Catholic Church Believes in Evolution!
By David J. Stewart
It doesn't come as a surprise to me that the Catholic church REJECTS the Biblical account of Creation, known as Creationism. Cardinal Schoenborn, who is widely influential within the Catholic Church, affirmed that the Catholic Church REJECTS Creationism. The Associated Press recently reported on June 26, 2008 that Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn supports Evolution...
"Influential Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, who has been speaking about evolution and faith, has affirmed that the Catholic Church rejects creationism. In a 2007 speech in New York, he said that 'the first page of the Bible is not a cosmological treatise about the coming to be of the world in six days.' He also said that 'the Catholic faith can accept' the possibility that God uses evolution as a tool." [emphasis added]
SOURCE: Mendel Hailed as Model for Balancing Science, Religion
Just as with Creationism, the Catholic Church REJECTS other fundamental teachings from the Bible as well... "Full well ye REJECT the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition" (Mark 7:9).
Let's do a comparison...
|
Word of God |
Catholic Tradition |
| God created the universe in 6-days (Genesis 1:1-31). | Creationism is not true; Evolution is. |
| Jesus forbid repetitive prayer using Rosary Beads (Matthew 6:7). | Praying with Rosary Beads. |
| Calling the Priests "Father" is forbidden (Matthew 23:9). | Calling the Priests "Father." |
| Jesus had brothers and sisters from the womb of Mary (Matthew 13:55,56). | Mary was a Perpetual Virgin. |
| Joseph began normal sexual relations with Mary after Jesus was born (Matthew 1:24,25). | Mary and Joseph never had sex. |
| One one Mediator between God and men — Jesus Christ (1st Timothy 2:5). | Priests are mediators with power to forgive sin. |
| Blessed are those who hear and obey the Word of God (Luke 11:27,28). | Blessed is the Virgin Mary. |
| Marriage is right and proper (Hebrews 13:4); False prophets forbid marriage (1st Timothy 4:1-3). | Priests forbidden to Mary. |
| The Apostle Peter had a wife (Mark 1:30). | Peter, the first Pope, had no wife. |
| Preaching in an unknown language is forbidden (1st Corinthians 14:19). | Catholic Mass is spoken in Latin, which the people in the crowd don't understand. |
| Worshipping idols, icons, and images violates the 2nd Commandment (Exodus 20:4,5). Even bowing to statues is strictly forbidden. | Catholics regularly bow down to idols, icons and images of Jesus, Mary and the apostles, kissing the feet of the statues and praying to them. |
| Mary was a sinner (Romans 3:10,19-23). | The Immaculate Conception of Mary teaches that she was born without a sin-nature and lived a sinless life. |
| Believers are to abstain from all appearances of evil (1st Thessalonians 5:22). 1st Peter 1:16 commands every believer to "be holy." | Catholic Mardi Gras festivals are notorious for nudity, homosexuality, booze and debauchery. |
| False prophets forbid eating meat (1st Timothy 4:1-3). | No red meat allowed on Fridays. |
| Priests cannot forgive sin (Mark 2:7; 1st Timothy 2:5). | Priests can forgive sin. |
| Not found in the Bible. | Mary was bodily taken into Heaven. The doctrine is called,"The Assumption of Mary." |
| "Sacraments" are not found in the Bible. | The Seven Sacraments. |
| Salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ as one's Savior (Ephesians 2:8,9; Titus 3:5; Romans 3:20, 4:5). | Salvation is by faith AND works. |
| Jesus commands us to SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES (John 5:39). | Catholics are taught to follow the Catechism and trust the Priests. |
Catholicism is the unsaved man's religion — where you can live in sin, believe in Evolution, deny the Scriptures, have no idea what you believe, and still be told by the Priests that everything is ok with God.
"Catholics are more likely than other Americans to believe in evolution. A survey conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found 58 percent of Catholics believed in evolution compared with 48 percent for the nation as a whole."
SOURCE: Mendel Hailed as Model for Balancing Science, Religion
It just goes to show that
Catholics DON'T believe the Bible is God's Word. What's so difficult
about believing that God created the universe in a LITERAL 6-day period?
To claim that God used Evolution to create the world, as Cardinal Schoenborn
suggests, is to deny the Scriptures as being accurate and inspired by God.
Evolution Verses God's Word
Either you believe the Bible or you don't. Sadly, fifty-eight percent of Catholics believe in Evolution.1 One must take a deeper look at the theories of Evolution, and seriously examine it's bizarre claims, before even considering that God may have used Evolution in any way. Let's examine a few aspects of Evolution:
-
Evolution teaches that man and animal "evolved" from the SAME primitive biological source. This is a blatant denial of the Scriptures. The Bible clearly teaches that the flesh of humans is different from the flesh of beasts... "All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds" (1st Corinthians 15:39). Mankind was created in God's image (Genesis 1:26); animals were not. If Evolution is true, then people are animals and animals are people, and bestiality is acceptable.
-
Evolution denies that God created Adam and Eve. If mankind evolved as evolutionists claim, then Adam and Eve never existed, and Eve was not the "the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20). If Adam and Eve are only a myth, then it presents a whole new series of disturbing questions; such as, how did sin enter into the world if not through Adam? How did the sin-nature come upon mankind? Romans 5:12 teaches that sin entered the world because of Adam's transgression. You see, if Evolution is true, then there is no LOGICAL explanation for man's sin-nature.
-
If Creationism is untrue, then the rest of the Bible makes NO sense at all. The New Testament makes several references to Adam; such as 1st Corinthians 5:22... "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." So without the Genesis account of Creationism, which includes the formation of Adam and Eve, the Bible would be incomplete and without meaning. In short, if Creationism is untrue, then the Bible is untrue.
For these reasons and hundreds
more, Creationism and Evolution are diametrically opposed to each other.
There can be NO harmony between faith and unbelief, between fact and
fiction, between Creationism and Evolution.
Gregor Mendel: Unsaved Modernist
Gregor Mendel was a 19th-Century Augustinian friar who promoted "Theistic Evolution," i.e., the theory that God created the universe and then allowed it to evolve. Theistic Evolution is a false doctrine, intended to bridge the gap between Biblical Creationism and the farfetched lies of Evolution. Mendel, like many today, had religion without truth.
Here's a recent article quote from the Associated Press concerning Gregor Mendel...
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — As a 19th-century Augustinian friar, Gregor Mendel was expected to pursue his groundbreaking genetics research with the same passion he reserved for his religious studies.
Combining those disciplines isn't popular today. Villanova University, an Augustinian Roman Catholic college, is trying to change that by highlighting Mendel's work.
The school will declare the "Year of Mendel" starting this fall and is sponsoring an exhibit on his work at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The effort complements an award Villanova has given since 1928, the Mendel Medal, to scientists who balance religious conviction and scientific progress.
"Saint Augustine talked about the pursuit of ... knowledge and truth," said the Rev. Kail Ellis, dean of Villanova's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "Certainly the sciences (are) a key part of our knowledge and our ability to function in the world."
This year's medal recipient, the Rev. George V. Coyne, directed the Vatican Observatory for 28 years until retiring in 2006. An astronomer and astrophysicist, Coyne pointed to the very existence of the observatory as evidence that the church sees faith and science as compatible.
"The same God that created the universe that I study as a scientist is the God who spoke to the Jewish people of old," he said.
But shrill voices from both the scientific and religious communities have created a tense climate for researchers in the United States, said Francis Collins, outgoing director of the National Human Genome Research Institute and recipient of the Mendel Medal in 1998.
Extremes in the debate can be seen in recent books by atheists who excoriate faith and in the new Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., Collins said. The museum, which advocates a literal interpretation of the Bible, has attracted more than 400,000 visitors since it opened a year ago.
"Mendel would be horrified to see the way in which people are being asked to make a choice between God and science," Collins said. "That's an unnecessary choice."
Most people are inclined both toward a spiritual side of human existence and to trust science as well, said Collins, author of "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief."
Catholics are more likely than other Americans to believe in evolution. A survey conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found 58 percent of Catholics believed in evolution compared with 48 percent for the nation as a whole.
Influential Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, who has been speaking about evolution and faith, has affirmed that the Catholic Church rejects creationism. In a 2007 speech in New York, he said that "the first page of the Bible is not a cosmological treatise about the coming to be of the world in six days." He also said that "the Catholic faith can accept" the possibility that God uses evolution as a tool. But he said science alone cannot explain the origins of the universe.
At Villanova, which serves about 6,300 undergraduates in suburban Philadelphia, a two-day symposium on "Mendel in the 21st Century" is set for September. The school, which already boasts the Mendel Science Center, will also begin a campus-wide sustainability initiative.
In addition, Villanova is sponsoring "Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics" through Sept. 28 at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The national traveling exhibit uses interactive displays to show how Mendel determined the laws of heredity, and where science has gone since then - from the discovery of DNA to modern-day genetics.
Mendel's research literally grew from 28,000 pea plants in the garden of his abbey in what is now the Czech Republic. His glasses, microscope, slides, journals, gardening tools and his own notated copy of "On the Origin of Species" - the seminal book on evolution by Charles Darwin - are included in the exhibit.
Mendel's work was not recognized until after he died and many of his personal effects were not saved. He presented his findings in 1865 but they were largely overlooked until other scientists essentially replicated them at the turn of the century.
"The world wasn't quite ready for what he had discovered," said Jacquie Genovesi, senior director of education at the Academy of Natural Sciences. "What he discovered was pretty amazing."
SOURCE: Mendel Hailed as Model for Balancing Science, Religion
It does not surprise me that 58% of Catholics deny what the Bible teaches concerning Creation, because they are still saturated in their sins and hellbound without Jesus Christ. As evidenced by the preceding comparison chart, Catholics do NOT believe the Bible at all.
"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called" —1st Timothy 6:20
