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Talk:Big Bang theory (view source)
Revision as of 19:53, September 15, 2011
, 19:53, September 15, 2011→Hmm
My understanding is the Catholic Church has given ''qualified'' acceptance to Big Bang / evolution / etc., on the basis that that was the predominant scientific opinion, and they want Catholicism and Science to coexist harmoniously. The major qualification, as I understand it, is the need for a literal Adam and Eve and a literal Fall. But God could have say, permitted life to evolve up to higher animals, but then as a special act of creation God created Adam. (Maybe he created Adam out of some evolved primate species). The Church doesn't insist that Genesis need be read completely literally, but some elements (existence of Adam/Eve) are so important theologically they can't be dispensed with. How can Christ be the New Adam if there never was an old one? If the Fall never happened, who needs Redemption? Of course, while I understand this to be the official position, not all Catholics agree with it, or are even aware of it, which is not an uncommon thing in the Catholic church. [[User:Maratrean|Maratrean]] 15:22, 15 September 2011 (EDT)
My understanding is the Catholic Church has given ''qualified'' acceptance to Big Bang / evolution / etc., on the basis that that was the predominant scientific opinion, and they want Catholicism and Science to coexist harmoniously. The major qualification, as I understand it, is the need for a literal Adam and Eve and a literal Fall. But God could have say, permitted life to evolve up to higher animals, but then as a special act of creation God created Adam. (Maybe he created Adam out of some evolved primate species). The Church doesn't insist that Genesis need be read completely literally, but some elements (existence of Adam/Eve) are so important theologically they can't be dispensed with. How can Christ be the New Adam if there never was an old one? If the Fall never happened, who needs Redemption? Of course, while I understand this to be the official position, not all Catholics agree with it, or are even aware of it, which is not an uncommon thing in the Catholic church. [[User:Maratrean|Maratrean]] 15:22, 15 September 2011 (EDT)
:[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/110113.htm See chapter XIII]. The Catholic Church was very anti-literalist and actually persecuted many literalist sects as heretics. :) I haven't seen anything in which they required a "literal Adam and Eve", but the "Fall" is different. See also [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05692b.htm Pope Leo XIII]'s warning about certain types of interpretation of the Bible in which we try to conform the divine into the human (i.e. trying to say things literally happened when our words cannot actually contain the divine). See also the statements about how "literal" we can interpret the Bible under "Literal sense". St. Augustine wrote a whole work criticizing taking the literal sense of Genesis (''The Literal Interpretation of Genesis'' which is anti-literalist). I don't want to get into a debate about this, though. :) [[User:Ottava|Ottava]] ([[user talk:Ottava|talk]]) 15:53, 15 September 2011 (EDT)
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