By B. Michael Bigg

THE Catholic Church in its ever present desire for converts has once again declared evolution’s validity, “truth” and compatibility with the Christian, or rather Catholic, faith. Reported in a July 26, 2007 article on the news.com.au website, Pope Benedict XVI stated:

“They are presented as alternatives that exclude each other,” the Pope said. “This clash is an absurdity because on one hand there is much scientific proof in favour of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such.” But he said evolution did not answer all the questions and could not exclude a role by God. “Above all it does not answer the great philosophical question ‘where does everything come from?’”

And although this confession of evolutionary faith (though qualified with a ‘God directs the course of evolution’) might be new to some, it is but the same confession as Benedict’s predecessors, Pius XII and John Paul II. On the catholic.net website is an article by Mark Brumley (a “convert to Catholicism from Evangelicalism” as the site illuminates) who notes, ‘While not exactly canonizing Darwin, Pius XII did imply that the theory of evolution isn’t necessarily inimical to Christianity. Certainly he didn’t reject evolution altogether.’ Further, ‘In his talk to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences … John Paul II did say evolution was “more than a hypothesis,”’.

In trying to gain converts by placating the world’s view on the theory of evolution, the Roman Catholic Church denies the Bible. For in truth, evolution and the Bible (Genesis and the creation account) are incompatible. A Christian can NOT believe in both, and not on purely physical grounds (i.e. the world, man and the animals), but on theological grounds.

If Adam was not a singular individual explicitly created by God, but rather the product of evolution (even if that evolution was controlled or guided by God) then death reigned, or existed, prior to Adam's creation. And, if that is the case, then it is not sin that leads to man's death, but rather the evolutionary life cycle. To reiterate, if there was no Adam, then there was no ‘first man’ and the Garden of Eden is likewise in doubt. If there was no Adam then there was no original sin. If there was no original sin, through which sin came to all, then there is no need for Christ, the Second Man, the Last Adam, to redeem man from sin cf. 1 Corinthians 15:12-45.