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 M¢25  Funded By Mahalo ? |  November 13, 2009 04:25 AM

What is the Catholic Church's stance on evolution?

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November 13, 2009 05:12 AM
The Catholic position concerning evolution is an ever evolving answer that is based in one firm belief and understanding, that being that God created the universe and al things in it out of nothing. Not to far off the Big bang theory, only it was God who caused and created the big bang to start creation from nothing. Nothing has really changed since Vatican 1, except interpretation variances, but even these are slight. Vatican I defined that everyone must "confess the world and all things which are contained in it, both spiritual and material, as regards their whole substance, have been produced by God from nothing" (Canons on God the Creator of All Things, canon 5).

The Church would maintain that, if the stars and planets did develop over any period of time, it is still ultimately attributed to God and his plan. "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth" (Ps. 33:6). As for biological evolution, the Church does not have an official position to refute that various life forms developed over the course of time, but, it says that, if they did develop over the time proposed by evolution theory, then they did so under the impetus and guidance of God, and their ultimate creation must be ascribed to him.

Now with human evolution, the Church has a more definite teaching and it allows that man’s body may have developed from previous biological forms as proposed by evolution theory, but only under God’s guidance. The Church maintains that the soul of man is a special creation separate from evolution and only attributed to God. (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36).
So whether the human body was specially created or developed as in evolution theory, the Catholic Church requires to hold as a matter of Catholic faith that the human soul is specially created; it did not evolve, and it is not inherited from our parents, as our bodies are, but is a direct creation from God.
Source(s):
http://www.catholic.com/library/Adam_Eve_and_Evolution.asp

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November 13, 2009 05:50 AM
Having learned a lesson from the Galileo affair the Catholic church leaves the evaluation and endorsement of specific scientific theories to scientists.

---quote---
The Church's stance is that this gradual appearance has been guided in some way by God, but the Church has thus far declined to define in what way that may be. Commentators tend to interpret the Church's position in the way most favorable to their own arguments. The International Theological Commission statement includes these paragraphs on evolution, the providence of God, and "intelligent design":
"In freely willing to create and conserve the universe, God wills to activate and to sustain in act all those secondary causes whose activity contributes to the unfolding of the natural order which he intends to produce. Through the activity of natural causes, God causes to arise those conditions required for the emergence and support of living organisms, and, furthermore, for their reproduction and differentiation. Although there is scientific debate about the degree of purposiveness or design operative and empirically observable in these developments, they have de facto favored the emergence and flourishing of life. Catholic theologians can see in such reasoning support for the affirmation entailed by faith in divine creation and divine providence. In the providential design of creation, the triune God intended not only to make a place for human beings in the universe but also, and ultimately, to make room for them in his own trinitarian life. Furthermore, operating as real, though secondary causes, human beings contribute to the reshaping and transformation of the universe."
--end of quote---
Source(s):
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Evolution_and_the_Roman_Catholic_Church...


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