Taking
Biological Anthropology this
semester has
submerged my
mind in thoughts about
evolution. Some
Catholics would criticize me if I told them I believed in evolution. They would say, "What about
Creationism and what the
Bible says?" Of course I'd have to respond with "what about it?"
It is acceptable for Catholics to believe in Creationism, the Bible, and evolution. The Pope has even made a statement that evolution does not contradict what the Catholic Church teaches.
An encyclical titled HUMANI GENERIS was issued by Pope Pius XII in 1950. This encyclical basically says that Catholics can believe in the evolution of humans as long as they accept that the descent all human beings was from an original pair who committed original sin.
Catholics also believe that, at some point, God brought a soul into the picture. This coincides with the definition that Webster 1913 gives for Creationism: "the doctrine that a soul is specially created for each human being as soon as it is formed in the womb." This definition does not contradict what the theory/fact of evolution states. In fact, they seem to be only vaguely related.