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Question Title Posted By Question Date
Evolution Christina Saturday, July 13, 2013

Question:

Dear Brother Ignatius Mary,

I recently read some disturbing news that scientist at Max Planek Anthropology in Leipziq Germany found that humans share some of the same DNA as the Neanderthals. That in the past, humans interacted and interbred with Neanderthals. I think it is believed the Neanderthals were around ~60,000 years ago, Australopithecus were around ~2 million years ago and the genus homo sapiens were around ~1.8 million years ago. Somewhere along the line, human beings interbred with these other genus' - something like that...

Also, I just read that researchers found a 23 million year old lizard fossil.

I was not brought up with any knowledge of evolution. I don't remember being taught anything related to evolution when I was younger (I attended Catholic School for part of my early education) and was brought up in a Catholic home where I was taught to believe in Jesus as our Lord and God.

I wonder why Jesus came just ~2,000 years ago when it appears the earth was around at least 23 million years ago. (If a lizard fossil was found 23 million years ago, the earth was around - formed).

Is it possible we evolved from animals?

My father just passed and when I came across this evolution stuff, it really upset me to think that we evolved ... and that I will never see my father again. - It is very scary to think that we will not be here some day and that death is the END!

I was brought up to believe that we all came from Adam and Eve but genetically I don't see how that could make any sense. If Adam and Eve had children, then it would mean that their children would have to mate with one another because no one else was around - which is incest. Genetically it makes no sense at all.

My faith is definitely challenged and I feel afraid that we just have no purpose here on earth. That some day we will all die and that will be the end of it. - We will all deteriorate into nothing but bones. So how will we have a glorified body?

Can you please give me your thoughts on this topic? Also do you know when the books of the Bible were written?

Thank you
Christina



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r), CCL, LTh, DD, LNDC

Dear Christina:

Evolution is a theory that does not disturb the Catholic faith in the slightest as long as three things are recognized as true: 1) God created the universe; 2) the soul is not evolved, but it uniquely created at the moment of conception; 3) the human race had an original pair of parents.

I have written about this extensively in another Q&A.

Evolution does not mean that when we die we die. God may choose to use Evolution as the mechanism of His Creation. But, He created us with immortal souls that will love forever. That is true whether or not evolution is true.

Again, regardless of evolution we have a purpose. You seem to think that evolution invalidates our humanity. It does not. We have the purpose to love and serve God and to love our neighbor as ourselves, and all that that implies. Evolution does not change that.

At the end of the age, our bodies will be resurrected from bones and dust into intact bodies and reunited with our souls. This does not change if evolution is true. St. Paul says that we do not know exactly what our glorified bodies will be like, but our bodies will be like that of Jesus after His resurrection.

In other words, YOUR FAITH REMAINS INTACT. All that the Catholic Church remains the same regardless of evolution. There is absolutely no challenge to the faith by evolution as long as the three criteria mentioned above is believed.

Note: Please do not mix topics. There should be only one topic per questions otherwise people may not find the answers below, for example, as the following questions have nothing to do with Evolution.

As for why Jesus came 2000 years ago is because he came in the fullness of time. That means, that God waited until the right time in human history to send his Son to us. The human race had to be prepared to receive the Son. The Mosaic Law was that preparation for the Messiah. Humans had to live under the law for a while in order to be ready for the Messiah.

To use education as an analogy, one does not graduate high school when he is in elementary school. There is a progression of learning before one can graduate High School. Then more progression of learning before graduation from college, and yet more before graduation from graduate school. The ultimate graduation will be when we die and enter heaven in which will will no longer "see through a glass darkly."

God knew when the time was right to send His Son.

The books of the Bible were written at different times starting with the books of Moses in the neighborhood of the 13th to 16th century BC. There are disputes as to when Moses lived. The Book of Kings indicates that the "law of Moses" was discovered in the Temple during the reign of King Josiah in the 7th Century BC (641–609 BC). The New Testament began to be written a couple of decades after Christ lived. Revelation was probably written around the mid-90s A.D. Certainly all New Testament books were completed by the time the last Apostle died (St. John). There is some dispute as to when we think St. John died, but the latest date proposed is A.D. 100.

The topic of who were the individual writers of the books of the Bible is highly complex, but here is a quick chart that is as good as any (keeping in mind that scholars have various theories as to the who and when of some books of the Bible. This chart is on a site that is not Catholic, but the chart itself is good enough.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary 


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