2007-04-13 10:30:30 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
No, it threatens the authority of their god.
2007-04-13 11:26:16 · answer #1 · answered by Take it from Toby 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Catholic Church separates the evolution of the body and development of the soul.
"Today, almost half a century after the publication of the encyclical, new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory."
This is a quote made by Pope John Paul II.
The links below relate to
1. Vatican's views, and
2. An overview of different religions' views on evolution.
Religion will not collapse if they accept evolution, just like it did not collapse when they realised that the Earth really did revolve around the Sun.
2007-04-14 04:09:48 · answer #2 · answered by Labsci 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Let us suppose that millions of years ago a cell was formed which had acquired everything necessary for life, and that it duly "came to life". The theory of evolution again collapses at this point. For even if this cell had existed for a while, it would eventually have died and after its death, nothing would have remained, and everything would have reverted to where it had started. This is because this first living cell, lacking any genetic information, would not have been able to reproduce and start a new generation. Life would have ended with its death.
2007-04-14 08:56:32 · answer #3 · answered by J D 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Nope ... not unless church authority tries to pass itself off as an authority of biology as well (by denying the facts that serve as evidence of evolution).
The Catholic Church learned a very valuable lesson in its persecution of Galileo. While they forced Galileo to "recant", this didn't affect the truth of what Galileo was saying (that the earth moved around the sun, and not vice versa). So the Church defeated Galileo as a person, but as a result was seen as anti-science, anti-progress, and anti-rationalism ... and intellectuals left the church in droves ... many of who went on to found other protestant churches.
With Darwin and evolution, the Catholic Church has been smarter. They are content to claim authority on matters of the soul and spirituality, but not on mundane matters of science.
However, other churches have not learned from the Catholic Church's hard lesson. Some of them are going head to head with evolution ... even going so far as to claim that the earth has an age of only 6,000 years based on certain obscure Biblical passages of geneology from Adam to Noah. This doesn't just violate evolution, but pretty much all of science ... from physics of radiation (which is the basis for how we determine the ages of rocks and fossils), to the speed of light (as they need to explain how we are seeing light from stars and galaxies that are billions of light years away), to geology, astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics, paleontology, archaeology, virology, bacteriology, embryology, anatomy etc. etc. etc.
So in that sense evolution (and science in general) does threaten the authority of the Church *on matters of science*.
2007-04-14 01:32:13 · answer #4 · answered by secretsauce 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. Science and the church are separate entities. The church has more important things to deal with than the evolution/creation issue.
2007-04-13 18:30:20 · answer #5 · answered by ecolink 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Although many individuals my believe it is unorthodox, the church simply states that we believe that we came from God. I am a Catholic and I believe that God created us. However, I was once taught that God is a mysterious worker. He is the all-powerful. I am Catholic and believe in God, and I also believe in evolution. These two opposing thoughts can coellate if thought through. For example, lets say we do come from primates, who had the power to make the primates? God of course. We believe that God knows all. If God created primates he made them because He knew that they would evolve into a more complex lifeform; humans.
2007-04-13 17:41:37 · answer #6 · answered by Marianna E 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Nope.
The bible isn't a science book; it describes a god's relationship with man. There's no reason to insist the creation story must be literal while there are many parts that are generally accepted as being metaphorical. And there's also no reason to believe that your god couldn't have used evolution as his tool.
2007-04-13 17:34:33 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, because the evolution theory is just that, theory, and is not fact.
2007-04-13 17:39:22 · answer #8 · answered by saq428 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋