Expert: Marco - 9/8/2011

Question
Dear Marco,

Only recently I'd learned that Catholics are required to believe that all human beings are literally descended from one couple, Adam and Eve. According to my parish priest, there possibly were
"pre-adomite" beings who were human-like at that time, but all humans are descended from just the one couple, Adam and Eve.

I post on a Catholic forum where a self-proclaimed theologian/scientist, along with other posters who seem to have a lot of scientific knowledge themselves, insist it's the belief of genetic science that Adam and Eve were not the only human couple alive at the time, and claims that never in the course of Homo sapiens' emergence out of its hominid past did the population fall below 3,000 breeding pairs (that is the low estimate).

For many years now, I've believed that the theory of evolution is indeed a fact, bolstered even further today with the news of recently discovered bones in South Africa.

I'm not a theologian, nor do I have a science background, so I've researched, trying to find sound scientific information by respected scientists which would support the Catholic belief in us literally descending from Adam and Eve, but can't seem to find any. Are there any credible, respected scientists, up-to-date with all the current discoveries out there who do support this Catholic doctrine?
Can you please point me in the right direction?

Thank you in advance,
Tina

Answer
Dear Tina,

I am not expert in the theory of evolution; I know however that such theory is not supported by sufficient elements.
The point however is that what makes humans human, is not our biological body, but our soul. Without a soul, man would be only a biological robot.
This can be considered a scientifically proved fact, since it is possible to give rational arguments proving the trasendent nature of consciousness: the explanation of these aguments is rather long and Allexperts allows only to give short answers. You can find such arguments  in the following site

http://xoomer.alice.it/fedeescienza/englishnf.html

where  I analyse the incongruencies of the materialistic conception of the mind, on the basis of our present scientific knowledges about brain and matter.
This analysis points out how the laws of physics  prove that the   brain cannot generate consciousness, which existence implies  the presence in man of a unbiological/unmaterial element. The problem of consciousness is then strictly connected to the one of the existence of the soul and, consequently, the existence of God.
In the first article entitled “Mind and brain...” you can find a general discussion of the mind and brain problem from a scientific point of view.
In the second article entitled “Scientific contraddictions in materialism”
you  can find an explanation of the fundamental inconsistencies of  the  typical arguments used by materialists, such as the concept of emergent, macroscopic or holist property, complexity, information, etc.
In the section called “FAQ: answers to  visitors' questions” you can find the answer to many typical questions, such as "Are there any scientifically proved miracles?", "Does the existence of the universe imply the existence of God?", "Can science explain God?", "Can science establish which is the true religion?", "Can science explain consciousness in the future?", and many others.

Now, coming back to the evolution theory, such theory is based on the recovery of fossils, therefore this theory can at the most conclude that our biological organism is the result of the evolution of a previous biological organism.
The point is that what really distinguishes us from animals is our psychical life, which has no biological origin, but a supernatural origin ; our biological organism is certainly not much different from the one of other animals.
Since it is not possible to find fossils of psyche, the theory of evolution can say nothing about the way we have become conscious and intelligent persons.
Even if our organism  derived from a previous animal organism, only the divine intervention could have given this organism the human mind.
So God could have created the whole universe through the laws of physics and our organism could be the result of an evolutional process ; however our organism would have been only another animal organism if God would have not given us our psyche, changing a pure animal organism into a human person.

In conclusion, science supports the catholic belief that a trascendent immaterial element (the soul) is present in man; the fact that all humans descend from a single couple (Adam and Eve) can be neither denied nor confirmed by science.

I hope this may help,

your brother in Christ,

Marco