Dear Joshua:

Be careful. Suggesting that Orientals and Negros are "detached from the rest of human race" snacks of ethnocentrism. There are four groups in the human race: Caucasoid, 55%; Mongoloid, 33%; Negroid, 8%; Australoid, 4%.

The various people's of the world have their own evolutionary path usually according to the environmental demands of the area for they are native and various genetic issues. Why some are black, brown, yellow, white, oval-eyed, or whatnot is unimportant. Who cares? We are human beings. There is only one race -- the human race.

Eugenie C. Scot, in his article, Evolution and the Origin of Races, published by the National Center for Science Education, stated:

Human "racial" diversity is a result of people in a geographic area intermarrying, being exposed to a number of biological processes, and adapting slowly to local environments. These biological processes include combining and recombining inherited genetic material over the generations, which produces offspring and descendants who differ from their parents and ancestors. The environment may favor certain characteristics, producing populations that are on the average taller, or darker, or more rugged than other populations from other geographic areas. Isolation and inbreeding of some populations may produce differences as well. These natural processes occur in humans as well as other animals and are the source of much study in biology and anthropology.

As for evolution itself, the Church leaves the investigation of the mechanisms of creation and biological development up to legitimate science. This is a scientific question, not a religious one.

There is only three things that the Catholic Church insists upon concerning evolution:

1) the scientific theory of evolution does not disprove the existence of God (any science that tries to assert Evolution as an alternative to God or as proof that God does not exist or is not the Creator is out-of-line and to assert such a thing is not science. In like manner, religious people are out-of-line to assert religious theories as science when they are not)

2) there were an original pair of humans, which in Genesis story happened to be named Adam and Eve (actually science has pretty much proven that the human race can be traced to a single pair)

3) the Soul is not evolved, but is specifically and individually created by God imbued within the human person at the very moment of conception.

Other than these three provisos the Church has no problems letting science be science and do its job to try to explain with the scientific method the origins of species.

From a religious point-of-view, God is God and he can create as he pleases. If he created the big bang and all the rest evolved from there, so be it. If he created the Grand Canyon in one second and only made it look like it was created over millions of years, he has the power to do that, so be it. Who cares, from a religious point-of-view?

From a religious point-of-view the Genesis story of creation is not science nor is it meant to be. The point of the Genesis story is not how the universe was created, but WHO created it. Anything beyond that is mere speculation theologically.

What this means is that when God's time was right, and a creature existed that would be human, God gave that creature a soul. It is that creature, and not other man-like creatures, who are human beings made in the image of God.

Whether or not God created this human creature in one second from dust, or allowed evolution to bring about a creature over millions of years who became physically eligible for humanness, does not matter. Humans have a rational soul -- all other creatures do not.

St. Thomas Aquinas taught the existence of three souls:

1) Vegetative Soul: this is the life-force that all living things have (plants, animals, humans)

2) Sensitive Soul: this is the faculty that allows creatures to sense, feel, and respond to their environment (animals & humans have this, but plants do not)

3) Rational Soul: this is the faculty to be creative, for higher thought, for self-awareness, for awareness of our mortality, to love, and to choose apart from instinct and environment, and is immortal (only humans have this form of soul)

Animals have both Vegetative and Sensitive Soul. Humans have all three forms of soul.

The Rational Soul is created at the moment of conception of a human person. Any and all creatures without this Rational Soul is not human regardless of how human-like they may be or genetically close they are to humans.

Neanderthals are either classified as a subspecies of humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) or as a separate species (Homo neanderthalensis). They died out some 30,000 years ago. Were these creatures human with a Rational Soul? We do not know. Only God knows, but because they died out does not automatically mean they were not human beings with a Rational Soul.

This is something we will find out when we get to heaven!

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary