What is the Church's official stance on evolutionary biology and the theory of intelligent design?4/27/2017 To be clear, the Church doesn’t have an official teaching on evolution. The Church has expressed openness to the possibility of evolution, provided that any theory espoused acknowledges a creator behind the process. Saint John Paul II, in a talk to the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences in 1996, stated that while it is permissible to believe and test the theory of evolution, such theories should not be reduced to a materialistic atheistic perspective. The Catechism touches briefly on the subject of evolution. It says: “The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies that have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers” (CCC 283). Such theories must leave room for the uniqueness of the human being who is given a soul by a creator.
Regarding intelligent design, Church teaching certainly proclaims that there is a divine designer behind all of creation. However, intelligent design proponents have faltered in not realizing the scope and limitations of science and philosophy, respectively. While one can assert that science cannot answer crucial questions about life; and that evidence regarding human life, the earth, and the universe in general philosophically point to the existence of a creator, it’s quite another thing to say that such evidence scientifically proves that God exists. God’s existence while discernable in nature and in the human person, can never be purely proven using scientific methods. Faith and reason are both required to arrive at an understanding of God as being both a transcendent creator and an intimate redeemer; a God who became a human being in the person of Jesus Christ. |
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