Public Discourse Degenerating Into Infantile Tantrums- “Ours is a culture not merely characterized by the death of old moral values but their intentional and exultant destruction.” Pride Month and the Infantilization of Society (First Things)
Smuggling Fungus – “Two citizens of the People’s Republic of China have been charged with conspiracy and smuggling a ‘dangerous biological pathogen’ into the US for their work in a University of Michigan laboratory, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this week.” Chinese nationals charged with smuggling ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into US (CatholicVote)
One in Four Priests – “When asked whether they ‘definitely believe’ Adam and Eve were historical figures, the numbers diverged sharply across denominations, dropping to 25% among Catholic and Mainline Protestant respondents.” Only a quarter of Catholic, Mainline pastors ‘definitely’ believe Adam and Eve existed (Christian Post)
Common Easter Date – “’Several concrete solutions have been proposed that, while respecting the principle of Nicaea, would allow Christians to celebrate together the ‘Feast of Feasts,’ the Holy Father said.” At Ecumenical Symposium, Pope Leo XIV Says Catholic Church Open to Universal Easter Date (National Catholic Register)
Minorities and Majorities Matter – “According to court documents, Marlean Ames applied for a promotion in 2019 but was denied the position ‘in favor of a gay candidate, and was later demoted in favor of another gay candidate,’ despite strong qualifications and performance reviews.” Supreme Court unanimously rules majority groups protected from workplace discrimination (CatholicVote)
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In other news, last week senator Grassley of Iowa reported that FBI documents that were hidden and now found revealed the FBI was targeting Catholics who attended the Latin Mass as potential dangerous extremist on a more nationwide basis. Initially the FBI said that this issue was limited to only one office. Now it now looks like the previous head of the FBI was not telling the truth, Surprise Surprise, on this issue. Apparently one FBI document compared the extreme Catholic Latin Mass Church attendees as being similar and dangerous as Muslim extremist.
@One in four priests
We read: “When asked whether they ‘definitely believe’ Adam and Eve were historical figures, the numbers diverged sharply across denominations, dropping to 25% among Catholic and Mainline Protestant respondents.”
Entangled within this question of origins are other questions, like a universal moral defect evident in all of ourselves rather than original to the perfect Creator God—Original Sin.
Four points and a question:
FIRST, about our “free will,” as when St. Augustine discovers within himself the double-life of two conflicting wills: “…it is no monstrous thing partly to will a thing and partly not to will it, but a sickness of the mind. Although it is supported by truth, it does not wholly rise up, since it is heavily encumbered by habit…” (Confessions, Bk. 8, Ch. 9:21). Determinism, as in Freud and Marx, sidesteps all of this.
SECOND, even in Genesis, the always-finite human mind settles on two different accounts for the mystery of creation and the mystery of man and woman. In the first account, Genesis has man created chronologically first (Gen 1), while in the second account God has man and woman emerging together from within Adam’s “deep sleep” or “return to non-being [….] the moment preceding creation” (“The Theology of the Body,” catechesis of Sept. 5, 1979 thru April 2, 1980).
THIRD, now from the scientific side, yours truly still wonders about past references. Rather than any polygenesis, is it possible that only one line survived some kind of radical pruning? Genetic DNA-based findings “strengthened the claim that all humans alive today are descended from a single African woman” who lived perhaps 140,000 years ago Thomas Maugh II, “Out of Africa: New Evidence One Woman is ‘Mother of us All’,” Los Angeles Times, October 5, 1989, summarizing molecular biologist Allan Wilson, University of California, at an international genetics conference). Do we now have more about this?
FOURTH, then there’s St. John Paul II’s proposed “ontological leap”—”a moment [!] of transition to the spiritual” [an irreducible discontinuity] is not incompatible with the “physical continuity which seems to be the main thread of research into evolution in the field of physics and chemistry.” Of the scientific method: “The moment of transition to the spiritual cannot be the object of this kind of observation, which nevertheless can discover at the experimental level a series of very valuable signs indicating what is specific to the human being {archeology]. But the experience of metaphysical knowledge, of self-awareness and self-reflection, of moral conscience, freedom, or again of aesthetic and religious experience, fall within the competence of philosophical analysis and reflection, while theology brings out its ultimate meaning according to the Creator’s plans” (“Message on Evolution to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,” October 23, 1996).
QUESTION: All things considered within our finite minds—what about “creation” ex nihilo (!), plus real moral evil in the “world,” and our universal “human nature” and the mystery of unique “personhood”? And, our personal “freedom” today, like St. Augustine, to choose between real good and real evil?
What about the “dust of the ground” (Gen 2:7), but also “the image and likeness of God” (Gen 1:27)? An alternative to the Judeo-Christian revelation is a later mutation back into natural religion…syncretic Islam, for example, does not remember “original sin”.
Christian (Thomist) philosopher Dennis Bonnette wrote a book on this in 2014. See also his writing at Strange Notions, a site sponsored by Bishop Barron. https://strangenotions.com/the-scientific-possibility-of-adam-and-eve/
@ One in Four Priests
Belief and the premises for offering definitive affirmation has changed with Form Geschichte and the kind of language we find. Were Adam and Eve real individual persons or figurative expressions of an occurrence? Original sin.
The arguments range from the practical reality of the multiple presence of evolved humans to the singular act of creation by God. Reasonable arguments can be made for both. There is biological indication that Mankind began at a singular genetic point, whereas marriage and events appear more reasonable if there were a multiplicity.
Difficulty arises with the evolution approach when faced with the question of free will. Was there collective guilt? We can make arguments for different scenarios that seem acceptable. An acceptable approach includes accepting with faith what the scriptural passage on creation intends to say. For example we may examine the particulars of the Garden event, the tree, the apple.
Saint Edith Stein [Teresa Benedicta of the Cross] opines there was a definitive immoral act not evident in the apple story. A sexual act suggested first to the woman conveyed by her to the man. For this reader it makes much sense. Isn’t it perverse sexuality and collapse of family structure that’s presently destroying us. Edith Stein’s plausibility on the matter suggests singular persons. Otherwise we fall back to a collective form of original sin and the questioning of free will.
Perhaps we can know by admitting our weaknesses and seeing through the glass darkly, if you will. A kind of blind faith and trust where we acknowledge our limitations and weaknesses and step out in faith and say- God, I believe that you exist and created the universe including man and I accept Adam & Eve for whom they are as you intended to be. We can accept the Word of God by faith without understanding it fully. In fact we don’t need to understand it fully, because we never could.
Agreed. “An acceptable approach includes accepting with faith what the scriptural passage on creation intends to say”. It’s not necessary to speculate on the particulars.