Let's Talk About Evolution...

Father Pine takes on a once highly contested subject: Evolution. Does evolution disprove the truth of the bible? The Existence of God? Evolution seems to be true, does science contradict faith? What about the fossil record? Is this too many questions for a discription?
Maybe! But Fr. Pine handles all these and more in this Saturday special.

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[jamessgian]

Catholics need to read/watch the following on this topic:

1) Signature in the Cell and Darwin’s Doubt by Stephen Meyer

2) Darwin Devolves by Michael Behe

3) Videos by James Tour on the origins of life

4) Videos - Unlocking the Mystery of Life, Privileged Planet, and Darwin’s Dilemma— these can be found here on YouTube

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I used to try to blend Theology with Darwinism when I thought the science backed Darwin. The science contradicts Darwinian Evolution.

[jameshustoles]

Fr Ripperger has a book and talks on this check them out it will give a clear understanding of evolution and the Church God Bless

[germanr]

"And though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators" -G.K. Chesteron

[maria-fecamargo]

I‘m a biology student and we are confronted with evolution every single day… to be honest it is hard because their approach is atheistic…

[villainousssb]

I find it useful to remember that science watches what God does.

[jefffinkbonner]

The Kolbe Center does excellent work showing the perennial Church teaching on creation. Hugh Owen is a genius!

[elliott]

The theory of evolution was the first real blow to my faith once I started to study it in college. But then I realized that it was a false dichotomy that the world sold us. That if evolution is correct, then God is not necessary. Since evolution seemed to be legitimate, my faith in the existence of God dwindled. But it was my assent to the dichotomy that was the issue. The complexity, brilliance, and beauty of the created universe only gives glory to its composer. It doesn’t take anything away from Him.

[egggmann]

How does evolution fit into the scripture that says sin brought death into the world? So if there was no death before the original sin, how would evolution work with that?

[phoenix]

Matt, I'd love to hear you interview Stephen Meyer.

[mustanggt]

The Pontifical Biblical Commission (1909): The PBC establishes that Genesis contains “stories of events which really happened, which correspond with historical reality and objective truth, ” not “legends, historical in part and fictitious in part.” In short, the PBC definitively excludes the possibility that even a part of the Genesis 1-3 narrative could be fictitious and non-historical.

[michaelyoungr]

Matt - PLEASE have Stephen Meyer on your show

[WilsonAcres]

Thank you!! Fantastic. Only Catholicism embraces scientifically revealed truth while holding robust theology and conservative values. Why hold up something that's not necessary. The way in which God has propelled evolution of species is gorgeous and awe inspiring.

[pslobodnik]

You can push the envelope to try to reconcile Christianity with evolution, but after reading books like "Darwin's Black Box, " I don't believe in evolution as a fact or even a viable theory. It's too easy to poke holes in it and too many gaps in its reasoning. No evolutionist has responded to the problem of irreducible complexity to my satisfaction - they just say "given enough time" which is their response to everything. The first academics to object to the theory were mathematicians, who applied simple odds to calculate how likely it is for us to have evolved and it is so minute that were it any other subject, it would be dismissed as mathematically impossible - it was something like you have better odds of winning the lottery and getting struck by lightening on the same day, every day of your life, than a single cell has of becoming a rational human being. But evolution is more politics than anything - something to indoctrinate with and then used to create of caricature of Christians.

[primuspilushb]

It doesn't really matter if evolution is true or not. Humanity still needs a savior.

[adestefideles]

There was death and suffering before the fall?

[jamie]

"...as once you were pleased to accept the gifts of your servant Abel the just..." The words of Holy Mass must be a bit of a blow for those who do not believe in the historicity of the first few chapters of Genesis.

[mustanggt]

The 4th Lateran Council: "God…creator of all visible and invisible things, of the spiritual and of the corporal; who by His own omnipotent power AT ONCE from the beginning of time created each creature from NOTHING, spiritual and corporal, namely, angelic and mundane, and finally the human, constituted as it were, alike of the spirit and the body" (D.428).

[eddiej]

It does seem the more we try to explain divine creation and our physical narrative within the popular and dominant scientific model, the greater the theological gymnastics we need perform to fit into Genesis and how it them segways into the rest of OT and finally the NT.

We seem to have reduced Genesis to less than a myth scribed by a primitive people who had no grasp of the larger physical context they found themselves in, and in the process cobbled together a working synthesis that makes little sense either physically or theologically.

All roads might lead to the Gospels, but the well-spring is after all Genesis 1-3.

I have little idea myself of the actual truth, but find it heartening that there is no definitive dogma the Catholic Church demands adherence to, delightfully deepening the mystery and still allowing us to genuinely default to literal reading, even if this puts us at odds with the ‘rationale’ consensus. Ones devotional beliefs and genuine contemplations being purely a matter between us and and our God.

[antoniopioavallone]

Generally philosophers of science and even scientists say that nothing is definitive in science and a new potential discovery could change everything we knew before; very strange that this reasonment is never extended also to the theory of evolution.

[Digganob]

It appears that the "broad strokes" of evolution are true. That is, species do apparently shift over time into what we call different species, given evidence provided of various species having come into existence at one point in natural history, and other ones coming before or after them.

And the reason I think this to mainly be driven by something approximating evolution, is that I think God would have made things in nature such that they do not have to be sustained by repeated miraculous intervention.

However, I would add that there are certain issues which are adjacent to this theory of evolution, but necessary to it.

Specifically, how human beings specifically came into existence, and how life in general began.

Human beings have made a leap in kind which is very different from every other speciation we have seen in nature. It is more likely for fish to somehow contrive to become dogs over millions of years of mutations and their integration into the gene pool, than for apes to develop the ability to study philosophy over a few thousand.

And life having begun to begin with simply has not been shown to be naturally possible, let alone for it to develop and diversify.

And all that combined with the specific laws of physics and natural circumstances we have available here on Earth make it incredibly unlikely for us to have developed by chance.

Ignoring questions of Genesis' literality or of natural disgust many people have with the idea that human beings are descendants of apes, the basic principles of evolution seem to have a role in our development, but they are far from the whole story.