Q. A recent issue of our diocesan Catholic newspaper (The Pilot) had an article on Darwin’s theory of evolution that seemed to hint that the Church could adapt to some part of his theory. Can this be true? – N.H., Massachusetts

A. While the Church remains open to solid scientific evidence that God might have fashioned the universe through some evolutionary process, she could never endorse a theory like Darwinism, which postulates an unguided, purposeless, random process of natural selection. Such a theory cannot possibly account for the origin and development of the incredibly diverse and complex universe in which we live and, of course, it leaves no room for God. As Pope John Paul said in 1996, any theory of evolution that considers the soul as emerging from living matter, and not from God, is “incompatible with Catholic teaching.”

 

In his book Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds (InterVarsity Press), Phillip Johnson said:  “Evolution is not a fact, it’s a philosophy. The materialism comes first (a priori), and the evidence is interpreted in light of that unchangeable philosophical commitment. If the evidence seems to go against the philosophy, so much the worse for the evidence. To a materialist, putting up with any amount of bad practice in science is better than to let that Divine Foot in the door!” (p. 81). ]

For more rebuttals of Darwinism, see Johnson’s other book, Darwin on Trial (Regnery Gateway), as well as Michael Denton’s Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Adler & Adler), Michael Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box (The Free Press), George Sim Johnston’s Did Darwin Get It Right? (Our Sunday Visitor), and Jonathan Wells’ Icons of Evolution (Regnery Publishing).