Ever since Charles Darwin published his epoch-making book, The Origin of Species, in 1859, his theory that the diversification of nature is best explained by evolution based on natural selection (the survival of the fittest) has been the subject of controvesy. Its impact on philosophy, politics and religion has been as great – if not even greater – than on science.

In philosophy, faith was discredited in favour of science as the only access to truth, thus promoting modern atheism. More generally, progessivism became the order of the day so that all change was seen as necessarily for the better, while tradition was seen as something to be overcome. Radical political theorists and practitioners, such as Marx and Hitler, used the theory of the survival of the fittest to justify their savage policies, such as the liquidation of the weak or “unproductive” members of society by the stronger (those with power) in order to realize their vision of progress for society.

Evolution, finally, seemed to many Christians to contradict the account of God’s creation as found in the opening pages of the Bible (Genesis). In reaction, fundamentalism was born. In America’s ‘Bible Belt’, Christian sects, such as the Baptists, who interpret the Scriptures in a strictly literal way, came to the conclusion that the scientific theory of evolution was to be rejected as being in contradiction with God’s word in Genesis. This claim is known as “creationism”.

Like the theory of evolution, which itself has been modified considerably, e.g. by the findings of the Augustinian priest, George Mendel (1822-1884), the “father of genetics” and by more recent discoveries, so too “creationism” has been modified. In the USA, this modified version is known as “intelligent design”, the claim that “certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection”. This is proposed as a scientific theory that should be taught in science class as an alternative to the theory of evolution. And this proposition has been rightly rejected as unscientific.

The Church’s doctrine of creation answers the question: “why?” Why does the universe exist, whence does it come, is creation good or bad, why do we humans exist, how do we account for evil, suffering death in the world? Science asks the question: “how?” How did the universe in all its diversity come into being, how do you account for the different species and their evident relationship to each other? Most great scientists believe in God. Some have been Catholic priests, such as the already mentioned “father of genetics”.

Another is the Belgian Catholic priest-scientist, Georges Lemaître, who first articulated the theory of the Big Bang in 1931. Others, such as Francis Collins, who helped unravel the human genome (humanity’s genetic blueprint), either came to belief or had their belief deepened through their research. In his book The Language of God, Collins claims that unravelling the genome allowed him to “glimpse at the working of God”.

The Church rejects fundamentalism. She never accepted an exclusively literal approach to Scripture. The main point of Genesis 1:1-2:3 (the seven days of creation culminating in the Sabbath) is to show that the purpose of creation is worship. Man is the apex of creation, created in the image of God, male and female, and so called to worship their Creator (by joining in the Sabbath rest).

Further, apart from the two accounts of creation in Genesis, there are other accounts in the Bible (e.g. Ps 145:91; 2 Macc 7:22-23,28; Wis 9:9; 11;10). These culminate in the first words of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…; all things were made through Him.” In other words, at the origin of all that exists is the Word, God’s reason. And the reason he brought creation into being was love, his love for us.

Last July, Pope Benedict XVI made the following comments during a question-and-answer session with priests in the diocese where he spent his vacation. “Currently, I see … a somewhat fierce debate raging between so-called ‘creationism’ and evolutionism, presented as though they were mutually exclusive alternatives: those who believe in the Creator would not be able to conceive of evolution, and those who instead support evolution would have to exclude God. This antithesis is absurd because, on the one hand, there are so many scientific proofs in favour of evolution which appears to be a reality we can see and which enriches our knowledge of life and being as such.

“But on the other, the doctrine of evolution does not answer every query, especially the great philosophical question: where does everything come from? And how did everything start which ultimately led to man? I believe this is of the utmost importance. This is what I wanted to say in my lecture at Regensburg: that reason should be more open, that it should indeed perceive these facts but also realize that they are not enough to explain all of reality.

They are insufficient. Our reason is broader and can also see that our reason is not basically something irrational, a product of irrationality, but that reason, creative reason, precedes everything and we are truly the reflection of creative reason.”

D. Vincent Twomey, SVD, is the author of Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age, (Ignatius Press 2007) and The End of Irish Catholicism? (Veritas 2003).