Читать книгу Catholicism For Dummies - Rev. Kenneth Brighenti - Страница 53

A great battle has been waged for centuries between those who call themselves pure creationists and those who call themselves pure evolutionists. The Catholic Church has solemnly defined that God is the Creator of the universe. At the same time, the Church has never condemned any modified version of evolution that allows for a Creator and for the spiritual creation of the immortal soul. Theist Evolution would be a better term than Intelligent Design.

Pope Benedict XVI often used the phrase “both/and rather than either/or” to describe Catholicism. He maintained that it does not have to be a choice between creationism versus evolution; instead, it can be both of them. An all-powerful God could create, and do so by means of modified evolution that is reasonable and intentional. Divine Providence is the idea that God created a plan by which life begins and develops.

A purely atheistic theory of evolution is incompatible with Christianity. Life did not create itself, nor is pure chance or randomness the master of the universe. All of creation works according to a design and plan — so much so that scientists can discern and ascertain that design. The speed of light (186,282 miles per second) and the chemical makeup of salt (NaCl) remain constant and do not change regardless of the place or time. The planets rotate around the sun and follow orbits in an orderly fashion, which is not chaotic or spontaneous. Otherwise, we would have crashed into Mars or Venus or the sun long ago.

Order does not happen by itself. If you throw marbles in the air, they do not land spelling words. Chaos is what happens when order is removed, and without a guiding design and plan, all of creation would be in chaos. Intelligent design and order are obvious everywhere we look. Consider these examples:

 Every human being has human DNA, which is distinct from animal DNA. We can use DNA to determine paternity or who committed a crime.

 Seasons are predictable enough that farmers know when to plant and when to harvest.

 Chemists know what elements combine with other ones to form stable and safe compounds.

Studying the order of our universe got a man to the moon and offers medical science the ability to treat deadly diseases, but Catholics trace it all back to the Creator. Evolution is still a theory and not a proven law of science. But as long as room is made in that theory for the intelligent design of a Creator, nothing is intrinsically wrong with evolution. Only when evolution kicks God out of the equation is it an offense to religion (as well as illogical). Likewise, the Catholic Church does not insist that the world was created in six chronological days because the literal interpretation of the Bible is not the only one. Metaphor, analogy, allegory, parable, and other forms of figurative language are also part of Scripture and valid types of interpretation.