Ever since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species more than 150 years ago, the theory of evolution has been a large source of controversy, especially among the religious community. Until 1950, the Catholic Church remained pretty mum on the subject. That year, Pope Pius XII agreed to allow the studying of evolution as long as Catholic dogma isn’t violated. The church’s stance on evolution has grown in the 60+ years since.
Today, the Catholic Church maintains a position of “theistic evolution.” In essence, theistic evolution teaches that evolution is planned and purposed by God. So the theory of evolution isn’t wholly embraced by the church. The idea that life on Earth is the consequence of many random events coming together in just the right way over billions of years is left out in favor of something closer to intelligent design, but the core concept that every living thing continues to evolve is still there.
One of the more popular church based arguments in favor of evolution is that evolution is God’s continuing creation propagated in such a way that it isn’t immediately recognizable by man as being performed by him. What do you think? Will we some day reach a spot where the theory of evolution is accepted by everyone on some level?