The problematic effects of Evolution on American lapsed Catholics.

Started by Xavier, August 10, 2018, 05:15:14 AM

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Xavier

Some terrible but necessary stats should show us Catholic Christians just how serious the situation is and how much work needs to be done in re-evangelizing and properly catechising lapsed Catholics.

"Fifteen million Americans have left the Catholic Church since 2000 ... The purpose of the book is to provoke reflection on the effect of belief in evolution on Catholics, especially young Catholics. Molecules-to-man evolution—the origin of man and of all living things (with or without divine assistance) through hundreds of millions of years of the same kinds of material processes going on now—is taught to most students as a scientific fact in public and Catholic schools and by the culture at-large ... Creation, Evolution, and Catholicism is dedicated to examining the concept of evolution - especially theistic but also atheistic - addressing the issue from a point of view of science but also theology. It demonstrates that the fundamental problem is that most Catholics have adopted the premises of naturalism; even when engaging the Faith with an intent to defend it, they often begin with assumptions taken from naturalism. Naturalism has become a kind of monkey on the Church's back, related directly to a continued loss of faith. McFadden presents some convincing statistics demonstrating the relationship between acceptance of evolution and loss of faith. It is clear that just because theistic evolution "works" for some does not mean it "works" for everyone; in fact, based on the statistics McFadden presents, it does not "work" for the majority of Catholics ... it explains why 68% of white, non-Hispanic Catholics in the U.S. believe humans evolved from animals with or without God pulling the strings"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1530654769/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

Evolution is essentially an atheistic theory and is nothing other than atheism hiding under another name. Compromise with it cannot but eventually lead to a loss of our precious Catholic Christian Faith.

A creation science textbook some 90 years ago warned, "It is infidelity pure and simple and of the most dangerous kind, camouflaged under this attractive name. Who can deny the statement that the only thing modern about modernism is its hypocrisy? It is ancient infidelity pretending to be a Christian view. Bearing the Christian flag, it attacks Christianity. Modernists are evidently ashamed of a name which fitly describes their views, and seek another. Infidels have tried to win under their own name. They have failed ...

A doctrine so abhorrent to the conscience, so contrary to the well nigh universal belief, and so fruitful of evil, certainly can not be true. Small wonder is it that students are fast becoming infidels and atheists, and we shudder as we think of the coming generation. A great responsibility rests upon the authorities who employ such teachers.

Will Christian parents patronize or support or endow institutions that give an education that is worse than worthless? What the colleges teach today the world will believe tomorrow. Atheism, under its own name, has never had many to embrace it. Its only hope is to be tolerated and believed under some other name. In Russia, no man is allowed to belong to the ruling (Communist) party unless he is an atheist. It will be a sorry world when "scientific" atheism wins, under the name of evolution. No one has a moral right to believe what is false, much less to teach it, under the specious plea of freedom of thought. It is the privilege and duty of parents to send their children to institutions that are safe."

Let us traditional Catholics take the lead in saying no to theistic evolution once and for all. We must have this theory banished from Christian universities if the west is to be renewed. Theistic evolution is as much an oxymoron as is theistic atheism. Evolution is a quintessentially atheistic theory of the creation of life and quite logically leads to vast numbers of those embracing it becoming apostates and atheists, with many others bordering on the dangerous line of losing their Faith.
Bible verses on walking blamelessly with God, after being forgiven from our former sins. Some verses here: https://dailyverses.net/blameless

"[2] He that walketh without blemish, and worketh justice:[3] He that speaketh truth in his heart, who hath not used deceit in his tongue: Nor hath done evil to his neighbour: nor taken up a reproach against his neighbours.(Psalm 14)

"[2] For in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man."(James 3)

"[14] And do ye all things without murmurings and hesitations; [15] That you may be blameless, and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you shine as lights in the world." (Phil 2:14-15)

sedmohradsko

I've never really understood the problem with theistic evolution.  If it's not an option, then Catholics have to intellectually deal with the evidence evolutionists provide somehow.  Whatever holes may be in the theory, there certainly seems to be more evidence for evolution of some kind taking place than not. 

Xavier

There's no evidence molecules evolved into man over billions of years in evolutionary time, and plenty of incontrovertible evidence that they did not and were instantaneously created by God. Nor is there even evidence apes gave birth to human beings, and excellent evidence such is not true and can never become part of the deposit of Faith. While it is currently permitted by the Church, in a similar sense to how Semi-Arianism was permitted for some years before finally the opposite was dogmatically proclaimed, there are excellent scientific and theological reasons to repudiate it completely. Evolution one day can explicitly be dogmatically condemned.

"The Magisterium Teachings of Pius IX, Leo XIII and Pius X

Pius IX. The year after the publication of Darwin's evolution thesis, the Provincial Council of Cologne issued the following canon, which was approved by Pope Pius IX:

"Our first parents were immediately created by God (Gen.2.7). Therefore we declare as quite contrary to Holy Scripture and the Faith the opinion of those who dare to assert that man, in respect of the body, is derived by spontaneous transformation from an imperfect nature, which improved continually until it reached the present human state." [10]

Pius IX also approved the following teaching of the first Vatican Council :

"This sole true God by His goodness and omnipotent power, not to increase His own beatitude, and not to add to, but to manifest His perfection by the blessings which He bestows upon creatures with most free volition, immediately from the beginning of time fashioned each creature, out of nothing, spiritual and corporeal, namely the angelic and the mundane; and then the human creation, common as it were, composed of both spirit and body." [11]" http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/creation/cbutel/humanevo.html

Also, don't forget Vatican I, beside teaching openly the special creation ex nihilo of creatures from the beginning of time, as seen above, also seems to make an implicit reference to the provincial Council mentioned above when it says, "Furthermore the Church which, together with its apostolic office of teaching, has received the charge of preserving the deposit of faith, has by divine appointment the right and duty of condemning what wrongly passes for knowledge, lest anyone be led astray by philosophy and empty deceit [35]. 9. Hence all faithful Christians are forbidden to defend as the legitimate conclusions of science those opinions which are known to be contrary to the doctrine of faith, particularly if they have been condemned by the Church; and furthermore they are absolutely bound to hold them to be errors which wear the deceptive appearance of truth ... She acknowledges that those things flow from God, the Lord of sciences, and, if they are properly used, lead to God by the help of his grace. 12. Nor does the Church forbid these studies to employ, each within its own area, its own proper principles and method: but while She admits this just freedom, She takes particular care that they do not become infected with errors by conflicting with divine teaching, or, by going beyond their proper limits, intrude upon what belongs to faith and engender confusion."

Bible verses on walking blamelessly with God, after being forgiven from our former sins. Some verses here: https://dailyverses.net/blameless

"[2] He that walketh without blemish, and worketh justice:[3] He that speaketh truth in his heart, who hath not used deceit in his tongue: Nor hath done evil to his neighbour: nor taken up a reproach against his neighbours.(Psalm 14)

"[2] For in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man."(James 3)

"[14] And do ye all things without murmurings and hesitations; [15] That you may be blameless, and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you shine as lights in the world." (Phil 2:14-15)

sedmohradsko

Where can I find an explanation of the evidence that shows man was created instantaneously?  I admit, I'm not well-read on this issue, but I read something a while back that pretty convincingly argued that genetics could trace humans and other species back to common ancestors.  The only response I hear is that God created all life so he could have made genes that look similar or the same, but that doesn't prove that we have a common ancestor.  That certainly could be true, but I wouldn't consider that stronger evidence to the contrary.

Xavier

Well, let me post two brief excerpts from the Britain's Greatest Hoax thread since we just discussed it there. I recommend reading it in full for more. This has to do with what some sophists call "chemical evolution".

Quote from: Vetus Ordo on August 01, 2018, 12:25:47 PM
Quote from: GloriaPatri on August 01, 2018, 12:21:34 PMThe Miller-Urey experiment shows how early conditions on Earth would have allowed simpler inorganic compounds to combine into more complex organic compounds, and from there they would have combined into the first microorganisms. That's not the same thing as saying that a rock spontaneously changes into a bird, even given billions of years.

The beginning of life remains a mystery:

One textbook, edited by Soper ("Biological Science 1 and 2"; 3rd edition; Cambridge University Press) summarises the situation well (p. 883): Despite the simplified account given above, the problem of the origin(s) of life remains. All that has been outlined is speculation and, despite tremendous advances in biochemistry, answers to the problem remain hypothetical. ... Details of the transition from complex non-living materials to simple living organisms remain a mystery.

This conclusion is echoed by those who have spent many years researching in this field of biochemistry. Dr D E Hull wrote, The conclusion from these arguments presents the most serious obstacle, if indeed it is not fatal, to the theory of spontaneous generation.

Prof Francis Crick, who was a great believer in the accidental origin of life on Earth, said, "The origin of life appears to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions that had to be satisfied to get it going." Prof. Crick goes on to argue that this might be overcome in long periods of time. However, there is no justification for believing that time can overcome basic chemical laws.

Dr H P Yockey (in the Journal of Theoretical Biology, 1981, 91, 26-29) wrote, You must conclude that no valid scientific explanation of life exists at present... Since science has not the vaguest idea how life originated on earth, ... it would be honest to admit this to students, the agencies funding research and the public.


http://www.truthinscience.org.uk/content.cfm?id=3161

Quote from: Xavier on August 05, 2018, 09:13:11 AM
Quote from: JamesEvolution has a big problem when it comes to adding INFORMATION.

The argument from chance is also extremely convincing.  The odds of a 20 amino acid protein arriving by chance is far less than the number of seconds that the universe has existed.  What happens when there are hundreds of amino acids?  Note in order to gain functionality you need new proteins.

Exactly, James. And even beside the manifest impossibility of proteins forming from amino acids by random chance for the reasons you mentioned, there is another fascinating illustration of "irreducible complexity" here and it comes from chirality.

"As a Ph.D. Organic Chemist ... Chirality is probably one of the best scientific evidences we have against random chance evolution and chirality totally destroys the claim that life came from chemicals. Obviously, this is one fact they do not even want to discuss.

Chirality is a chemical term that means handedness ... It is a universally accepted fact of chemistry that chirality cannot be created in chemical molecules by a random process. When a random chemical reaction is used to prepare molecules having chirality, there is an equal opportunity to prepare the left-handed isomer as well as the right-handed isomer. It is a scientifically verifiable fact that a random chance process, which forms a chiral product, can only be a 50/50 mixture of the two optical isomers. There are no exceptions ...

Let's look at chirality in proteins and DNA. Proteins are polymers of amino acids and each one of the component amino acids exists as the "L" or left-handed optical isomer. Even though the "R" or right-handed optical isomers can be synthesized in the lab, this isomer does not exist in natural proteins. The DNA molecule is made up of billions of complicated chemical molecules called nucleotides, and these nucleotide molecules exist as the "R" or right-handed optical isomer. The "L" isomer of nucleotides can be prepared in the lab, but they do not exist in natural DNA. There is no way that a random chance process could have formed these proteins and DNA with their unique chirality.

If proteins and DNA were formed by chance, each and every one of the components would be a 50/50 mixture of the two optical isomers. This is not what we see in natural proteins or in natural DNA. How can a random chance natural process create proteins with thousands of "L" molecules, and then also create DNA with billions of "R" molecules? Does this sound like random chance or a product of design? ... However, the problem with chirality goes even deeper. As nucleotide molecules come together to form the structure of DNA, they develop a twist that forms the double helix structure of DNA. DNA develops a twist in the chain because each component contains chirality or handedness. It is this handedness that gives DNA the spiral shaped helical structure. If one molecule in the DNA structure had the wrong chirality, DNA would not exist in the double helix form, and DNA would not function properly. The entire replication process would be derailed like a train on bad railroad tracks. In order for DNA evolution to work, billions of molecules within our body would have to be generated with the "R" configuration all at the same time, without error. If it is impossible for one nucleotide to be formed with chirality, how much less likely would it be for billions of nucleotides to come together exactly at the same time, and all of them be formed with the same chirality? ...

Without chirality, proteins and enzymes could not do their job; DNA could not function at all. Without properly functioning proteins and DNA, there would be no life on this earth. The reality of chirality, more than any other evidence, did more to convince me of the reality of an all-powerful Creator. I hope it will do the same for you ...

Once we realize that design does not happen by chance, then we realize that the entire universe is not the product of a random, chance process; it is the result of an omnipotent Creator who created everything by just His Word. I hope you are beginning to see the problem. Evolution can give you a theory that might on the surface seem possible, but when true science gets involved and scientists start asking questions, the problems and false logic of the theory become apparent. This is why evolution just hopes you don't know chemistry." http://www.icr.org/article/evolution-hopes-you-dont-know-chemistry-problem-wi/ ...
Bible verses on walking blamelessly with God, after being forgiven from our former sins. Some verses here: https://dailyverses.net/blameless

"[2] He that walketh without blemish, and worketh justice:[3] He that speaketh truth in his heart, who hath not used deceit in his tongue: Nor hath done evil to his neighbour: nor taken up a reproach against his neighbours.(Psalm 14)

"[2] For in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man."(James 3)

"[14] And do ye all things without murmurings and hesitations; [15] That you may be blameless, and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you shine as lights in the world." (Phil 2:14-15)