A Christian View of Evolution

In an interview with Zenit, Legionary Father Rafael Pascual, director of the master's program in Science and Faith at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome, author of L'Evoluzione: crocevia di scienza, filosofia e teologia (Evolution: Crossroads of Science, Philosophy and Theology) puts his comments in context: THE INTERVIEW Question: Yes to evolution and no to evolutionism? Father Pascual: Evolution, understood as a scientific theory, based on empirical data, seems to be quite well affirmed, although it is not altogether true that there is no longer anything to add or complete, above all in regard to the mechanisms that regulate it. As for evolutionism, I don't think it is admissible because it is an ideology that denies purpose and holds that everything is due to chance and to necessity, as Jacques Monod affirms in his book Chance and Necessity, proposing atheist materialism. This evolutionism cannot be upheld, either as a scientific truth or as a necessary consequence of the scientific theory of evolution. Question: Yes to creation, no to creationism? Father Pascual: Creation is a comprehensible truth for human reason, especially for philosophy, but it is also a revealed truth. As for so-called creationism, it is also, like evolutionism, an ideology based on many occasions on an erroneous theology, that is, on a literal interpretation of the passages of the Bible. This, according to their authors, would maintain, in regard to the origin of species, the immediate creation of each species by God, and the immutability of each species with the passing of time. Question: Are evolution and creation compatible? Flather Pascual: Evolution and creation may be compatible in themselves; one can speak--without falling into a contradiction in terms--of an "evolutionary creation," while evolutionism and creationism are necessarily incompatible. On the other hand, undoubtedly there was an intelligent design but, in my opinion, it is not a question of an alternative scientific theory to the theory of evolution. At the same time one must point out that evolutionism, understood as a materialist and atheist ideology, is not scientific. It’s important to understand that the term "evolution" can be understood in a variety of ways. For example, when Darwin studied and wrote his book, it was popular for the Church in that day to say that species don't change. However, many now believe (myself included) that the Bible nowhere says this! What the Bible actually says many times in Genesis Chapter One is that God decreed that life is to reproduce "after its/their kind/s" (Gen. 1:12, 21, 24-25). So the Bible nowhere says that species can't change. It only tells us that "kinds" (Hebrew, min) can't change. And by actual living examples, we can see that species of some plants/animals can change. The question of how much they have changed since Creation is an open one. But if one takes the Biblical statements of Genesis 1 for what they plainly say (literally), then the theory of evolution that connects all life forms from a single origin in geologic time would be impossible. But, the Bible does not rule out all change. You are not exactly like your parents. All people on earth differ in some way. But, we are all humans. And, according to the Bible, we always have been and always will be. People produce people. Cattle produce cattle. Frogs produce frogs. Birds produce birds. Fish produce fish. Snakes produce snakes. Bats produce bats. And you can go on and on. That is the reality of what we have observed for thousands of years and there is no evidence of anything evolving a wing, an arm, an eye, a toe, a hand, a fin, a fingernail, etc. There are examples of disuse where, for example fish lost in caves may lose their eyesight, but this is degeneration, not evolution! Losing what you have is hardly bringing something new into existence!