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I posted a number of days ago on Genesis and also the feedback in reality lit up. As continuously the Genesis accounts of development present a abundant area for controversy and discussion. The last post focused on the query for the genre of your Genesis texts. In this particular submit I would want to ponder an additional level for discussion: The idea of evolution’s relationship on the Genesis text. Tomorrow I’d love to publish about the query of polygensism (the theory that Adam was not a person historical man but, rather, a euphemism for “mankind”).
Disclaimer- I do not intend to answer all the questions about evolution and Genesis here. This is a blog, not a theological or scientific journal. I am not a dogmatic theologian, neither do I have an advanced degree in Scripture. Neither am I a trained biologist. My MA is in moral theology. What I intend to do here is open a discussion. I'd prefer to suggest some parameters on the topic which Catholicism requires of us. But within the end, I am going to depend about the feedback section to broaden the discussion,microsoft office 2007 Professional, make distinctions, suggest further more limits, or clarify and quote other sources. Many of the commenters on this blog are theologically skilled and furnish a valuable service to your rest of us. Likewise there are some with a scientific background who read here and can help clarify about the topic of evolution. I would only ask that all of us not rush to use words like heresy etc. and that the science folks not treat me or the rest of us like a bunch of ignoramuses. The Genesis accounts are really prototypical and archetypal. It is a true fact that the Church gives us guidance on how to interpret them but there is also some freedom to differ with each other as well. So let me set the table and after that open the comments.
Sobriety about Evolutionary Concept – It is common to experience a rather simplistic notion among Catholics that the Theory of Evolution can be reconciled easily along with the Biblical accounts and with our faith. Many will say something like this: “I have no problem with God setting things up so that we started as one-celled organisms and slowly evolved into being human beings. God could do this and perhaps the Genesis account is just simplifying evolution and telling us the same thing as what Evolution does.”
There are elements in the truth on this sort of a statement. Surely God could have set things up to evolve and directed the process so that human beings evolved and then, at some time he gave us souls. God could have done that.
The problem with all the statement above is less theological than scientific because there is a word in that sentence that is “obnoxious” to evolutionary concept: “God.” The fact is that most Catholics who speak like this over-simplify evolutionary concept and hold a version of it that most Evolutionary Theorists do not hold. They accept the Idea of Evolution uncritically.
But, at the heart of evolutionary concept are the concepts of natural selection and genetic mutation. Notice the word “natural” and notice the word “mutation.” Typically speaking, evolutionary concept sees these processes as random, (though influenced by the environment). It sees them as chance mutations that happen to survive because they confer some benefit. But the process is natural, random and not directed by any outside intelligence with a design or purpose in mind.
Mutations in DNA are random, and in natural selection, the environment determines the probability of reproductive success. The end products of natural selection are organisms that are adapted to their present environments. Natural selection does not involve progress towards an ultimate goal. Evolution does not necessarily strive for much more advanced,windows 7 home premium x86, far more intelligent, or even more sophisticated life forms. Organisms are merely the outcome of variations that succeed or fail,office 2007 Professional Plus, dependent upon the environmental conditions at the time.[1]
Now what this means is that God is excluded as a cause by evolutionary theory. It would be fine if evolutionists (as natural scientists) were either silent around the query of God. Or,office 2007 Pro product key, perhaps if they simply stated that things may be acted upon by an outside force or intelligence but that is beyond the scope of their discipline. But that is not what is being said by most proponents of evolutionary concept. They are saying that biodiversity results MERELY from natural selection and random (i.e. non intended or non-purposeful) genetic mutations. They are saying that observable effects of biodiversity are wholly caused by something natural, random and without any ultimate goal or plan.
But a Catholic cannot accept all of this. Even if a Catholic wants to accept that things have evolved in some way (whether through macro or microevolution) a Catholic cannot say that this process is simply random, chance, blind, or with no purpose. We believe that God alone created all things, and that he sustains all things. Neither do we confess some sort of “deist” God who merely started things off and after that lets them take their own course. Rather, God sustains and carries out every detail.
The Book of Genesis depicts God as being personally involved in every stage of creation. “During the beginning, God created the heavens in addition to the Earth” (Genesis 1:1). The text says further ”God made the wild animals, each, according to their kinds (Gen 1:25). In other words,office Enterprise 2007 product key, God specifically created each animal and person that is in an intentional way. The text of Genesis, while not scientific, states a truth that we cannot set aside: That God created (and sustains) all that we see. That what is, cannot MERELY be explained (as most evolutionists state) by blind, random natural selection. The Genesis text is clear to state that God alone creates and in doing so he is present at every stage, is personal, purposeful and acts with intelligence and goal in mind. He creates everything according to its kind.
This is our faith and we cannot simply accept evolutionary theory without some distinctions. Evolutionary principle proposes itself as a complete and closed explanation for the biodiversity of this planet. Catholics ought to be sober about who and what we are dealing with here. This concept sets aside important things we believe about development and God, which are described in Genesis and believed by the Church. The principle sets aside God. Things are not the result of a rational, orderly and directed processes, they result from a process that is merely random, blind and tending to no purpose or end. We cannot accept such a idea merely on these terms. If we accept aspects with the idea, such as that things gradually evolved, we have to carefully distinguish this from mainstream evolutionary theory. But a simple, uncritical acceptance of evolutionary theory is for a Catholic untenable.
This does not mean that Catholics consequently run on the creationist school of thought. There are important insights of science within the matter of development as well as material world that Catholics are free to accept and wise to accept. The Catechism stakes out a middle ground wherein a Catholic may be able to accept certain aspects of evolutionary idea in terms of secondary causality. But this must always be balanced with a deep reverence for God as the first cause of all that is:
God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures’ co-operation. This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God’s greatness and goodness. For God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of co-operating within the accomplishment of his plan…..The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes: “For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Far from diminishing the creature’s dignity, this truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God’s power, wisdom and goodness, it can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for “without a Creator the creature vanishes.” Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without the help of God’s grace. (CCC 306-309).
Hence, a Catholic ought to be quite careful to avoid an uncritical acceptance in the Theory of Evolution. An old maxim comes to mind: Seldom Affirm, never deny, continuously distinguish. Not a bad approach when it comes to this great debate about Evolution, the Bible and faith.
OK Have at it. I know much needs to be added. But that’s the point of a blog. To start a discussion, not end it.