his model since others have taken its place, but they do look to his original theories as the groundwork for ongoing studies.

Science isn’t hard and fast. It’s supposed to be open to new theories and subject to evidence and experimentation. No one should worship such a process nor put it in the place of religious faith–it’s not meant for that. Doing so turns science into what scientists themselves think bad science–absolutism.

Anyway, there is no clash between real science, the scientific method, and Catholicism. Many Catholics, including religious, have been scientists whose faith was not and is not rattled by any scientific theory for their, and our, faith is based on the revelation of Christ to man, not in the discoveries of the natural world, nor in anyone’s theories about them.
 
I don’t think we need to delve into the banned topic in order to answer the OP’s fundamental question.

Most people don’t have the desire to delve into the scientific debates and minutia of evolutionary theory. All they know is that the theory of evolution is the predominant view amongst scientists.

From the perspective of a Catholic apologist, our job is to remove obstacles for people in accepting the faith. It is a common view that evolution is fact. And it is a common view that evolution contradicts Scripture and Christian teaching. Therefore, many Catholic apologists like to point out that evolutionary theory (understood correctly) does not contradict Scripture (understood correctly).

This is a useful thing for them to point out in order to remove what is a stumbling block to many.

Now, you make the case that it is unnecessary to reconcile the two as there are problems with evolutionary theory. That may or may not be true, but it is a matter of debate. The path of least resistance is to show a questioning would-be-Christian that evolution need not be in contradiction with Catholic teaching. Evolution explains the how while Scripture explains the who and the why. That makes sense to most people and helps them move past this issue.

Otherwise, we generally find ourselves in threads like the many that led to this topic being banned. People start hurling quotes back and forth from their favorite PhDs, no one’s opinion is changed, and the would-be-Christian is left with the impression that evolution and Christianity are diametrically opposed to each other.

If an individual wants to debate the merits of evolution, that’s fine. But that’s not what most people are looking for. Most people just want to know that there isn’t a contradiction in order that they may move forward with Christian belief.
 
I don’t believe in evolution, at least not the random mutation Darwinian kind. It’s never been observed in real time. It’s all just speculation about what may or may not have happened over billions of years. Speculation about processes that take billions of years are of no practical value and can hardly be called science. And of course the minute you ask an evolutionist where the first life form came from, they immediately tell you that’s irrelevant and a completely different question, because they have no answer. Seems to me it’s the same question: where did we come from?
 
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