Expert: Edward Bode - 12/28/2009

Question
I have a theological question:  For Christians, Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, who accept as valid the scientific general theory of evolution:  How is the fall of man (traditionally an historical Adam and Eve) and the consequent ‘original sin’ (or, as the Eastern Orthodox like to call it, ancestral sin) reconciled, harmonized, understood, integrated, etc into the evolutionary view of man as evolving over long periods of time from a population of hominid ancestors? Of course, in every young earth creationist writing I have read and dialogue I have had they say these two things are mutually exclusive, and is one of the main reasons given for the denial of evolution and an earth older than approx 6-7,000 years.

Answer
That our universe is billions of years old does not militate against divine revelation.
When biological evolution progressed under divine providence to the point where a body was ready to accept/use a human [rational; spiritual; immortal] soul  -- then a divine action is needed to create and infuse that soul into the body.  This is what God does at the conception of every human.
So, before the first truly human couple, the amount of years or the amount of hominid predecessors does not exclude what divine revelation teaches about the creation of humanity and its need for redemption.
For more details, please check The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 388-390, 396-420; available online at:  
www.usccb.org/catechism/text/index.htm
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Best wishes, Mike, for a blessed New Year.