St Augustine taught a doctrine of evolution in the early 5th century

[bobbieinok]

From the web page of Science and Technology News:

http://www.stnews.org/Commentary-2173.htm

The Daily Dose: Evolutionists before it was cool

The Catholic Church supported evolution even before Darwin came along. Just read St. Augustine on Genesis

By Matt Donnelly
(November 8, 2005)

....

Indeed, one can go back nearly 1,500 years before Darwin and find St Augustine of Hippo, the most commanding intellect of all the early doctors of the Church, teaching a doctrine of evolution in the early 5th century. In one of his greatest works, De Genesis ad Litteram , he stated that God did not create an organised Universe as we see it now, but in the beginning created all the elements of the world in a confused and “nebulous” mass. In this mass were the mysterious seeds of the creatures who were to come into existence.

Augustine’s thought does therefore contain the elements of a theory of evolution, and even a genetic theory, but does not have natural selection. St Augustine has always been orthodox. He did not foresee modern science in AD410, but he did have an extraordinary grasp of the potential evolution of scientific thought. ...

Could ongoing debates about ID and evolution possibly take a more intellectual tone that will take into account the intellectually rich statements of theologians such as St. Augustine?

[sandnsea]

1. Catholics don't reject evolution

It is in perfect keeping with the Catholic faith that God could have used evolution as His means of Creation. Catholics don't take the Bible literally. The info about St. Augustine is interesting, but it isn't going to mean anything to the fundies except to add fuel to their belief that Catholics aren't Christians anyway.

[CountAllVotes]

3. that is true

I am a "Catholic" I guess you could say to a point (but only to a point).

I had a niece named May Augustine (that was her middle name). Sadly, she only lived to be a few days old and she is buried with her parents and other relations at a Catholic cemetery. The plot is quite large and I own the thing. I don't want to be buried there, I know that much.

I think that place is haunted. I bears a bizarre inscription in Latin on the tombstone. It seems that her father (my grand uncle) was a free mason among other things! :evilgrin: Now that is something few Catholics will cop to, being a free mason. However, I know my uncle that named his daughter May Augustine was one. Quite the controversy and it doesn't go over so hot with the Catholic cemetery. They said it slipped by them. Uh huh. }(

[Selatius]

2. It sounds like Deistic evolutionism

God created the universe during the Big Bang. He laid down the laws by which the universe will be governed, and God left the universe to evolve according to the laws He wrote.

[yurbud]

4. Fundamentalists ignore church history from after apostles until ...

the publication of the King James Bible, and in between they think there was just one long vague period of Catholic corruption of the faith.


Most don't even know who Augustine is.

I read him in college and wondered how Christianity descended into the American pit of revelling in ignorance and prejudice.

[bobbieinok]

5. I was raised in the SoBapt church, so I know just what you mean

There's the Bible, then Roger Williams (maybe), and then us, the SoBapts who are the only real christians around.

The King James Version was just a given, with no mention ever of when it was written, etc.

There was one brief glimpse of light during the Dark Ages (dark b/c it was catholic): the Anabaptists. When I much later learned some church history, I thought this view was a real riot: the Anabaptists believed in free love, among other things, and were pretty well wiped out. In Muenster, I was told, there are still cages hanging from the spires of the cathedral. The Anabaptists were put in there and left to starve to death (so I was told).

[yurbud]

6. They don't even like to spend too much time on how Bible assembled or

translated because it takes away some of the magic and makes it look like exactly what it is: the work of committees.

I was an evangelical in college and got curious about how the Bible was put together, and even though I was reading very conservative sources, it made leaders of the church and group I was involved in uncomfortable.

Probably the first big tip off was reading that Martin Luther didn't want to include Revelations in the canon, and early church fathers did include it because they thought it was written by the Apostle John even though modern scholars don't think so.

What the hell would Tim LaHaye have done if Martin Luther had convinced everyone to tear it out of the Bible and throw it in a river?