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A Critique of Evolution Within Catholicism and Its Approval Page J Donnelly i A CRITIQUE OF EVOLUTION WITHIN CATHOLICISM AND ITS SUBSEQUENT LINKS WITH FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIANITY JOHN DONNELLY DIP.PHIL., B.D., H.DIP.ED., DIP. MISSION STUDIES, M.ED., FREEDOM BIBLE COLLEGE AND SEMINARY THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DOCTORAL DISSERTATION COMMITTEE IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY DEGREE J Donnelly ii CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements iv Thesis Statement v Introduction 1 PART ONE: EVOLUTION AND CATHOLICISM Chapter 1: A Short History of Evolution Theory 3 Chapter 2: Evolution and Catholicism – The Current Position 34 Chapter 3: Can Evolution Blend with Catholicism? 54 Chapter 4: Why Evolution Can Never Become Part of Catholic Doctrine 66 Chapter 5: Why Catholics Should Reject Evolution 91 PART TWO: SOME PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND EFFECTS OF EVOLUTION WITHIN CATHOLICISM Chapter 6: Why Evolution is Pseudoscience – Some Philosophical Considerations 105 Chapter 7: Dangerous Effects of Evolution 130 Chapter 8: A Lesson from History 140 PART THREE: CATHOLICISM AND BIBLICAL CRITICISM – A NEED TO RETURN TO THE SCRIPTURES Chapter 9: Moses and the reliability of the Pentateuch 167 Chapter 10: Two Different Accounts in Genesis? 175 PART FOUR: CONCLUSION Chapter 11: Evolution, Catholicism and Fundamentalism 184 Bibliography 212 J Donnelly iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the following people: Amy Joy Reilly who helped me with advice on editing; Vidis my wife who kept encouraging me when things were going slowly, enabling me to recommence; my parents John and Alice who also were a source of encouragement and who goaded me on; my pupils who were so interested in this theme and created even more enthusiasm in me; my daughter Clodagh who has never ceased to ask questions about evolution and kept me on my toes. J Donnelly iv THESIS STATEMENT Evolution is a defunct belief system, which has adversely affected Catholicism, but the key to eradicate this is a return to the fundamental doctrine of Special Creation found in the Scriptures. J Donnelly v J Donnelly vi A CRITIQUE OF EVOLUTION WITHIN CATHOLICISM AND ITS SUBSEQUENT LINKS WITH FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIANITY Introduction Evolution is a defunct belief system, which has adversely affected Catholicism, but the key to eradicate this is a return to the fundamental Doctrine of Special Creation found in the Scriptures. Many Catholics assert that the Catholic Church regards evolution as a fact thinking, “evolution is acceptable as long as God was involved”. On the contrary, I submit that evolution, when correctly defined, cannot be casually regarded as scientific fact. The objective truth, known from scientific evidence and theological arguments, contradicts evolution. I also submit that Catholic doctrine has always favoured ex nihilo creation (not Darwinian Evolution) as found in the book of Genesis and that this demonstrates a fundamentally Christian approach. This thesis will provide evidence that in general Catholic doctrine goes against evolution even though some Church theologians seem to state otherwise. Relevant documents will be examined to show the anti- evolution (Creation) theme. The aim of this thesis is not to critique all of the evolution bias within Catholicism but to point out the weakness of the evolution position and by doing so, evolution argument and bias will be exposed. It will also be shown that Catholicism has always had links with fundamental Christianity, demonstrating that Catholicism needs to go back to its origins and follow a more focused or fundamental teaching from the Bible against evolution dogma. Because Catholicism has not primarily focused on the Bible it finds that it has a lot of problems as a church today. This thesis is not an argument for Catholic doctrine in general but rather it is a critique of the philosophy/theology surrounding the topic of evolution, demonstrating the orthodox position which the Catholic Church has always had in relation to evolution, while pointing out the various errors that have crept into Catholicism. It is hoped that the conclusions to this thesis may open the debate, particularly in the Republic of Ireland which is a predominantly Catholic country. The thesis consists of three parts. Part 1 deals with the critique of evolution. Part 2 has some philosophical considerations arising out of the critique and the dangers of evolution theory. Part 3 demonstrates that the J Donnelly 1 Pentateuch was indeed edited or written by Moses and that the Genesis account of creation is one unit. Part 1 Chapter 1 exposes the false science of the evolution theory. Some scientific and technical language is used. The next four chapters are somewhat more theological in that they treat of the position of the Catholic Church. There is much historical information interspersed with scientific fact debunking modern evolution theory. This leads naturally into Part 2 in that having critiqued evolution for the first five chapters the next three deal with the exposition of the nature of evolution from a philosophical standpoint and the consequent dangers of supporting such a widespread belief system. Part 3 turns to Scripture because the modern day attack on the Bible in general and the book of Genesis in particular has caused a lot of people to doubt the word of God. The two chapters in this section try to restore confidence in Genesis and the author/editor as Moses. Having defended the credibility of Scripture I then conclude in the final section by stating that the Catholic Church, in relation to the whole area of evolution, must indeed return to the fundamentals of The Christian faith. This is because the onslaught of evolution must be met head on. If evolution is no longer a fact of science then more authority is put on Scripture/Genesis as representative of simple but factual evidence. I argue that this can aid the Catholic Church in giving answers to her flock in the domain of faith, morality and direction in life. I try to show that the general Fundamental Christian position in the creation/evolution debate can be a sure way of bringing in the new evangelisation the Catholic Church has been looking for. Various bible translations are used throughout this paper J Donnelly 2 PART 1 EVOLUTION AND CATHOLICISM Chapter 1: A Short History of Evolution Theory Despite having its heritage in ancient Greece, the theory of evolution was first brought to the consideration of the scientific world in the nineteenth century. The most carefully considered view of evolution was expressed by the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, in his Zoological Philosophy (1809). Lamarck thought that all living things were endowed with a vital force that steered them to evolve toward greater complexity. He also thought that organisms could impart to their offspring traits acquired during their lifetimes. As an example of this way of thinking, Lamarck suggested that the long neck of the giraffe evolved when a short-necked ancestor took to browsing on the leaves of trees instead of on grass. This evolutionary model of Lamarck's was invalidated by the discovery of the laws of genetic inheritance. In the middle of the twentieth century, the discovery of the structure of DNA revealed that the nuclei of the cells of living organisms possess very special genetic information, and that this could not be altered by ‘acquired traits’. In other words, during its lifetime, even though a giraffe managed to make its neck a few centimetres longer by extending it to upper branches, this trait would not pass to its offspring. In short, the Lamarckian view was simply refuted by scientific findings and went down in history as a faulty assumption. However, the evolutionary theory formulated by another natural scientist, who lived a couple of generations after Lamarck, proved to be more influential. This natural scientist was Charles Robert Darwin, and the theory he formulated is known as “Darwinism”. The Birth of Darwinism Charles Darwin based his theory on various observations he made as a young naturalist on board the HMS Beagle, which sailed in late 1831 on a five-year official voyage around the world. Young Darwin J Donnelly 3 was heavily influenced by the variety of species he observed, especially of the different Galapagos Island finches. The differences in the beaks of these birds, Darwin thought, were a result of their adaptation to their different environments. After this voyage, Darwin started to visit animal markets in England. He observed that breeders produced new breeds of cow by mating animals with different characteristics. This experience, together with the different finch species he observed in the Galapagos Islands, contributed to the formulation of his theory. In 1859 he published his views in his book The Origin of Species, postulating that all species had descended from a single ancestor, evolving from one another over time by slight variations. What made Darwin's theory different from Lamarck's was his emphasis on ‘natural selection’. Darwin theorised that there is a struggle for survival in nature, and that natural selection is the survival of strong species, which can adapt to their environment. Darwin adopted the following line of reasoning: Within a particular species there are natural and coincidental variations. For instance, some cows are bigger than others, while some have darker colours. Natural selection selects the favourable traits. The process of natural selection thus causes an increase of favourable genes within a population, which results in the features of that population becoming better adapted to local conditions. Over time these changes may be significant enough to cause a new species to arise. However, this ‘theory of evolution by natural selection’ gave rise to doubts from the start: 1. What were the natural and coincidental variations referred to by Darwin? It was true that some cows were bigger than others, while some had darker colours, yet how could these variations provide an explanation for the diversity in animal and plant species? 2.
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