Chapters 8 and 9

Is evolution a fact or a theory?

Darwin's theory is a set of ideas that explains evolving life forms. It has been tested and generally accepted in the scientific community. So, in accord with the way the word "theory" is used in science, the theory of evolution can be called factual.

Gregor Mendel

an Augustinian monk, discovered the basic principles of heredity and thus inaugurated the science of genetics.

What is evolution?

Evolution is a scientific theory based on evidence.

What is evolutionism?

Evolutionism is an atheistic ideology that combines the theory of evolution with the philosophy of materialism and scientism.

The "human difference"

The "human difference" is the essential human qualities that make humans different from hominins.

self-awareness

the ability of animals to relate to themselves and their environment.

Self-reflection

An example of "the human difference." The ability to see oneself as like "another self," to reflect on oneself as if thinking of a separate person, evaluating oneself, judging, or improving oneself.

Beauty

An example of "the human difference." Only humans have a capacity to create and appreciate beauty, works which have qualities of integrity, consonance, and splendor.

conceptual thinking

An example of "the human difference." We can know a definition or essence of a thing, stripped from, or abstracted from, the particulars of any one example. I can understand the concept of "a bird" without picturing or having a particular bird in front of me.

special creation

The idea that the first living things were formed directly by God from inorganic matter by miraculous intervention is called:

Africa

The continent from which the ancestors of the human race originated.

Speciation

The term chosen by Darwin to describe the divergence of living populations into separate species, as one result of evolution, but not the only one.

eugenics

The idea that science can improve humanity by increasing the population of superior human beings and decreasing the population of inferior human beings.

Sir Francis Galton

The founder of eugenics.

William Paley

His theory was that since nature was chaotic, complex living things must be the result of a direct intervention of God.

On the Origin of Species

Darwin's book published in 1859

Why Darwin became an agnostic

Evolution contradicted William Paley's proof of God's existence by design.

Darwin's observation about Australia

There were no rabbits in Australia

Darwin's main insight

Natural selection

The Catholic Church's reaction to Darwin's book On the Origins of Species

No condemnation of theologians who favored it. No official statement for nearly one hundred years.

Humani Generis by Pope Pius XII

The first official church document offering teaching on the theory of evolution. It was published in 1950, nearly 100 years after Darwin published On the Origin of Species (1959).

epiphenomenalism

The idea that spirit exists along with the body, is dependent upon matter, and ceases to exist when the body ceases to exist.

Chaos

No order or patterns of any kind. Not the same as randomness.

Randomness or chance

The intersection of two or more lines of causality, in a way that is accidental and unintended by the agents involved. Randomness can exit within patterns and order. It is not the same as chaos.

Abiogenesis

The origin of the first living thing(s) is called

Divine Providence and chance (randomness)

St. Thomas Aquinas said, "Divine Providence does not exclude fortune and chance." God's providence and material randomness can exist together.

Baby Salem

A hominin skeleton of a three-year-old female discovered in the year 2000. She lived 3.3 million years ago. Her species is the evolutionary ancestor of all members of the genus Homo (which includes humans and hominins).

Humans and chimpanzees

Share a common ancestor. Humans did not evolve from chimpanzees.

Homo sapiens (humans) and homo neanderthalensis (neanderthals)

Humans have 1.5 to 2.9% of our genes from homo neanderthalensis (neanderthals)

Timeframe of the "ontological leap" or "the great leap forward"

by 60,000 years ago

grave goods

Items deliberately placed and symbolically arranged in a grave, together with a body.

quantitative difference

more of something that is the same.

qualitative difference

difference in kind, not amount. The difference between human intelligence and animal intelligence is qualitative, not quantitative.

Merge

The ability to combine words to create new units of meaning. Humans had this ability, unlike the hominins that preceded them. According to Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky, only humans (not hominins) could do this.

Percentage of genetic similarity of all races of humanity.

99.9%

Atrahasis

A Near Eastern myth, in which Enki, the god of wisdom, creates humans to be the slaves of the gods.

anthropomorphic

A description of God that uses human imagery, for example, saying that God has bodily attributes, such as hands, feet, or lungs.

Catholic teaching on the existence of the soul.

The soul is directly created by God and is the metaphysical form of the body.

evolutionary convergence

The independent evolution of similarities in species, the common ancestor of which did not share that similarity. For example, the eyes humans and octopi are similar, although their evolutionary ancestor did not have eyes.

What is the teaching of the Catholic Church on evolution?

The Catholic Church has no objections to the theory that the human body evolved through natural selection. However, evolution cannot explain EVERYTHING about humanity. Evolution cannot explain the existence of soul. A spiritual soul had to be created by God.

neo-Darwinism

The combination of Darwinian evolution and Mendelian genetics, which is accepted by biologists today.

Where the "human difference" appeared.

The human difference appeared within one population (group) of homo sapiens in Africa, who then spread to the rest of the world.

ruah

A Hebrew word that can mean "wind," "breath," or "spirit."

natural judgement

Cognitive ability such as belongs to non-human animals. They can learn from experience, evaluate situations, solve problems.