Crazy Catholic Question #165 - Big Bang & Evolution

Do Catholics believe in the “big bang” and evolution?
YES! A resounding YES! Catholics DO in fact support the best suppositions held by our most intelligent scientists regarding the development of our species and our universe. In short, Catholics do not quarrel with fossils or astronomers. In fact, we have our very own Vatican Observatory that is dedicated to the most cutting-edge astronomical research and education!

We readily admit that what we solidly know about our origins is a pittance. “Our brains are too small to grasp fully the expansiveness, diversity, and surprise of the universe, never mind what lies beyond its furthest edges. It is as if reality is a bazillion-volt charge and our brains are sixty-watt bulbs.” (Garrido, Redeeming Conflict). But the little we DO know indicates that the notion that our world was created in seven, 24-hour, literal “days” is simply nonsensical and ridiculously egocentric. We Catholics fully embrace “mystery” but, we don’t deny the reality of fossils for goodness sake! Our current reigning scientific theories may not be “the complete” truth, but they undoubtedly point us in the right direction for further discovery.

I went to my kid’s public school last week to introduce a secular version of the La Fettuccia/Ribbon lesson. While the kids were at recess I was chatting with my daughter teacher, explaining how the 50 yards of grosgrain ribbon is designed to represent the span of time since the Big Bang and how in order for the lesson to remain relatively “concrete” we tell the children that each ridge represents only 1000 years, but if the ribbon were to accurately represent the 14 billion years plus that our universe has been expanding, each ridge would actually represent closer to 100,000 years! I laughed light-heartedly with awe and amazement and said “even the metaphor needs to be ‘dumbed down’ for us because 100,000 years for each ridge is too much for our little brains to even imagine!”

In response, Viv’s teacher said “Yes, but if one takes biblical truth into consideration; namely that God created the world in seven days, that would make our earth much younger” and then she looked at me like I was on her team on this issue. I honestly was so dumbstruck I was speechless for a moment (and those that know me well, know also how difficult it is to render me genuinely wordless).

One of the main reasons young people are leaving organized religion is because of the cognitive dissonance between bad religion and good science. Now, you might say “But we believe in a man who was raised from the dead!” I know. That seems rather far-fetched, right? True. I’m not entirely sure what Jesus’ resurrection “looked like” – no epistemologically humble person would propose to know such a thing. Without question, we do profess some crazy stuff - BUT we don’t dispute fossils folks. We don’t dismiss our best scientists.

Regarding the resurrection, I have no idea what happened in that upper room, but it’s for darn sure something happened, because the people in that room were changed. Before this weird and wild upper room encounter with the Risen Christ the disciples were all tucked away, huddled in fear. But after this upper room experience they all go out and boldly preach the good news until almost every one of them met with a martyr’s death. I don’t understand martyrs either, but I find them very convincing.

Look. God has blessed us with the gift of reason. We would be foolish to neglect or ignore this gift. There is no conflict whatsoever between good theology and our admittedly limited understanding of Science. As with all of life, the more we learn, the less we know. If this wasn’t so, then God would not be worthy to be called God.

Send your Crazy Catholic Question to Lisa Brown at dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at www.crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com