do not attempt to establish the age of man; the recorded genealogy of the Patriarchs is by no means continuous. Only the prominent Patriarchs descended from Adam are mentioned in establishing the common parenthood of all mankind. Therefore the anthropologist is free to pursue his study of the age of man from fossil remains. Some scientists assume the age of man to be 150,000 years, while others maintain that this estimate is too high and assert that 15,000 years is the utmost age of man. This is a purely scientific controversy.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century the discussion of evolution became a popular fad. All kinds of assertions and denials were made. Many good people were dismayed when materialists told them: "Accept evolution and you must reject God, or believe in God and you must reject evolution. But evolution has been scientifically proved, so that it cannot reasonably be rejected. Perhaps, remnants of this insidious fallacy persist even today.

Bear in mind that God is truth itself. It is the province of science to seek the truth. Therefore there can be no conflict between religion and science. The Church always receives the discoveries of science with a neutral mind. It is not the province of religion to teach us "how the heavens go, but how to go to heaven. On the other hand the scientist is in no position to give an ultimate explanation of the mind behind the universe, of the nature of the human soul, of man's real origin or final destiny. This is the province of the philosopher and theologian. A scientist may investigate the fossil remains of man, speculate on the age of man, and discuss the question whether higher forms have evolved from lower ones, but his explanations are always proximate; i.e., his decisions should be based only on scientific evidence. Scientists, lacking philosophical training, should avoid philosophical speculation.

In discussing evolution three established principles must be kept in mind: 1. The principle

7-24-44

FOREWORD

The difficulties in shaping up a course in religion for college students form a basis of endless discussion among college administrators and professors of religion. Their divergent views are well reflected in the innumerable variations in religious curricula among the colleges. It is refreshing and reassuring to have appear occasionally out of the flux of hard experience, some definite and satisfying treatment of a college course in religion. Such, we think, is presented in these pagos under the title "Foundations of Catholde Belda. Here the student will find at excellent presentation of an array of fundamental truths arrived at tot the processes of right reason and trine revelata, the natural in coordination with the werew The matter is readily resdale, dosly tides and sufficiently comprehensive for 28 puysen. volume well serves practical, peterpu md re ligious purposes, and go to Joving the course of which it is the tee 1 Le such courses we

of causality which states that everything that begins to exist must have a cause. 2. The necessity for design which establishes that chance cannot give design, that law requires a lawmaker. 3. The possibility of divine revelation. God has explicitly revealed that material forces cannot produce the human soul. "And the Lord God--breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." (Gen. 11, 7).

Evolution may be defined as the attempt to explain the various complex forms existing today as having evolved from simpler beginnings. Evolutionists are divided into two distinct groups: 1. Theistic evolutionists who maintain the possibility of an evolution founded on the principles which postulate a First Cause and an omnipotent Lawgiver. 2. Atheistic (materialistic) evolutionists who deny the existence of a personal Creator. They maintain that the world is auto-existing and that the present state of all living forms is the result of only mechanical transformation.

Theistic evolutionists premise their case for evolution by postulating: 1. The production of a higher form of matter is dependent upon the operation of God as First Cause. 2. A creative act for each individual human soul, since an immaterial and spiritual substance cannot take its origin from a material substance. With these principles established theistic evolutionists attempt to understand the phylogenetic relationships between various complex existing forms. Let it be said there is no scientific evidence for the common genetic descent of all plants and animals from a single primitive organism. However, such a theory is not opposed to the Christian concept of the universe. The Scriptures do not indicate in what form extant plants and animals were originally created by God.

If there were undeniable scientific basis for the evolution of the human body it would merely mean that God implanted the natural laws of

development and variation in the organism or organisms that He first created to direct their transformation to a more perfect form. God is the First Cause; He is the omnipotent Lawgiver. God could certainly have made use of secondary causes which would lead up to the perfection of form found in the body of the first man. Then at the proper moment God could have infused into this living, perfected creature, a spiritual, free, and immortal soul. In other words, a special creative act would not have been necessary for every living creature; God could "make things make themselves."

The Church has never condemned a theistic form of evolution as a working hypothesis. I think it safe to say that the majority of Catholic biologists are in sympathy with the evolutionary hypothesis based on theistic principles. The Catholic scientist, taking theistic evolution as a working hypothesis, may freely work towards its establishment through scientific research and discussion. He is always free to accept true scientific evidence. "As a scientist he should find truth; as a Catholic he should claim that truth for God.

The Church has the right to interpret the Scriptures for her children. The Church has never defined what is meant by the "slime of the earth" nor revealed the manner in which God "formed" the body of man. Science has not presented the Church with a sufficiently sound body of proof for the evolution of man's body. Therefore, no Catholic may teach human bodily evolution as a fact. It is the wise policy for the Catholic "not to give his unqualified assent to the evolutionary hypothesis." At any time the Church might interpret the Scriptures to explain the origin of man's body. All Catholics would then bow to the irrevocable decision of the Church which is guided by the hand of the Almighty.

Atheistic evolution denies: (1) the intervention of a personal Creator (Denial of a First Cause); (2) the establishment of natural laws by an