The Catholic Church believes in both the creation and evolution theory. According to the Catholics, all Christians believe in a unique creation carried out by God in six days, and there is a strong belief that the earth evolved with the Guidance of God. Catholics believe that God initiated the continued evolution process and that all humans, whether evolved or made explicitly by God, have unique souls for every individual (Barron, 2010). Early contributions of evolution in biology were made by Augustinian Friar, who was a Catholic scientist. The attitude of the Catholic Church has slowly been redefined and been incorporated into evolution. The church supports evolutionary creation, and they are at liberty not to believe in any part of the evolutionary theory (Schori, 2017). Catholic schools in the United States teach about evolution theory, which shows that there is an acceptance of evolution about God’s creation.
The relationship between faith and science occurs through the creation theory and the evolution theory. There have been continued struggles between science and Christianity. In 1996, Pope John II affirmed evolution theory in the case of studies but rejected it for the sake of humankind (Szrot, 2020). The most convenient way of understanding the relationship between science and religion is that science focuses on the natural world, whereas religion concerns both supernatural and natural worlds (Batsukh, 2017). Scientific views do not recognize supernatural beings such as God and Angels, included in the Christians’ faith in God. Scientists believe that their approach is the best because scientific theories have been used to predict the future, which has become accurate, for example, the early experiment explaining the gravitational force in the moon, which turned to be true many years after the study. The religious believe that God, through his supernatural powers, intervenes in the world and influences every occurrence.
References
Batsukh, U. (2017). Big bang theory beyond the big bang explosion space documentary 4 [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Barron, B. (2010). Bishop Barron on creation [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Schori, K. (2017). Creation and the effective word: Holy storytelling, creation, and God’s mission. Anglican Theological Review, 99(3), 519-529. Web.
Szrot, L. (2020). From stewardship to creation spirituality: The evolving ecological ethos of Catholic doctrine. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture, 14(2). 226-249. Web.