June 5, 2009

  • Question 146 - Dr. Francis Collins, Catholic, Says Evolution is Fact

    Question 146 - Dr. Francis Collins, Catholic, Says Evolution is Fact

     

    Dr. Sungenis,

     

    Have you ever seen Dr. Franics Collins' website http://biologos.org

     

    Dr. Francis is head of the human genome project at N.I.H, and is frequently on Catholic Answers and Ave Maria radio. He's a devout Catholic and a highly respected scientist but he insists that evolution is a fact. Obviously he has to bend and twist the traditional understanding of Genesis and original sin.

     

    I wonder if you could write a review of the site or offer your comments on his positions. Perhaps you could even engage him in a debate. I think it would be very interesting.

     

    God Bless you and your good work.

     

    In Christ,

     

    Ken Zalewski

     

    R. Sungenis: Ken, yes, you're right. Collins does about as much twisting and contorting of Genesis 1 and Original Sin that I think I have ever seen in order to fit in the evolutionary theory. To me, it verges on heresy, if not already there.

     

    And I'm sad to see Catholic Answers and Ave Maria give what basically is an anti-Catholic position of both evolution and Genesis 1 a public platform. It seems that modern Catholics will do just about anything today to accommodate the unproven theories of evolution.

     

    Collins' treatment of Genesis is similar to what Ken Brown of Princeton (a noted Catholic) does with Genesis. They first accept evolution as fact and then they try to fit evolution into Genesis 1. They do all kinds of abracadabra, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't tricks in the process, and their audience is none the wiser.

     

    The only fact here, however, is that Genesis 1 won't accept evolution. It is written in such a way that whoever tries to fit anything into it besides a miraculous and literal six-day sequence of events is going to end up with egg on his face. If I've seen it once, I've seen it a thousand times.

     

    But when you already accept evolution as fact (even though there is not the slightest proof it is a fact), then you only have one other option. Obviously, you've already decided that you are not going to change your view of evolution, so the only other thing that CAN change is Scripture. So either Genesis 1 is turned into a mere symbolic treatise or it is reduced to a synecdoche. I'm sorry, but this is all hogwash.

     

    Faithful Catholics take Scripture at face value, in its literal sense, unless for some good and sufficient reason they cannot do so. It is the very reason why, when our forefathers came to a passage such as Matthew 26:26 ("This is my body") they, against everything science and logic told them, decided that Jesus meant precisely what He said and therefore the bread was no longer bread (even though it still looked like bread), but was, indeed, the body of Christ.

     

    Genesis 1 is no different. If God says that the earth was created before the sun and stars, then you better believe that that is what He meant and wants us to believe. Anyone who says anything differently is not telling us the God's honest truth, and that goes for Catholic Answers, Ave Maria, Dr. Collins or any other Catholic who uses unproven scientific theories to make Genesis 1 say something it does not say.

     

    I am absolutely ashamed that these Catholics would have the audacity to entertain what Collins has done. Scientism has become the god of greater influence here, and then it’s camouflaged to make it appear as if it is the God of Scripture. But, of course, that is precisely what St. Paul says to us about how Satan will deceive us -- he comes disguising himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:13-14).

     

    As for debating, I'll debate Dr. Collins, Catholic Answers, Ave Maria, or any other Catholic who is touting the theory of evolution as fact and has the audacity to distort Genesis 1 as Collins has done. Unfortunately, when you raise this issue to the specter of a public debate, the opponents usually run and hide. But I'll be waiting. In the meantime, I'm sending this email to some of my colleagues at the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, and a few other people. Perhaps they have something to say on it.

     

    Robert Sungenis 

Comments (6)

  • Happy to help arrange said debate, but true, most run and hide-it is dogma for them, period.No debate.

  • Today, the Catholic Church has many individuals with doctorates in different disciplines of science. Many of them are useless to serve the faithful. These individuals are prompt to serve the new breath of the beast named, “Political correctness.” A good example: the collegiality of German bishops; most of them in the edge of heresy. Gene546

  • I am appalled at your ignorance of the theory of Evolution and it's evidence. Simply by reading a book such as "From Lucy to Language" by Donald Johanson and Blake Edgar, you can see the palelogical evidence in living color across the pages. There are now thousands of fossils which show the developing story of mankind through the past 5 million years, and I am only speaking of hominid forms.To say on your website that "It seems that modern Catholics will do just about anything today to accommodate the unproven theories of evolution. " It a very ignorant thing to say!! Please do your homework. the Catholic Encyclopedia reminds us that there is no conflict beween the process of evolution and the Catholic Faith.I can't stant it when Catholics like you make us seem so stupid! Don't put your head in the sand-but read the current science. ALL TRUTH comes from GOD! Open your mind to God's Truth!Dr. Gregory Hamilton

  • @gene546 - Biblical Anthropology is one of the most useful scientific disciplines to serve the Church, but there isn't a single endowed chair or graduate level degree program in the world.  I work in this field and am breaking ground daily.  It is both a joy and a constant heartache sine there is much lack of understanding and even outright hostility to my work. Alice C. Linsley

  • How can it verge on herey to believe much of scripture metaphorical!?Catholics have never taken it at face value. For example, the traditional understanding of the serpent in the garden was that it symbolized the devil. Patrykke Robinson

  • I don't believe you guys actually are Catholics. Your reading of Genesis is in line with one of these made up "Christian" religions, not Catholicism. If you are Catholics you are poorly catechized Catholics.

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