DEFY S. McQUAID! #58: Belief and Theory

The Question

Becky asks:

Shaun,

Being raised Roman Catholic, and attending a rather strict version of Sunday School, I had a lot of exposure to Christianity growing up. I’m also of a scientific, logical mind-set.

Keeping in mind we can never know anything for certain, there is overwhelming evidence of evolution that a biologist cannot deny. From my experience, the majority of things in science reject any form of intelligent design. Still, all the matter in the universe came from somewhere. Even the big bang couldn’t have started on it’s own.

So, my question is, is it hypocritical to believe that God created everything and also believe that humans evolved from apes?

The Answer

Becky, I believe this is the first time I’ve had a question in this realm. More often the questions are cut and dried, black and white, with answers ranging from the subtle to the gross, but this…this is belief, this is philosophy. And yet there is a teensy bit of research we can do here.

The Roman Catholic faith does not hold with a literal interpretation of the Bible in all cases. In addition, Catholic faith calls for the use of a combination of supernatural revelation in the Bible and natural revelation via the human mind. In the situation we are considering, this means that, as a Catholic, you are entirely within your belief structure when you consider the Creation story to be allegorical to a certain degree, and far from hypocritical when you consider the truth of science in this area and harmonize it with a Creator who got the ball rolling and created the rules under which the universe operates (such as evolution).

No hypocrisy here, Becky. Rest easy.

As a side note, let me just say that I am neither a theologian nor an expert – and that, if anyone finds the content of this answer to be contrary to their belief structure, be assured that I am neither attempting to convince anyone of anything nor advocating anything. To each their own.