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Article I.
The
Origin of Life
Section 1.01 The Material
Origin of Life
(a)
Spontaneous
Generation Hypothesis
This hypothesis holds that life arises through
abiogenesis, that is, from the interaction of inorganic materials and forces,
gradually diversifying and improving.
A distinction must
be made:
From a
Philosophical Perspective:
This hypothesis is untenable, as vital
activity surpasses that of inanimate entities and cannot be explained by them.
According to the principle of causality, the lesser cannot give rise to the
greater.
From a Scientific
Perspective:
It contradicts experimental evidence. The
principle omne vivum ex vivo (“all life comes from life”) holds, as
demonstrated by Pasteur’s refutation of spontaneous generation.
Aristotle and the
Scholastics attributed spontaneous generation to the influence of incorruptible
celestial bodies moved by spiritual beings.
(b)
Panspermia
Hypothesis
This hypothesis asserts that the genesis of
life may be traced to extraterrestrial origins.
Main proponents: Richter, Helmholtz, Cohn.
(c)
Eternal Life Hypothesis
According to this theory, life has always
existed on Earth (W. Preyer), even during its incandescent phase (pyrozoans),
with inanimate matter regarded as the residue of living beings.
Section 1.02 The Divine Origin
of Life
Life can only be imparted by the One who has power over being, either indirectly, through a seminal force in matter (as in moderate transformism, which holds that God created the world as a seed with certain potentialities that developed over time), or directly, by producing in matter a greater or lesser number of living species.
Article II.
The
Evolution of Life
Natural Species:
Share a common essence, which suffices to explain their similar real
properties.
Systematic
Species: Described by naturalists; not all systematic species correspond to
true natural species.
Specific Criteria:
Anatomical or
physiological characteristics that allow the differentiation of natural
species.
Genetic Criterion:
Beings that belong to the same species produce fertile offspring.
Qualitative
Criterion: Differences between two individuals of the same species are merely
quantitative or ornamental.
Human Criterion:
Derived from the unity of the human species, as affirmed by philosophy and
revelation. Differences perceptible to human reason do not constitute distinct
species.
Article III. The Problem of the
Origin of Species (Proposed Solutions)
Section 3.01
Theory of Specific Constancy, or Fixism (Cuvier,
Jussieu, Agassiz, Quatrefages):
God directly created all existing species,
which may have undergone accidental variations over the centuries.
Section 3.02 Theory of
Intraspecific Transformations (Improper Transformism):
God created a limited number of natural
species. While the specific organisation, determined by the substantial form,
remains unchanged, accidental modifications arise from the activity of the
vital principle, allowing for the emergence of subspecies.
Section 3.03 Theory of Specific
Transformations (Proper Transformism):
Living species are derived from slow,
successive transformations, either from simple organisms (Haeckel’s monera) or
from general types that gradually differentiated into classes, orders, genera,
and species.
Among transformists, some acknowledge divine intervention; some extend the theory to the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, while others restrict it to the vegetable and animal kingdoms.
Section 3.04 Lamarck vs. Darwin
Lamarck
- Does not extend transformism to humans.
- Active influence of the environment on variation in forms.
- Need creates the organ.
- The environment changes the form (modification occurs in the adult).
Darwin
- Extends transformism to humans.
- The environment has no direct influence on form modification; variations arise by chance.
- The environment acts only as a filter through natural selection.
- The environment selects the forms (natural selection; germinal modification).
Section 3.05 Critique of Proper
Transformism
If it seeks to explain the origin and
perfection of life without God:
- It contradicts the principle of causality by deriving the more perfect from the less perfect.
- Even if divine intervention is admitted, it remains unintelligible to derive current individuals and species from primitive types.
- It is consistently contradicted by experience: specific transformations have never been verified, nor has the inheritance of individual characteristics been demonstrated.
- Neither necessity nor function can independently create new organs.
Section 3.06 Transformist
Arguments
Embryological
Argument:
The history of the
germ is a summary of the species’ history (Haeckel). Ontogeny (the biological
development of an individual from fertilisation to maturity) recapitulates
phylogeny (the evolutionary history of a species).
Response: Similar
organs are transient and soon develop into specific structures, determined by
an internal principle of organisation.
Morphological
Argument:
The gradual
development of species and the presence of rudimentary organs are evidence of
evolution.
Response:
Structural similarity does not necessarily imply descent.
Palaeontological
Argument:
The history of
species can be traced through successive geological layers, which is evidence
of descent.
Response:
Succession in the fossil record does not necessarily imply descent (post hoc
ergo propter hoc). No ancestral form of a class, order, or family has ever been
conclusively found.
Article IV. The Origin of Man
1. The First Man was
created by God.
'Firmly we believe and we confess simply that
the true God is… [the] creator of all visible and invisible things, of the
spiritual and of the corporal; who by His own omnipotent power at once from the
beginning of time created each creature from nothing, spiritual, and corporal,
namely, angelic and mundane, and finally the human, constituted as it were,
alike of the spirit and the body. '(Fourth Lateran Council, D. 428)
2. Human souls are
immediately created by God out of nothing.
'For these reasons
the Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the
present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions,
on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the
doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human
body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith
obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God. However, this
must be done in such a way that the reasons for both opinions, that is, those
favourable and those unfavourable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the
necessary seriousness, moderation and measure, and provided that all are
prepared to submit to the judgment of the Church, to whom Christ has given the
mission of interpreting authentically the Sacred Scriptures and of defending
the dogmas of faith. Some however, rashly transgress this liberty of
discussion, when they act as if the origin of the human body from pre-existing
and living matter were already completely certain and proved by the facts which
have been discovered up to now and by reasoning on those facts, and as if there
were nothing in the sources of divine revelation which demands the greatest
moderation and caution in this question.' (Pius XII, Humani Generis, n. 36)
3. All humanity
descends from Adam and Eve.
'When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own.' (Ibid., 37.)
Make the most of your spiritual life with the CATHOLIC DEVOTIONAL GUIDE 2025
🔎SEE ALSO:
✅ The Hermeneutic of Absurdity
✅The Mystery of Iniquity: A Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2
References
Collin, Enrique. Manual de Filosofía
Tomista. Translated by Cipriano Montserrat. 2nd ed. Revised by Juan Roig
Gironella. Barcelona: Luis Gili, Editor, 1950.
Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. 1st ed. St. Louis: B. Herder Book
Co., 1954.
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