Genesis 1:1

The movement to teach creationism alongside evolution, in the classroom, has been drawing a lot of heated attention in the media recently. In today’s blog I would like to address this issue.

In 1992, the pontifical academy of sciences, meeting in Vatican City, released a statement, saying that evolution is a serious scientific theory. Today, nineteen years later, a battle is still raging over the teaching of creationism alongside evolution as part of biology studies. This battle, once again, opposes science and faith.

The concept of creationism maintains that life on earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, and that a higher power must have had a hand in creation. That is all well and good as far as the study of theology is concerned; but it is not something that belongs to the study of science in the classroom which is concerned only with the study of natural phenomena for its own sake. The recognition of the proper autonomy of science and theology is really what is at stake in this debate over the teaching of creationism as part of scientific studies.

In the sixteenth century, the church condemned Galileo’s scientific theory of planetary motion because it was judged contrary to scripture. The late Pope John Paul II conducted a ten year investigation (1980-1990) of the trial that led to the condemnation of Galileo, and found the church’s position sadly deficient since it failed to recognize the proper autonomy of either scientific or theological method.

On May 5, 1925 a high school teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was condemned before a court of law for teaching evolution to his students. That landmark court case has subsequently been dubbed the “monkey trial,’ and was featured in a famous film: ‘Inherit the wind.’ Today, proponents of creationism are again threatened by the theory of evolution, and want their theological position taught as part of biology classes in public schools in the U.S.

The truth of the matter is that evolution does not contradict faith. It is a scientific theory; you cannot prove every aspect of it; and it is compatible with the mystery of faith which is constantly unfolding, and continues to reveal new understandings. Theology, which is the union of faith and reason, continually uses the findings of various intellectual disciplines, including science, to better understand the bible or faith. Theology, like any other form of knowing, has its own conceptual scheme, logical structure, and truth criteria. It possesses its own autonomy and it must respect the autonomy of all other intellectual disciplines.

This discussion about evolution and creationism has reference to the wider relationship between faith and reason. Proponents of creationism fear that if only evolution is taught in biology classes in public schools, it will undermine young people’s faith in God, the Creator. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Fear of the findings of science demonstrates a lack rather than an abundance of faith.

The same kind of fear caused the church in the sixteenth century to condemn Galileo’s theory of planetary motion; and the same fear caused a high school teacher to be condemned by a court-of-law in 1925 for teaching evolution.

The good news is that there is no need to fear the truth wherever it comes from, for all truth ultimately comes from God. Evolution neither attempts to confirm nor deny the existence of a creator.

The study of the Creator, however, is the proper domain of theology, not science.

Fr. Hugh Duffy