Question: What About Evolution?

First of all, what do we mean when we speak of evolution?            
I think there are different interpretations and understandings.

1)     Microevolution: A species evolves within itself, generation by generation, through genetic mutations, etc.

2)     Common descent: All species descended from a single primitive organism

3)     Darwinian evolution: All species arise and develop through natural selection (“survival of the fittest”). Therefore, from one species, another distinct species can develop.

4)     Spontaneous generation: The descent of living matter from nonliving matter

Correct me if I’m missing or misinterpreting some of these. It seems there is some overlap.

In the last blog, we explored St. Thomas Aquinas’ proofs for the existence of God. For those who believe in God, theories of evolution only pose a problem insofar as they seek to disprove the need for a Creator. Christianity is not incompatible with these theories of evolution, if science provides adequate justification for their acceptance. Faith and reason are not at all opposed.

After all, Aquinas also said, "The potency of a cause is the greater, the more remote the effects to which it extends" (Summa c. Gent., III, c. lxxvi). Could God make use of evolution to accomplish His Will? Yes. Can evolutionary theories make room for God? That is the question.

Most of us would agree that organisms change over time, within their own species. We can name examples of #1: pests evolve to be resistant to pesticides; animals may gradually change color through generations to adapt to environmental factors, etc. No problem.

Most people don't even make a stink when there is mention of one plant or animal species evolving from another. But when it comes to the genesis of man, there is concern. And rightly so, for evolutionary theories are inadequate in accounting for the origin of the soul of man.

Does man have a soul?

Webster’s dictionary defines soul in the following way: “the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life.”  By that definition, man, and even animals and plants have a “soul” – some sort of life force.

Does man have a spiritual soul?

This may sound redundant, as “spirit” and “soul” are sometimes used interchangeably. But by “spiritual”, I am referring to the sacred, supernatural, religious or moral. Man is a spiritual being. In every civilization, man has had some sort of religious practice or belief. He builds churches and temples and synagogues, tries to interpret the placement of the stars, hails the glory of nature, consults seers and prophets and mediums and healers. And he is the only being I have ever encountered that holds dialogues and publishes papers and writes music, etc. about things like love, justice, truth, right and wrong. Goodness! Morality? Religion?! Where do these ideas come from? If man were a purely material being, would he not be limiting his discussions to things like food and housing and how to get to across town in the quickest amount of time? To be able to conceive an immaterial idea like right and wrong, one has to have the immaterial faculty capable of doing so. Something purely material cannot generate something purely spiritual. Therefore, man must have a spiritual faculty capable of forming spiritual ideas, and this faculty must come from a spiritual substance, which is his soul.

If man is the descendent of some other organism, can we also say that that organism also has a soul of the same kind as man?

If apes could speak, would they also converse about truth, goodness and beauty? Have you ever witnessed a dog building a shrine?

If man’s soul is distinct, when and how did he come to possess it?
Something wholly spiritual cannot evolve from something wholly material. Evolution may be responsible for the creation of complex organisms, but it cannot be responsible for the generation of spiritual ideas. It cannot be responsible for the creation of a human soul. For that, we need the direct action of a Creator, one who is of Spirit.

"If the human body takes its origin from pre-existent living matter, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God."
– Pope John Paul II, in his 1996 Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

"Every spiritual soul is created immediately by God." – Catechism of the Catholic Church #366