Posted on 02/07/2005 7:30:07 AM PST by mike182d
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Catholic educators need better teaching programs about evolution "to correct the anti-evolution biases that Catholics pick up" from the general society, according to a U.S. bishops' official involved in dialogue with scientists for 20 years.
Without a church view of human creation that is consistent with currently accepted scientific knowledge, "Catholicism may begin to seem less and less 'realistic' to more and more thoughtful people," said David Byers, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Science and Human Values from 1984 to 2003.
"That dynamic is a far greater obstacle to religious assent than evolution," he said in a bylined article in the Feb. 7 issue of America, a weekly magazine published in New York by the Jesuits. The article discussed the value of the dialogues with scientists organized by the bishops' committee.
"Denying that humans evolved seems by this point a waste of time," he said without mentioning specific controversies in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnews.com ...
"I think people refuse to believe our ancestors were monkeys."
Some people, perhaps. In reality, nobody teaches that the species leading to humans were "monkeys." They were not. Monkeys and Primates developed in different directions, while having common predecessors.
Humans are not monkeys. They're primates.
BTW, a number of scientists, including devout Catholics who would have no doctrinal reason to disagree with this bishop, in fact do disagree very strongly. See, e.g., Michael Behe and William Dembski.
From www.catholic.com:
"Concerning biological evolution, the Church does not have an official position on whether various life forms developed over the course of time. However, it says that, if they did develop, then they did so under the impetus and guidance of God, and their ultimate creation must be ascribed to him.
Concerning human evolution, the Church has a more definite teaching. It allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from previous biological forms, under God’s guidance, but it insists on the special creation of his soul. Pope Pius XII declared that "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 . . . 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—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God" (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36). So whether the human body was specially created or developed, we are required 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.
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Evolution is not a fact, it is a scientific theory. You discredit yourself by suggesting otherwise. No credible scientist would call it anything else.
There is no doubt humans, and species, adapt to their environment, but that is only a small part of the theory of evolution. Evolution does not explain the creation of the building blocks of life. It does not explain the motive forces behind life.
Why should molecules decide to reproduce at all?
Evolutionary processes are powerful. I have studied them and used them for algorithm development.
But ask yourself, at what point did evolution insert a soul into man?
Why should chemical sludge bother evolving into anything in the first place?
Why is it that we have hundreds of "sola scriptura" denominations that each have very different interpretations of what scripture says? Isn't that the definition of a "living Constitution"? Every denomination has set itself up as the final arbiter of what God was saying.
Just a thought.
Do you think all "primates" are equal?
We are Christians, but do not espouse/follow any of the religions (Catholic, Episcopal, Babptist, etc.). The Bible and it's teachings does not constitute a "religion". While Christain-based religions are based on the Bible, the Bible does not mention or require them. In fact, the Old Testament and The Law are religion-based (sets of rules to follow to attain heaven), but the New Testament lets us know that we can never be worthy by or of ourselves - thus making religion obsolete and a bar rather than an avenue.
I would try to give the Good News of the Gospels to your non-believing individual - the rest would be up to him and Him.
The Catholic Church opposes neither evolution nor science. They are light years ahead of the fanatical "Christian" creationists.
Based on dumb questions like that, I can safely conclude that creationists were not in line when God passed out the brains.
Why wasn't this posted in breaking news? It's a week old and posted before.
"Do you think all "primates" are equal?"
Did I say that, or even imply it? No. Of course humans are more intelligent than chimps. We're not as strong, however, as gorillas.
We are, however, unmistakably primates. We're also mammals. We're also vertebrates.
Obviously at birth since that was what the first Christians believed.
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