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The Finished Product Part 2

According to the Catholic Church, Holy Scripture provides the account of creation in the book of Genesis.  The Magisterium states that the first three chapters of Genesis are to be interpreted literally only in regard to: “the creation of all things by God at the beginning of time; the special creation of man; the formation of the first woman from the first man.”

 Genesis is not written as a science textbook or for historical truth.  It is written in the style, words, and language of that period in history. Genesis teaches that God created the world out of nothing and that man was created above all things with a unique soul.  In this regard, Scripture teaches only that which is necessary for salvation, not that the world was created in six, twenty-four hour days or specifically that the sea monsters were created on the fourth ‘day’. Furthermore, geologic records and observation do not concur with the exact times and placement of the creation story in Genesis. As James Stenson explains, if the world is only 6,000 years old, as Genesis suggests, those on earth a would not yet be able to see the Milky Way because the light would not have had enough time to reach earth. Genesis is not, therefore, concerned with the details of creation, but simply teaches that God is the Creator and He is the Creator of each individual soul, because this, first and foremost, is necessary for our salvation.

          The second literal truth found in Genesis is the creation of the soul of man, immortally unique.  Genesis does not speak of the possible changes that occurs to man’s physical body or appearance over a period of time, but in regards to the soul.  Scripture teaches that God creates each soul from nothing and introduces it into the new being at birth. There, therefore, a possibility that the body of man has evolved and changed to fit the modern times, but the soul of a man does not evolve from the parents of each child, nor is it created from random inanimate or non-spiritual objects, or actions, as implied in evolutionism. This is refuted and condemned by the Catholic Church as a teaching.  On the subject of the soul’s origin, St. Thomas Aquinas states, “It is heretical to say that the intellectual soul is transmitted by process of generation.” On the subject of the human soul, Pope John Paul II stated that, “It is possible to say that the human body could be from an antecedent being, but not the immortal soul.” Thus, throughout the ages, the Catholic Church has maintained an openness towards the possibility of evolution following God’s creation of the world, man, and man’s soul. 

       From the time of St. Augustine to the current pope, enlightened men, filled with the Holy Spirit, have explained the Church’s position on evolution.

In the Second Genesis Explanation, St. Augustine of Hippo states that, “Our God planted rational seeds which eventually turned into plants and animals.”

This became an explanation of evolution for many years to come and came to be accepted by many as Truth.  Likewise centuries later Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical entitled Humani Generis, explains the Catholic Church’s view:

In short, he believed in and unfolding of what had been previously planted by the Creator, in a purposed, directed, and orderly manner.

1. The question of the origin’s of man’s body from pre-existing and living matter is a legitimate matter of inquiry for natural science.  Catholics are free to form their own opinions, but should do so with caution; they should not confuse fact with conjecture and should respect the Church’s right to define matters touching on Revelation.  2. Catholics must believe, however, that the human soul was created by God.  Since the soul is a spiritual substance it is not brought into being through transformation of matter but directly by God, whence the special uniqueness of each person.  3. All men have descended from an original Adam who has transmitted original sin to all mankind.  Catholics may not therefore, believe in polygenism, the scientific hypothesis that man descended from a group of original beings.

Pius also countered those atheists, disguised as scientists, and men who deny God as the creator and look exclusively to evolution as the source of all things, both biotic and abiotic. Therefore, such theories that deny the existence of God as a creator and those that support polygenism are and have long been condemned by the Magisterium.More recently, Blessed Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, in separate writings and talks, reiterate that Genesis is not written as a science text.This means that those theories which acknowledge God as a creator and supreme being can be accepted by the Church. Pope Benedict XVI agrees and furthermore states that he is inpatient with “false polarities of creationism and evolutionism.” Yet to another audience, he states that, “Indeed the theory of evolution, understood in a sense that does not exclude Divine Causality, is not the principle opposed to the truth about creation, as presented in the book of Genesis….” John Paul further states that despite the apparent contradictions between Scripture and science, “Truth cannot contradict truth,” and new findings on evolution have made it more than a mere hypothesis. Each of these enlightened men, divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, clarifies the sometimes seemingly confusing topic of evolution. Benedict cautions and warns his flock against those certain evolutionists who step outside their boundaries, as well as those who mix philosophical viewpoints with pseudo-science, and as a result, dispense completely with the notion of a Creator-being. He is disheartened that no common ground has yet been found and that no agreement has been reached. 

        The Catholic Church teaches that God is the Creator, but that evolution is not an improbable means for His work based upon strict definitions void of philosophical bias, Holy Scripture, and Holy Tradition as taught by the early Church Fathers.  The Church’s teaching is based off a clear teaching that evolution is not the same as evolutionism and creation is not the same as creationism.  Evolutionism and creationism are philosophical extremes that have been adopted by atheists and Fundamentalists and have been separated by a great unnecessary divide, bridged by the Catholic Church. The book of Genesis contains only two literal truths: God created the world from nothing and that the soul of a man is individually created by God and introduced into the new being at birth. Throughout the years, holy, chosen, and inspired men of God have contributed to the clarification of the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on evolution; the stance that evolution is a possible way of God’s continued work in the modern world.  In short, Catholics should be faithful to the Church in “welcoming the genuine discoveries of modern science while casting a skeptical view on evolutionary ‘science’ that for philosophical reasons, dispenses with a creatior and treats man as a thing.”

Bibliography:

Johnston, George S., “Are Catholics Creationists?,” (http://catholiceducation.org/articles/science/sc0110.htm), November 2009.

Knight, Kevin., 

“Catholics and Evolution,” (http://newadvent.org/cathen/05654a.htm), 2009.

“Creationism,” (http://newadvent.org/cathen/04475a.htm), 2009.

Linder, Doug., “The Vatican’s View on Evolution: The Story of Two Popes.”, (http://law2.vmkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/vaticanview.html), 2004.

XII, Pius., “Humani Generis”, (http://vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950.com),1950.

Stenson, James B., “Evolution: A Catholic Perspective,” (http://ewtn.com/library/humanity/exolution.txt), March 1984.