ONCHURCH

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 THEORIESBASED ON A VARIETY OF DATA AND

METHODSDIRECTED AT EXPLAINING THE

EFFECTS OF TIME AND ENVIRONMENT ON NATURAL PHENOMENA

COSMIC AND PLANETARY

WHY IS THIS A TOPIC?A FEW REASONS:

BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISMHISTORYFAITH AND REASONSCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN

DOCTRINEMEDIA AND MOVIESMODERN 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 FORMTHE SPIRIT OF GOD HOVERED OVER THE

DEEPGOD SAID “LET THERE BE….”1. TIME 4. SUN,

MOON,STARS2. SPACE 5. BIRDS AND FISH3. LAND/VEGETATION 6. BEASTS &

HUMANS7. 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 HELPERSWOMAN AS A HELPER FIT FOR HIM

HISTORYNICHOLAS COPERNICUS (1473-

1543)POLISH PRIESTHELIO-CENTRIC THEORY VS.

ARISTOTELIAN-PTOLEMAIC THEORYGALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642)

COULDN’T PROVE THE COPERNICAN THEORY (19TH c)

SAID BIBLE WASN’T SCIENCEJOHN 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 is16 billion years oldCompletely replaced every 7 yearsThe elements developed almost instantly

They have been evolving ever sinceThe are billions of galaxiesThe 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 grandfatherThis 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 BOTHGOD IS CREATOR OF ALLGOD 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.orgAcademic.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 MooneyPiet SchoonenbergPierre Teilhard de ChardinA. Hulsbosch