{"id":715,"date":"2009-10-13T23:05:42","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T23:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doxacommunications.com\/kolbe\/ed-taraba\/"},"modified":"2009-10-13T23:05:42","modified_gmt":"2009-10-13T23:05:42","slug":"ed-taraba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/ed-taraba\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Taraba"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Kolbe Center, <\/span><\/p>\n

The theory of evolution is a topic of great concern to me because it figured highly in my return to Christianity about sixteen years ago and helped solidify my eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism about six years ago. I was taught as a child in the Lutheran church that the story of Adam and Eve was a myth used to teach about morality and the relationship between man and God. The word \"Adam,\" I was told, means \"mankind\". This never made sense to me since the bible itself does not portray it that way. Adam is a person and there is an unbroken time line in biblical history. If Adam and Eve were myths where do you draw the line between the myth and the real history? That always bothered me. I left the church at about age 17. <\/span><\/p>\n

Many years later as an adult when I began learning of the mounting scientific data opposing the theory of evolution, it opened the door to the scriptures for me and I began reading the Bible daily. Eventually I converted to Roman Catholicism. During my RCIA classes the true teaching of the Church on this subject was not offered. Instead my instructors turned the Genesis account into a fairy tale with a moral twist. During RCIA discussions I indicated that the theory of evolution has been disproved by scientists. The response was \"The Pope says it is o.k. to believe in evolution.\" Rather than turning the class into a raucous argument I placed the whole thing on the back burner and still converted. <\/span><\/p>\n

Several years after converting I learned that the Catholic Church teaches Adam and Eve were real people and the first parents from which all human beings have descended and actually committed the original sin bringing about the fall of man. This doctrine is essential to fully understand scripture and it served as further confirmation that I had come to the right place, adding extra cement to my new Catholic foundation. Through further study this Catholic teaching on creation was confirmed by several sources: a Catholic Creation Conference presented by the Kolbe Center, the Catechism, a lecture by apologist John Martignoni, Denzinger's Sources of Catholic Dogma<\/em>, a Bible study series by Jeff Cavins entitled \"The Great Adventure\". <\/span><\/p>\n

Some confusion on the subject prevailing amongst Catholics may stem from the fact that the Church does not have an official stance on the doctrine of evolution and does allow belief in evolution. Since learning more about what really happened in the Galileo incident reading The Galileo Affair<\/em> by George Sim Johnston and How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization<\/em> by Thomas Woods, it is easier for me to understand why the Church remains non-committal in their position on this topic. But I emphasize that non-commitment does not constitute an endorsement. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Kolbe Center is doing important work bringing to our attention scientific data refuting evolution and making us aware of official Catholic teaching. It is my wish that more Catholics bring this information to their parishes. Humani generis<\/em> allows research and discussion on the topic of evolution provided both pros and cons are carefully weighed and we remain obedient to the Church. Never forget that Adam and Eve were the first parents of us all, created in a state of holiness and immortality until their fall which brought death into the world. Why are Catholic schools teaching evolution theory without bringing up scientific data that refutes it? We should be imploring the Catholic schools to adhere to Pope Pius XII who required the pros and cons to be carefully weighed in Humani generis<\/em>, an encyclical letter \"concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic doctrine,\" given on August 12, 1950. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Christ, <\/span><\/p>\n

Ed Taraba<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Kolbe Center, The theory of evolution is a topic of great concern to me because it figured highly in my return to Christianity about sixteen years ago and helped …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[281,57,65,241,194,67,68,62,140],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}