Expert: Fr. Michael - 6/21/2007

Question
I saw in one of the bibles that Jesus could trace his ancestory back to Adam and Eve, something like 76 generations.  If we add 100 years per generation plus the 2000 - that would be less then 10,000 years when there was the first man and woman.   Who then were the people that geologists are digging up that they way lived thousands of years before?

Answer
     Pope Pius XII's Encyclical "Humani Generis" exhibits a very prudent
approach to the question of the theory of evolution, as well as all
scientific theories.  Both religion and science are founded in truth;
therefore, true religion and true science can never be in contradiction.  He
reprimands those who "imprudently and indiscreetly hold that Evolution, WHICH
HAS NOT BEEN FULLY PROVEN EVEN IN THE DOMAIN OF NATURAL SCIENCES, explains
the origin of all this, and audaciously support the monistic and pantheistic
opinion that the world is in continual evolution."

     The salient point here is that the Theory of Evolution is just that, a
theory.  There may be aspects of it that are correct, and other aspects that
are not.  Even scientists do not agree on all points of the theory, and, like
all scientific theories, more and more flaws in it will be discovered as
further data are discovered.

     Science can be looked at more as a process rather than a set of
facts.  For example, the Ptolemaic system was replaced by the Newtonian, the
Newtonian by the Einsteinian.  The 19th-century "Theory of Evolution" has
already been found wanting by the scientific community and is constantly
being revised as biological understanding increases.

     In history, we find that some in religion try to impose rigorously non-
dogmatic aspects of the Faith into science, as in the great debate on
heliocentrism in the 17th century.  Conversely, some scientists try to make
their "theories" contradict religious dogma.  Both approaches are incorrect.


     Here are the pertinent passages from the encyclical.

       "Thus, the teaching of the Church leaves the doctrine of evolution an
open question, as long as it confines its speculations to the development,
from other living matter already in existence [not Darwin's theory of
spontaneous generation, that living matter has come from non-living matter],
of the human body.  In the present state of scientific and theological
opinion, this question may be legitimately canvassed by research, and by
discussion between experts on both sides." (Sec. 1, para. 5-7)

       "It remains for Us now to speak about those questions which, although
they pertain to the positive sciences, are nevertheless more or less
connected with the truths of the Christian faith. In fact, not a few
insistently demand that the Catholic religion takes these sciences into
account as much as possible.  his certainly would be praiseworthy in the case
of clearly proved facts; but caution must be used when there is rather
question of hypotheses, having some sort of scientific foundation, in which
the doctrine contained in Sacred Scripture or in Tradition is involved.  If
such conjectural opinions are directly or indirectly opposed to the doctrine
revealed by God, then the demand that they be recognized can in no way be
admitted....

       "For these reasons the Teaching Authority of the Church does not
forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and
sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in
both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far
as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent
and living matter -- for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are
immediately created by God. However this must be done in such a way that the
reasons for both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to
evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation
and measure, and provided that all are prepared to submit to the judgment of
the Church, to whom Christ has given the mission of interpreting
authentically the Sacred Scriptures and of defending the dogmas of faithful.
Some however rashly transgress this liberty of discussion, when they act as
if the origin of the human body from preexisting and living matter were
already completely certain and proved by the facts which have been discovered
up to now and by reasoning on those facts, and as if there were nothing in
the sources of divine revelation which demands the greatest moderation and
caution in this question."  (Section 36)

       "There are other conjectures, about polygenism (as it is called)
[Darwin's theory that there were many Adams and Eves in the very beginning of
mankind, not just one set of First Parents], which leave the faithful no such
freedom of choice.  Christians cannot lend their support to a theory which
involves the existence, after Adam's time, of some earthly race of men, truly
so called, who were not descended ultimately from him....  It does not appear
how such views can be reconciled with the doctrine of original sin."  (Sec.
3, para. 64-68)