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ON CHURCH AND EVOLUTION: AN OVERVIEW

ON CHURCH AND EVOLUTION: AN OVERVIEW. CHURCH AND EVOLUTION. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “CHURCH”? ALL BELIEVERS? ALL CATHOLIC BELIEVERS? OFFICIAL TEACHERS/TEACHINGS? CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS? THE BODY OF (CATHOLIC) SCIENTISTS? ALL THE ABOVE?. CHURCH AND EVOLUTION. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “EVOLUTION”?

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ON CHURCH AND EVOLUTION: AN OVERVIEW

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  1. ON CHURCH AND EVOLUTION: AN OVERVIEW

  2. CHURCH AND EVOLUTION WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “CHURCH”? • ALL BELIEVERS? • ALL CATHOLIC BELIEVERS? • OFFICIAL TEACHERS/TEACHINGS? • CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS? • THE BODY OF (CATHOLIC) SCIENTISTS? • ALL THE ABOVE?

  3. CHURCH AND EVOLUTION 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

  4. CHURCH AND EVOLUTION WHY IS THIS A TOPIC? A FEW REASONS: • BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM • HISTORY • FAITH AND REASON • SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE • MEDIA AND MOVIES • MODERN BIBLICAL CRITICISM

  5. CHURCH AND EVOLUTION BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM • LATE 19TH CENTURY PROTESTANT REACTION TO SCIENCE AND TO CRITICAL BIBLE SCHOLARSHIP • LITERALIST TEXTUAL INTERPRETATION • IRONY: BIBLE AS “SCIENCE”

  6. Pope Pius XII

  7. 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)

  8. Fr. Raymond E Brown, S.S.1928-1998

  9. SCRIPTURE AND EVOLUTION 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)

  10. SCRIPTURE AND EVOLUTION 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

  11. CHURCH AND EVOLUTION 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

  12. CHURCH AND EVOLUTION MID- NINETEENTH CENTURY— EVOLUTION-- DEVELOPMENT-- PROGRESS-- ARE IN THE AIR

  13. Charles Darwin 1809-82TheOrigin of Species (1859)

  14. Karl Marx 1818-83Communist Manifesto 1848

  15. John Henry Cardinal Newman 1801-1890Development of Christian Doctrine (1845)

  16. What is a THEORY? An organized description of a complex of data Designed to explain the relationships among the data Improvable through testing (proving)

  17. What is a THEORY? • A THEORY is HEURISTIC: It is an explanation that generates further questions— -in a logical, orderly fashion (dianoia)

  18. What is a THEORY? A THEORY is HERMENEUTICAL: It interprets phenomena– what appears What appears? How does it appear?

  19. Fr. Georges Lemaitre1884-1966

  20. Fr. Lemaitre and Albert Einstein Lemaitre deduced “Big Bang” from General Relativity

  21. 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.

  22. Edwin Hubble1889-1953

  23. Fred Hoyle 1915-2001

  24. 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”)

  25. So What Do We Know Now? • 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

  26. What Do We Know Now? 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

  27. What Do We Know Now? 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

  28. Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.1881-1955

  29. Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. • WHERE DO PERSONS FIT INTO EVOLUTION? • DOES MATTER SPEAK FOR ITSELF? • IN A SENSE, YES, IT DOES:

  30. Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. • THE STUFF OF THE UNIVERSE REVEALS ITSELF UNDER TWO ASPECTS: • OUTER-MECHANICAL ORGANIZATION • INNER-CONSCIOUSNESS THE LATTER BECOMES UNAVOIDABLE WITH HUMANS

  31. Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. EVOLUTION IS COSMOGENESIS -THE CREATOR CALLING HUMAN PERSONS INTO BEING TOWARD HIMSELF THROUGH - GREATER COMPLEXITY, - GREATER CONSCIOUSNESS -GREATER CAPACITY FOR LOVE

  32. Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. CHRIST IS NOT ONLY ALPHA (“ALL THINGS CREATED THROUGH HIM”) CHRIST IS ALSO OMEGA (“I CALL ALL THINGS TO MYSELF” ….FOR THE FATHER CHRISTOGENESIS

  33. CHURCH AND EVOLUTION SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE • FAITH & REASON WORK TOGETHER • GOD IS SOURCE OF BOTH • GOD IS CREATOR OF ALL • GOD CREATES EACH PERSON

  34. Pope Pius XII

  35. Pope John Paul II

  36. John Paul II: Fides et ratio (1998) • 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).

  37. 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.

  38. Pope Benedict XVI

  39. 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)

  40. SOME RESOURCES: • 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

  41. Resources • Edwards, Denis. The God of Evolution: A Trinitarian Theology • Works by: • Christopher Mooney • Piet Schoonenberg • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin • A. Hulsbosch

  42. Fr. George V. Coyne, S.J.1933-Vatican Observatory

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