There are four topics that I would like to propose for discussion here:

1. The creation of the universe. Can the traditional Christian doctrine of the creation of the universe freely by God out of nothing be reconciled with the theories of contemporary physicists on the origin of the universe?

2. Evolution and the appearance of the first humans. The theory of evolution appears to be scientifically well-founded in its broad strokes. Can it be reconciled with Catholic doctrine that calls for the special creation of the human soul by God?

3. Original justice. Catholic doctrine teaches us that our first parents were created in a state of grace, or original justice. Can this be reconciled with the findings of paleontologists? Does it imply that they lived in a world that is different from the one we live in now? Does it make sense to distinguish nature from the supernatural?

4. Original sin. Is the doctrine of original sin a viable one today?

Comments on what these questions mean.

The Creation of the Universe

Even though some physicists try to make an end run around the question of the universe - it popped out of nothing, or has no boundary condition, (See the discussion area Quantum Theology?) - the basic Catholic position remains that the universe was created by God, freely and from nothing.

What does that mean? God is not part of the universe or even to be identified with the whole of it. On the one hand, the universe is a deep and intimate reflection of God's own being, but on the other hand, God did not have to create the universe. It is not some necessary emanation from God's being. God freely willed to create it, and not from some pre-existing matter, and not from some nothing that would be an empty space or some sort of energy field, but from nothing in the metaphysical sense of the word.

Is this view of God as the creator of the universe sustainable in the light of modern scientific developments?

Evolution and Human Origins

Evolution in its broad strokes is a well-established scientific theory. The universe began in a certain moment in time and expanded and evolved to the universe we know now. From a Catholic perspective the basic insight of Teilhard de Chardin, his law of complexity-consciousness in which the universe has grown in complexity and in consciousness, also appears well-founded. Therefore, it is reasonable to see the human race as the outcome of a long process of evolution, as science does, and to see the emergence of intelligent life as a natural and normal outcome of this evolutionary process.

But is such a perspective at odds with a Catholic view of the creation of the soul?See the attached reading.

Nature and the Supernatural

The modern distaste for the whole idea of the supernatural is due to a long history of controversy in the 20th century rather than any lack of importance of the subject itself. The critical problem, I think, is one of terminology and perspective. The word nature, for example, is susceptible to a variety of meanings. It can mean what a thing is, but it can also mean what a thing is in the concrete circumstances that I now find it. Catholic doctrine tells us that we are called to enjoy an intimate union with God in the life to come, a share in God's own life. Therefore, the ability to enjoy that destiny must somehow be in us. We could call that capacity in us our nature, but it would probably be better to call it something like supernature.

There are two perspectives here. In the first, we look at something according to its intrinsic principles. This approach we could call essentialistic. In the other, we look at something according to how it actually exists here and now, and this we could call an existential view of it. From a concrete or existential point of view we can say that we share in God's nature, or it is our nature to have a supernature. God gave us from the beginning a nature that can only be satisfied by reaching the goal of union with God.

But nature, as we saw, can also mean something quite different. By nature in the essentialistic sense, or according to our own intrinsic principles, we don't have and can't have a divine nature. We are not God; God must grant us a share in God's own life. We don't have it by nature.

Original Sin

Does the doctrine of original sin make any sense, or is it a relic of past times best quietly forgotten? There are certainly challenging questions we could ask about original sin and how it is currently formulated. What, for example, are its scriptural foundations? Or in what way can it be said to be a sin? But I still think that the doctrine of original sin deserves our careful attention as an integral part of the Catholic faith. Two reasons argue powerfully for that conviction:

1. The world as we experience it is filled with pain and suffering, and confusion and injustice, most of which must be attributed to our own disordered and destructive behavior. Why do we act like this?

2. The crucifiction of Jesus only makes sense if there was something terribly wrong that needed to be remedied.


(from the innerexplorations.com web site; gratitudes to Jim and Tyra Arraj for this discussion statement).