Evolution, Creation and Catholic Faith

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The Garden of Eden by Jacob Bouttats

The theory of evolution, that all species including man arose gradually through a process of natural selection based on random mutation, has for many years been largely accepted by most Catholics. Along with that, the modern view that the earth is many billions of years old has also been accepted.

Both of these obviously fly in the face of a literal interpretation of Genesis. But it has long been a claim of modern religious faith that they are perfectly consistent with a metaphorical or allegorical interpretation of Scripture. God may not have actually created the world in six twenty-four hour days, but the creation "myth" of Genesis is still true on a deeper theological level. While Genesis is obviously not a science textbook, it is still inerrant (as the Church teaches that it must be) if interpreted correctly on its own terms.

Thus, we can have evolution, at least in some form - perhaps including a divine nudge or two here or there to make sure the "random" mutations go in the right direction or whatever - and a 4.5 billion year-old earth with ages upon ages of survival of the fittest - from unicellular organisms to trilobites to dinosaurs to rats to apes to humans - without giving up anything essential in Catholic theology or doctrine.

It seems like almost a happy ending, doesn't it? We can have both our modern scientific cake and our Catholic cake and also eat them.

So, I'm sorry to break it to you, but: 

The above is utter hogwash.

If the theory of evolution is true and the earth really is billions of years old, then Genesis is not only literally false, it's false in virtually any other way that it could be true or false. Nor does it have any other meaning that is even remotely helpful. At best, it's a "myth" with no connection to anything. At worst, it's directly misleading - a lie.

And thus the claim that the Bible is inerrant is a lie.

And thus the Catholic faith is a lie.

Of course, I'm a believing Catholic, so I don't think the faith is a lie. (Note the "if" three paragraphs up.) But in terms of the truth of the if/then statement, I'm with the atheist Richard Dawkins on this one.

I'll be writing more about this topic in the coming weeks, including references to the Catholic Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation.

For now, though, I want to leave you with this to think about. In Genesis 1:29-31, we read: 

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

But if the general outlines of the theory of evolution are true, then the above is not only not good science, it's not even good theology. What God should have added (or what Moses or whoever supposedly wrote the Pentateuch should have said God added) is this:

But I (God) am only going to provide a finite amount of food such that every beast of the earth will be locked in an unending struggle for survival that will result in the unnatural death by starvation or predation of the vast majority. Many creatures will eat each other, even though I earlier didn't tell you that. And you will eat some of them, though I didn't tell you that either. And once in a while you'll get eaten yourselves. Such a state of affairs will continue for billions of years punctuated by the occasional meteor that will periodically wipe out almost everything. Did I say before that it was very good? What I meant was, it might be very good for modern people to think about in armchairs, but for the trillions upon trillions of creatures, including some of your ape grandparents, who led brief lives of meaningless suffering, not so much.  

Intelligent atheists completely get the contradiction here. Modern faithful Christians don't want to get it, for obvious reasons. But I think most of them actually do get it, at least, subconsciously. Or if they don't get it, their kids will.

I think this is is the primary reason for the decline of Western religious faith in the 20th century.

NOT A PARODY: Cardinal Dolan Smuggles Hot Dogs into Met Gala, Then Goes Home to a Triple Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Nightcap

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Fashion and the Catholic Imagination: Cardinal Dolan and some actor

Future historians with a sense for the bizarre and absurd will have a field day with the early 21st century Catholic Church. Among other things, one cannot say that the Court of Francis and its satellite courts are not made up of interesting and diverse characters to rival any Renaissance satire.

First, there are the perverts, obviously in great abundance, such as Cardinal "cocoa-puffs" Cocopalmieri or Archbishop Paglia, with their Vatican orgies and commissioned pornographic murals.

Then the soulless power hungry strivers such as Cardinal Cupich or Bergoglio himself.

There are the banal and petty bureaucrats such as the Himmler knock-off, Anthony "sock-puppet" Spadaro.

And finally, there are the buffoons, such as New York City's Cardinal Dolan, who, even while posing in a human-and-animal kickline, three years ago, was probably thinking of his next salami roll.

2015: Cardinal Dolan with Rockettes and sheep

On Twitter, yesterday, in response to a Tweet containing a photograph of Jesuit James Martin greeting Dolan at the Met's horrific "Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" gala, I theorized that while Martin was probably luxuriating in all the sacrilegious "sensuality," the Cardinal was merely hopeful for the lunch bell.

It was a joke.

But Cardinal Dolan is of course himself a joke, or more accurately, a buffoon. Fiction cannot invent what this ridiculously gluttonous red-faced bishop cannot top in reality.

It turns out that Dolan would later brag about his impolite behavior at this impolite event. Annoyed at the small-sized canapés he was being served, he tipped a waiter to smuggle in hot dogs from a street-vendor outside. But even that wasn't enough, as he happily admitted to afterwards engulfing a trio of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at his residence.

As the Cardinal would later gush, "what a great evening it was!"

From the New York Post:

Cardinal Dolan brought street meat into ritzy Met Gala 

Just because Timothy Cardinal Dolan is a man of God, doesn’t mean he can’t have a down-to-earth appetite. 

His eminence sent out for hot dogs during his appearance at Monday night’s $30,000-a-head Met Gala, because the finger foods weren’t filling enough. 

“I had to tip the waiter to go out and get me a couple of hot dogs from the cart outside the museum,” he said on his Sirius XM radio show Tuesday, later adding he chowed down on three peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches when he got home in the evening. 

“It’s one of those like where you needed magnifying glasses and tweezers,” he said of the gala’s hors d’oeuvres. “I kept trying to eat with my fork and it would fall through the prongs. 

“But what a great evening it was.” 

Organizers invited Dolan because this year’s gala heralded the Met’s new exhibit on Catholic influences in popular fashion. 

The holy man rubbed elbows with Hollywood royalty, including Rihanna and Anna Wintour — though he admitted he didn’t always know who they were. 

“Apparently it is the social event of the year. And it’s sponsored by Anna Wintour — you got me,” he said, indicating he was not familiar. “She edits the Vogue fashion magazine.” 

Dolan was struck by Rihanna’s get-up — a glittering Maison Margiela Artisanal mini-dress, voluminous coat and bejeweled miter hat all reminiscent of papal garb — and joked that he lent her the hat and was conscripting her into the service. 

“She gave it back to me this morning,” he said of the hat. “I was teasing my auxiliaries who were teasing me. I said ‘Hey, you guys should not complain, because she has volunteered to do some confirmations.’” 

Dolan cracked to fellow guests that he was the only one who didn’t have to go out and buy his duds for the evening — though organizers were disappointed he didn’t accessorize more. 

“They were ticked off at me at the Met Gala that I only wore the house cassock with the red buttons and the red sash,” he said. “They wanted me to wear the cape.” 

He did, however, get a special dispensation not to walk the red carpet because he wanted to avoid the fanfare. 

“They said the only one excused is the Cardinal,” he said, explaining that Mitt Romney was forced to walk the red carpet even though the Mormon asked to slip in a side door. 

Dolan went for the displays of actual Catholic relics on loan from the Vatican, but said he wasn’t offended by any of the contemporary couture, which included a leather bondage mask with dangling rosary beads and a fuschia gown with a sinfully low neckline. 

“I didn’t really see anything sacrilegious — I may have seen some things in poor taste — but I didn’t detect anybody out to offend the church,” he said. 

“They were sure good to me, they were sure kind to me,” he added. “A number of people came up to speak about their Catholic upbringing. It was a powerful evening.”

BREAKING: In "Final Chapter" of Case, Judge Bars Alfie Evans From Leaving UK

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According to Josh Halliday, a reporter for the The Guardian who is attending today's court hearing on fate of Alfie Evans, the judge has definitively barred Alfie from being flown to Italy for treatment. One other option being considered was that the parents of Alfie would be allowed to take him home. However medical personnel at Alder Hey have appeared to be fighting this, claiming, among other things, that it would take "3-5 days" to move him.

Judge Anthony Paul Hayden called his ruling the “final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy.”

Alfie Evans had been breathing steadily since being removed from his ventilator yesterday afternoon.

Also significant in today's hearing's was the attendance of the Chief of Staff to the Italian Ambassador to the UK, on the same day that Italy officially confirmed it had granted Alfie Evans citizenship. According to the Evans lawyer, the case had reached "the highest levels of the Italian government," and multiple news sources reported that an Italian military air ambulance was standing by near Alder Hey to fly Alfie Evans to Rome.

Halliday has been tweeting updates on the case for much of the morning. And these have been appearing on the sites of LifeSiteNews and the Liverpool Echo.

In a bizarre twist, the Echo is also covering a soccer match tonight between Liverpool and Rome. Supporters of Alfie Evans and his family at #ChantforAlfie have been urging fans to chant his name at the 23 minute mark.

UPDATE (2:40 CST): Tom Evans appears to have written this at roughly the time that the appeal to the court was denied:

Alfie Evans Removed From Ventilator But Continues to Breathe, as Alder Hey Races Against Clock to Kill Him

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Alfie Evans, a few minutes ago

A few hours ago it appeared that Alfie Evans had been granted a reprieve, as the Italian Government granted him citizenship.

Italian lawyers had sprung into action and the Italian diplomats in the UK had become involved.

And Pope Francis had finally issued an explicit request that the family's wishes to move their son to a hospital in Italy be respected.

But at 9:00 PM London Time (3:00 PM CST), acting on updated permission from the courts, the doctors removed Alfie Evans' ventilator.

He is still breathing.

His father stated that Alfie is "needing oxygen, but the hospital won't give him any." One source stated that the hospital reluctantly just gave him some but he is nevertheless fading.

EDIT (8:40 CST): How much oxygen Alfie Evans received, if any, is now uncertain. Tom and Kate Evans have apparently not confirmed it.

Along with Alfie, the hospital room contains four family members and an unknown number of Alder Hey staff. There are also thirty police officers just outside the room.

This morning, Alfie Evans arguably appeared alert and responsive as his eyes tracked the  camera. It is thought that this may have been a result of his sedatives being halted.

The Italian ambassador is now apparently on his way to the hospital.      

Philly Earth Day, 1970: "A few older people, a few blacks, and some of the poor. But mainly white, middle-class young people, as much aroused by the music as by the damage done to the environment by pollution."

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Not much has changed.

What we see in this fascinating 1970 CBS News segment was that the first Earth Day was a "happening" created by a group of leftist and anti-capitalist students and academics (one of whom would famously later murder his girlfriend and hide her decomposing body in his closet), but was to a large degree co-opted even then by the "establishment" - liberal politicians (note Edmund Muskie's blathery speech to the celebrants), the media, churches (note the "prayer for the earth" at one service) and, yes, even the very businesses allegedly responsible for creating all that carbon monoxide.

Hello?

And the narrator nailed it when he described the scene as "as much like a rock-music festival as a teach-in on the environment."

One surprising thing, at least for the modern viewer, was the skepticism and ultimate refusal of Philadelphia's "black groups" to participate. "You're part of a Nixon trick," said one leader to the organizers.

These days, members of the black liberal establishment have learned that's in their interests to hitch their particular causes (those of the black liberal establishment) to all the others of the day, from climate change to pussy hats.  

The interview within the segment with Earth Day director, Edward Furia, ends with a sort of earnestly-expressed threat:

We're trying to get public officials and politicians to think in terms of what is the social cost to society. And if they do nothing, and if this thing becomes a lie, then I think the Earth Week committee may be replaced by a different kind of committee. Instead of a revolution of values, then the other revolutionaries will take over.

Furia would later work within the system as a lawyer, EPA administrator and entrepreneur CEO of a company that makes electric vehicles.

Since then, anti-establishment/establishment "movements," usually featuring rock-music, have become a sort of permanent feature of post-Christian Western cultural life.

On the bright side, and in fairness, some things have changed. The United States, including its cities, is much cleaner than it was almost fifty years ago (though we might debate the reasons why). Notably, it is in the countries that were earlier taken over by "the other revolutionaries" that massive environmental catastrophes are still, to use Furia's words, a thing.

But I suppose one could make the argument that, say, China's Three Gorges Dam, was as much motivated by profit (from new Chinese "state capitalists" and Western banks) as ideology.

The crisis continues.

You Bastards

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Under the Francis Junta, the leading representatives of the Catholic Church have gone from implacable upholders of the Culture of Life to cloying collaborators with the Culture of Death.

From Independent Catholic News:

Statement on case of Alfie Evans from Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales 

Our hearts go out to the parents of Alfie Evans and our prayers are for him and with them as they try to do all they can to care for their son. 

We affirm our conviction that all those who are and have been taking the agonising decisions regarding the care of Alfie Evans act with integrity and for Alfie's good as they see it. 

The professionalism and care for severely ill children shown at Alder Hey Hospital is to be recognised and affirmed. We know that recently reported public criticism of their work is unfounded as our chaplaincy care for the staff, and indeed offered to the family, has been consistently provided. 

We note the offer of the Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome to care for Alfie Evans. It is for that Hospital to present to the British Courts, where crucial decisions in conflicts of opinion have to be taken, the medical reasons for an exception to be made in this tragic case. 

With the Holy Father, we pray that, with love and realism, everything will be done to accompany Alfie and his parents in their deep suffering.

Are these men Catholic? Perhaps we should ask whether they are human. 

As one saint is reputed to have said, possibly during the Arian Crisis:

"The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of rotten bishops."

It is soon to get a new supply.

Pope Francis Weighs in on the Death Camps*

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Today, Pope Francis was asked about the pending murders of millions of additional people in the many extermination camps operated by the Nazis across Central and Eastern Europe:

I entrust to your prayer the members of those peoples and nations, living, sometimes for a long period, in situations of restricted movement, involuntary captivity or other potentially fatal circumstances due to the requirements of the war. By these I chiefly mean the Jews, but also Gypsies, homosexuals, Polish professionals and others, and of course Catholics. These are delicate and complex situations. We pray that every group and race is always respected in its dignity and treated in a way adapted to its condition, with the agreement of the relevant parties including local authorities and political and military professionals.

A week earlier, the Pope had "tweeted" his support for those being transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau and destined for its gas chambers:

It is my sincere hope that everything necessary may be done in order to continue compassionately accompanying the Jews and others on their difficult journey made necessary by the current situation, and that the deep suffering of those affected by these measures may be heard. I am praying for the Jews, as well as for Germany and all others that may be involved.

*If you think this parody is unfair, tell that to Alfie Evans.