Why Catholic?

Questions & Answers about the Catholic faith

Did God make the world in seven days as the bible states? What is the Catholic position towards Evolution?

The Church sees science and revelation as being two distinct but complimentary modes of discovering the truth regarding the origin of things (cf. Catechism 283-284) . No contradiction need to exist between them provided that each remains true to its particular discipline.

In other words, the proper concern of science is to present an answer to the question of HOW things came into being – how were the earth and what it contains formed to be what they are today? – and the answer is shaped by what can be scientifically observed and deduced from within the world of matter alone. Theology, on the other hand, is concerned with the question of WHY: why did things come to be in the way they did? Why is there good and evil in the world? To what end is it all proceeding? Its object lies beyond matter and therefore beyond the proper concern of science to respond to.

Science, however, as we know it is a relatively modern discipline. Before science came to be the question of HOW was still asked but the answer was communicated through myths and stories which were passed on from one generation to another rather than empirical research. But together with the answer to the question of HOW in these stories was also communicated the answer to the question of WHY. This is what we find in the Genesis account of Creation. As our knowledge of the universe and its origins is perfected through science so does the answer to the question of HOW, but not to the question of WHY because that is supplied by Revelation which remains true for all times.

So what are the truths of Revelation, the answer to the question of WHY, which the Genesis account of creation presents to us through the answer to the question of HOW? These are that: (1) God is the source of creation; (2) God created out of nothing through the mere speaking of his word/will; (3) He created all to be good - evil was not directly intended by God; (4) He created angels and human beings in his likeness with an intellect to know him and a freedom to love him; (4) Evil therefore comes from creatures endowed with a free will to reject God;(5) But God has the power to use evil for good; (6) God’s ultimate intent for creation is to be the All in All through his Son. It is the proper concern of scripture to offer these truths of Revelation – the answer to the question of WHY – rather than present an exact scientific account of the origin of things – the answer to the question of HOW.

The Church is then open to accepting science’s postulation of evolution as being the means by which creation was possibly guided to be where it is today. What it rejects is a strict atheistic interpretation of evolution which denies the pre-existence of God and God’s good purpose for creation and rather attributes all things to mere Chance. It is in this strict notion of evolution where science departs from its proper realm of study to provide an answer to the question of HOW and pretends instead to also know the answer to the question of WHY.

— Answered by Fr. John P. Grigus, OFM Conv.
(Read Catechism 279-324 for more info on subject)

You are free to duplicate and distribute this article provided you indicate the copyright information.