IMPORTANT NOTE: To open a linked file, don't just click on the file. Instead, do a right click, and choose "Open Link in New Window." If you don't do a right click, the file may not open properly.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To open a linked file, don't just click on the file. Instead, do a right click, and choose "Open Link in New Window." If you don't do a right click, the file may not open properly.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To open a linked file, don't just click on the file. Instead, do a right click, and choose "Open Link in New Window." If you don't do a right click, the file may not open properly.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To open a linked file, don't just click on the file. Instead, do a right click, and choose "Open Link in New Window." If you don't do a right click, the file may not open properly.
In the Christian religion it is believed that God first spoke to our first parents, Adam and Eve. When our first parents sinned, God promised them a Redeemer. Out of their descendants God selected certain individuals through whom He revealed Himself and His plan of salvation. He then selected Abraham to be the Father of His chosen people. It was from his lineage that a Redeemer was to come and save the world from its sins. Through the ages God continued to reveal Himself through the patriarchs and the prophets in preparation for the coming of the promised Redeemer: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The revelations delivered to the patriarchs and the prophets were therefore only partial revelations given to pave the way for Christ our Savior. It was through Christ that God’s full and final revelation was to come. In his letter to the Hebrews St. Paul said: “God, who, at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world” (Heb. 1:1-2). Christ is, therefore, the Light of the World and the bearer of God’s full revelation.
A personal website of Mr. Romeo Maria del Santo Niño, O.P.
January 25, 2024 Edition
CREATION VS. EVOLUTION
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The Alleged Contradiction
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Many critics of the Holy Scripture point out that the scientific theory of evolution, which they claim is a fairly established fact, contradicts the story of creation given in the first two chapters of Genesis. For example, Holy Scripture describes the various species of plants, animals, and even man, as being created by God directly out of inanimate matter: "Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind..." (Gen 1:11); "Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life and the fowl that may fly over the earth... And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind." (Gen 1:20, 21); "Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth..." (Gen 1:24); "And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life..." (Gen 2:7). On the contrary, Science says that life originated from inorganic matter by a purely natural process and that the various complex species of organisms all descended from more primitive and simpler forms of organisms, which in turn descended from still more primitive and simpler organisms, and so on, down to the last universal common ancestor (LUCA)​
Phlogenetic Tree of Life
By John D. Croft / Conquistador
CC BY-SA 3.0 License: commons.wikimedia.org
Resolution of the Alleged Contradiction
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Holy Scripture is written in the language of the ordinary man and uses imagery that is familiar to the common folk. It is not the purpose of Holy Scripture to teach Science but to provide the ordinary man with the knowledge he or she needs for salvation. Since the Holy Scripture is written by Divine Inspiration and its principal author is God, it teaches solidly and infallibly what God wants to reveal for the sake of our salvation (Cf. Dei Verbum, Ch. III, #11). Now, the knowledge of how the various species of living things were formed – whether it be by biological evolution, by direct formation from inorganic materials, or by sequential creation out of nothing – is not strictly necessary for salvation. Therefore, whatever is stated in the Bible regarding the process by which creatures appeared on earth, is not protected by Divine Inspiration. The important truth revealed and protected by Divine Inspiration – the infallible truth that we must believe – is that God is behind the formation of the world and everything in it. That means, nothing in the world really happened by chance. The origin of life was not by chance, and the processes of evolution – if evolution occurred – were directed by God and not by chance. Biological events, such as genetic mutation, may appear as random and chance events to us only because we do not know all the causes that bring about an event. But to God, who knows all the causes at work in the world, nothing happens by chance.
Since the purpose of the Holy Scripture is not to teach Science, it is futile to look in Holy Scripture for anything that would prove or disprove evolution. Evolution is a theory about the natural world. Therefore it should be evaluated in its own terms – by philosophy and science, but not by theology.
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Since this is a website on theology, the above comments should be sufficient to dismiss any allegation about a conflict between science and faith. However, the discussions in the links provided below regarding the origin of life and the theory of evolution are offered to help the interested reader to be familiar with the concepts and arguments surrounding the claim, made by many scientists and scholars today, that life on earth originated purely by chance, and that the evolution of species is now a fact. Both claims are bogus. The links below should help anyone, who happens to be in a controversy, to carry on the dialogue and not be left out of the discussion regarding this important subject.