Is evolution compatible with the Catholic/Christian faith?

Question

Evolution is fact. There is no use denying the overwhelming proof of this phenomenon. But what I want to know is could the Christian faith correlate realistically with evolution, since the Christian faith at one time taught that the six day creation myth was fact? I haven't been to church in over a year and before that I only went randomly in the three years before that. I had essentially lost my faith because I don't think they can coexist. It just doesn't add up to me. Could it though? state your reasoning and don't give me ridiculous bible verses that I don't care about. Give me a legitimate answers.

p.s.- Is there an afterlife?

To the 7th post: You're wrong in your thinking. In normal day to day talk theory means just an idea, but in the scientific world a theory means something that has withstood the test of time and countless attacks.

Answer 1

Yes ,definitely
yes,definitely

Answer 2

Must faithful Catholics accept evolution as true? No, but they may accept it, with the proper theological qualifications in place, without contradicting their faith. Whether man's body actually evolved from a subhuman species isn't, as such, a theological issue even if, indirectly, it may have some theological implications; it is mainly a question of scientific evidence.

Almost 11 years ago, Pope John Paul II, in an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, caused quite a stir by declaring that "new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis." Some Catholics, particularly traditionalists, believed that the Holy Father was stepping outside of his competence in making judgments on scientific matters. Others, including Catholic scientists, welcomed Pope John Paul's reaffirmation of the traditional Catholic principle that "Truth cannot contradict truth."

A decade before, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, delivered a series of homilies that were published in 1990 under the title In the Beginning . . . : A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall. In those homilies, he made a similar argument: The creation story in Genesis is a spiritual history. It simply doesn't matter what physical means God used to create the world and all living creatures therein; what matters is that man is both body and soul, and his creation is not complete until God has breathed the breath of life into him. And about the creation of the soul (and, thus, of the complete man), science can tell us nothing.

Answer 3

Evolution, though often used against the very existence of God, does not entirely rule out the divine factor. Many have theorized that it was God who initially started evolution and that Genesis 1 and the "days" are metaphorical. As the days or millennium moved on, God guided creation of modern man to take place.
Science should not be an outweighing factor to displace one's "religion." I use the term loosely because Christianity was never meant to be a religion of rituals but a relationship of righteousness.
The one major factor in that righteousness is faith in God and Christ. I believe in life after and I know how I will stand before God, be it a Creator or guider of evolution, still the same God. How will I stand? Guilty. We are all guilty of either lying at some point or stealing or hate or jealousy. Accept the free gift of forgiveness and believe that Jesus paid the penalty for your sins so you don't have to. Only by His grace will we be able to stand righteously, not as we deserve which is with guilt.

In answer to your question (even though I believe in a 6 day creation) yes: Evolution and God can coexist. Some might call me a liberal, but it is possible.
There is no reason to battle over salvation for a matter of this cliche debate. All that matters is Jesus Christ. Have faith and live.

Answer 4

Yes.

Most Christians do not take the stories of creation in the Bible literally. Catholics believe the book of Genesis tells religious truth and not necessarily historical fact.

One of the religious truths is that God created everything and declared all was good.

Catholics can believe in the theories of the big bang or evolution or both or neither.

On August 12, 1950 Pope Pius XII said in his encyclical Humani generis:

The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.

Here is the complete encyclical: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis_en.html

The Church supports science in the discovery of God's creation. At this time, the theories of the big bang and evolution are the most logical scientific explanations. However tomorrow someone may come up with better ideas.

As long as we believe that God started the whole thing, both the Bible and responsible modern science can live in harmony.

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

Evolution is only a mechanism that brings biological complexity. It is not an agent, much less the explanation of life's origins. The origin of life is mostly a mystery, and scientists are dealing with it as abiogenesis (life out of non-life).

God as creator is perfectly compatible with evolutionary theory. There has never been a conflict with many if not most Christians. There is a conflict with a certain reading of Scripture, but not theological orthodoxy.

By the way, Darwin's thesis was not validated until the work on genetics by Gregor Mendel was rediscovered. He was a monk.

Answer 6

Seems to me that the Catholics have behaved admirably enough on this, perhaps with the memory of Galileo et al still smarting.

Of course, they have the sense to realise that evolution starts AFTER abiogenesis which they're being quiet about.

Christians are weeing into the wind, trying to pretend it's all satanic lies. Just how long they'll be able to maintain that lunacy in the face of something that's better established than gravity is anyone's guess, but it certainly puts them in a weak position vis a vis reality.

I suppose it's possible to believe in God and evolution if you're prepared to ignore the implications of the theory - that the rise of species and Man requires no deities to occur. You also have to pretend, pace the Catholic Church, that abiogenesis isn't there. Good luck...

CD

Edit: oops, forgot the extra bit. No, of course there's no 'afterlife'. What a spectacular example of wishful thinking! You are your mind, and your mind is the music made by your brain. Break the player, and the music stops.

Answer 7

sounds like you have your mind made up.. Catholics hyave tried to intergrate evolution and say you can believe in both.. I personally don't think that Macro evolution apes to human is possible.. micro evolution can happen.. funny you should ask about afterlife if you have no case for God in your life.. although i shouldn't say that... but when you said you don't care about biblical proof.. that's where i get that from i guess.. you come off strong evolutionist.. however that requires a certain, in fact big amounts of faith, many atheist that put the math together trying to see the chances of evolution happening come out becoming theists.. in fact 4.6 billion of years is the age of earth right? soo.. it would take almost perfection in chances up to the point of today in the evolution process.. other words.. first attempt of 1/1000 chance everytime successfull.. that's evolution.. your fact.. your god.. your religion.. enjoy..

Answer 8

They can co-exist if you do not take the bible (particularly Genesis) literally.

If you believe the story of creation and of Noah and the ark word-for-word, then naturally, it's hard for evolution (or logic) to co-exist with such beliefs.

But once you get past those hurdles, it's not a hard step to attribute the mechanisms of evolution to God, because surely such a supreme and all-knowing being, the creator of all life, could design it in such a way as to encourage life to advance itself and adapt to its surroundings.

Answer 9

I believe so. But I consider myself a generic Christian, i.e. I believe in Jesus as my savior and that's about it.

I thought about writing a paper comparing the story of Creation verse by verse with evolution. I think there's a correlation there, especially if you don't take the term "day" as an Earth day. I believe those are God "days" and who knows how many Earth days are in each God day. One of God's "days" could be billions of years by our reckoning.

Answer 10

I know for a fact it's compatible with Catholicism.

As far as the other Christian sects, it depends on which sect. They all have different views. Some accept it, some say fossils were created in the ground to test peoples' faith.

Answer 11

evolution makes total sense! Catholocism excepts that just so long as u believe that God allowed it to happen. After all where would the things we are supposed to have evolved from come from if there was no infinte creator?