ON
CHURCH
AND
EVOLUTION:
AN OVERVIEW
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “CHURCH”?
 ALL BELIEVERS?
 ALL CATHOLIC BELIEVERS?
 OFFICIAL TEACHERS/TEACHINGS?
 CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS?
 THE BODY OF (CATHOLIC) SCIENTISTS?
 ALL THE ABOVE?
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “EVOLUTION”?
 A VARIETY OF SCIENTIFIC THEORIES
 BASED ON A VARIETY OF DATA AND
METHODS
 DIRECTED AT EXPLAINING THE EFFECTS
OF TIME AND ENVIRONMENT ON
NATURAL PHENOMENA
 COSMIC AND PLANETARY
WHY IS THIS A TOPIC?
A FEW REASONS:
 BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
 HISTORY
 FAITH AND REASON
 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
 MEDIA AND MOVIES
 MODERN BIBLICAL CRITICISM
BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
 LATE 19TH CENTURY PROTESTANT REACTION
TO SCIENCE AND TO CRITICAL BIBLE SCHOLARSHIP
 LITERALIST TEXTUAL INTERPRETATION
 IRONY: BIBLE AS “SCIENCE”
40. Let those who cultivate biblical studies turn their attention with all due
diligence towards this point and let them neglect none of those discoveries,
whether in the domain of archaeology or in ancient history or literature,
which serve to make better known the mentality of the ancient writers, as
well as their manner and art of reasoning, narrating and writing. In this
connection Catholic laymen should consider that they will not only further
profane science, but moreover will render a conspicuous service to the
Christian cause if they devote themselves with all due diligence and
application to the exploration and investigation of the monuments of
antiquity and contribute, according to their abilities, to the solution of
questions hitherto obscure (Pius XII- Divino Aflante Spiritu, 1943)
GENESIS 1/1-2/4a (5th C, Priestly)
THE EARTH WAS WITHOUT FORM
THE SPIRIT OF GOD HOVERED OVER THE
DEEP
GOD SAID “LET THERE BE….”
1. TIME
4. SUN, MOON,STARS
2. SPACE
5. BIRDS AND FISH
3. LAND/VEGETATION
6. BEASTS & HUMANS
7. REST
(HUMANS WITH ROYAL DOMINION)
GENESIS 2/4b- 25 (Yahwist, 10th Century)
 YAHWEH TOOK EARTH (ADAMAH)
AND BREATHED IN HIS SPIRIT OF LIFE
 PUT THE “EARTH-CREATURE” (ADAM)
IN THE GARDEN TO CARE FOR IT
 ANIMALS MADE AS HELPERS
 WOMAN AS A HELPER FIT FOR HIM
HISTORY
 NICHOLAS COPERNICUS (1473-1543)
 POLISH PRIEST
HELIO-CENTRIC THEORY VS.
ARISTOTELIAN-PTOLEMAIC THEORY
 GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642)
COULDN’T PROVE THE COPERNICAN THEORY (19TH c)
SAID BIBLE WASN’T SCIENCE
JOHN PAUL II ACKNOWLEDGED HE WAS RIGHT
MID- NINETEENTH CENTURY—
EVOLUTION-DEVELOPMENT-PROGRESS-ARE IN THE AIR
•An organized description
•of a complex of data
•Designed to explain the
relationships among the data
•Improvable through testing
(proving)
 A THEORY is
HEURISTIC:
It is an explanation that generates
further questions—
-in a logical, orderly fashion (dianoia)
A THEORY is
HERMENEUTICAL:
It interprets phenomena– what appears
What appears? How does it appear?
Lemaitre deduced “Big Bang” from General
Relativity
 According to the Big Bang theory, the universe
emerged from an extremely dense and hot state
(singularity). Space itself has been expanding ever
since, carrying galaxies with it, like raisins in a rising
loaf of bread. The graphic scheme above is an artist's
conception illustrating the expansion of a portion of a
flat universe.
Would you not say to yourself, "Some super-calculating
intellect must have designed the properties of the
carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such
an atom through the blind forces of nature would be
utterly minuscule." Of course you would . . . A common
sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a
superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as
with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind
forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers
one calculates from the facts seem to me so
overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond
question.[3]
-Fred Hoyle (Coined the term “Big Bang”)
 The Universe: 16 Billion Years
 If 1” = 1 million years: 1331 feet
 The Earth: 4.5 Billion Years
 If 1” = 1 million years: 375 feet
The material in our bodies is
 16 billion years old
 Completely replaced every 7 years
 The elements developed almost
instantly
 They have been evolving ever since
 The are billions of galaxies
 The Universe continues to expand
Genetically speaking—
Each of us embodies the
unbroken chain of DNA of our
ancestors
Yet each of us is unique:
I am not my grandfather
This is not my grandfather's
body
 WHERE DO PERSONS FIT INTO
EVOLUTION?
 DOES MATTER SPEAK FOR
ITSELF?
 IN A SENSE, YES, IT DOES:
 THE STUFF OF THE UNIVERSE REVEALS
ITSELF UNDER TWO ASPECTS:
 OUTER-MECHANICAL ORGANIZATION
 INNER-CONSCIOUSNESS
THE LATTER BECOMES UNAVOIDABLE
WITH HUMANS
EVOLUTION IS COSMOGENESIS
-THE CREATOR CALLING HUMAN
PERSONS INTO BEING
TOWARD HIMSELF THROUGH
- GREATER COMPLEXITY,
- GREATER CONSCIOUSNESS
-GREATER CAPACITY FOR LOVE
CHRIST IS NOT ONLY ALPHA
(“ALL THINGS CREATED
THROUGH HIM”)
CHRIST IS ALSO OMEGA
(“I CALL ALL THINGS TO MYSELF”
….FOR THE FATHER
CHRISTOGENESIS
SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
 FAITH & REASON WORK
TOGETHER
 GOD IS SOURCE OF BOTH
 GOD IS CREATOR OF ALL
 GOD CREATES EACH PERSON
 Faith and reason are like two wings on which
the human spirit rises to the contemplation
of truth; and God has placed in the human
heart a desire to know the truth—in a word,
to know himself—so that, by knowing and
loving God, men and women may also come
to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf.
Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).
One such question, the emergence of structure, constitutes the subject of
your present Conference and is of vital interest, especially when we
consider that the emergence of structure appears as the pre-condition for
the eventual emergence of life, and ultimately of man as the culmination of
all that exists around him in the physical cosmos. Men and women of
science such as yourselves ponder the vast and pulsating universe, and as
you unravel its secrets you realize that at certain points science seems to
be reaching a. mysterious frontier where new questions are arising which
overlap into the spheres of metaphysics and theology. As a result, the
need for dialogue and co-operation between science and faith has become
ever more urgent and promising. It is as if science itself were offering a
practical vindication of the openness and confidence shown by the Second
Vatican Council when it stated that "investigation carried out in a genuinely
scientific manner and in accord with moral norms never truly conflicts with
faith" (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 38). (JPII.
My predecessors Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II noted
that there is no opposition between faith’s understanding of
creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences.
Philosophy in its early stages had proposed images to
explain the origin of the cosmos on the basis of one or more
elements of the material world. This genesis was not seen
as a creation, but rather a mutation or transformation; it
involved a somewhat horizontal interpretation of the origin of
the world. A decisive advance in understanding the origin of
the cosmos was the consideration of being qua being and
the concern of metaphysics with the most basic question of
the first or transcendent origin of participated being. In order
to develop and evolve, the world must first be, and thus have
come from nothing into being. It must be created, in other
words, by the first Being who is such by essence. (Benedict
VI: 10-31-08)
 Vatican.va
Search: “Evolution”
 Catholic-resources.org
 Academic.regis.edu/rlumpp (For this PP)
 Raymond E. Brown, S.S. 101 Questions and Answers on
the Bible
 George V. Coyne, S.J. A Comprehensible Universe
--
Wayfarers in the Cosmos: The Human Quest for
Meaning
 Edwards, Denis. The God of Evolution: A Trinitarian
Theology
 Works by:
 Christopher Mooney
 Piet Schoonenberg
 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
 A. Hulsbosch