Evolution?

"What do you feel about the evolution theory? The theory of creation seems a bit too simplistic to me. Also if Adam and Eve were the only people and they had kids and their kids married one another to fill the earth.....". An anonymous blogger posed this question and comments, although they didn't finish their last thought (I guess it was up to us to finish the sentence). It's a good question, and one that the Church is not afraid to address.

Evolution and creationism are not necessarily conflicting theories. The former is generally focused on how the different species on Earth have developed, while the latter is concerned with how they came to be in the first place. The question of the "Big-Bang" theory versus the creation theory is more of an apples-to-apples question, in my opinion. I understand that most evolution theories are based on the Big Bang hypothesis, but they are not necessarily conjoined.

Nevertheless, it seems that the blogger's question is directly challenging the traditional view of creationism that the vast majority of human beings have always accepted. Only in the modern age of science has the "Big Bang" theory been developed. It asserts that a big explosion of a mass of hydrogen atoms occurred in the universe (millions of) years ago, and that's what set everything in motion. My basic reply is that someone had to create the atoms and make it go 'bang'. The Big Bang theory is a modern, secular viewpoint that presents the world as physical only (removing any spiritual dimension). It is directly opposed to creationism, Sacred Scripture, and Christian Tradition.

Now, regarding my view of evolution; I take the position of John Paul II*, who said that an evolution theory based in creationism is not at odds with Christianity. Christian doctrine is based in the Truth that God reveals in the Book of Genesis: He creates every man and woman in His own image and likeness. Scientific theories about how human beings have evolved that are rooted in the Truth and that can be verified by actual data and facts tell the truth. On the other hand, evolution theories that are not compatible with Truth are to be kept in the theoretical realm only; they do not tell the truth, and mislead us from the truth.
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*Here's are some excerpts from John Paul II's "Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences" (1996). Check out the full text at: http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9703/articles/johnpaul.html

"In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII had already stated that there was no opposition between evolution and the doctrine of the faith about man and his vocation, on condition that one did not lose sight of several indisputable points... The Church's magisterium is directly concerned with the question of evolution for it involves the conception of man: Revelation teaches us that he was created in the image and likeness of God".