Evolution? Intelligent Design? As Long as God’s Involved

To be clear, the Church doesn’t have an official teaching on evolution. The Church has expressed openness to the possibility of evolution, provided that any theory espoused acknowledges a creator behind the process. As St. John Paul II wrote in 1996, “To tell the truth, rather than speaking about the theory of evolution, it is more accurate to speak of the theories of evolution” (Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: on Evolution, October 22, 1996, 4; emphasis added). In other words, evolutionary theories should not be reduced to a materialistic atheistic perspective. For more on this subject, see Jimmy Akin’s article on “Evolution and the Magisterium.”

Regarding intelligent design, Church teaching certainly proclaims that there is a divine designer behind all of creation. However, intelligent design proponents have faltered in not realizing the scope and limitations of science and philosophy, respectively. In short, while one can assert that science cannot answer crucial questions about life; and that evidence regarding human life, the Earth, and the universe in general philosophically point to the existence of a creator, it’s quite another thing to say that such evidence scientifically proves that God exists.

For a constructively critical analysis of intelligent design from a Catholic philosophy professor who also has a master’s degree in science, please see Dr. Marie George’s article “Where Intelligent Design and Dawkins Meet.”  I also recommend Dr. Michael Tkacz’s “Aquinas vs. Intelligent Design.”