THE CONCEPT OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION — Questions on Evolution

The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution should not have been dismissed and claimed it is compatible with the Christian view of creation. According to a February 11, 2009 report in the Telegraph, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the head of the pontifical Council for Culture, said while the Church had been hostile to Darwin’s theory in the past, the idea of evolution could be traced to St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti of the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, added that the 4th century theologian St. Augustine had “never heard of the term evolution, but knew that big fish eat smaller fish” and forms of life had been transformed “slowly over time”. Such an opinion regarding the evolutionary theory has also been expressed by certain Muslim scholars, such as Sheikh Nadin Algisr of Algeria, Pakistan’s Mohammad Rajiuddin, etc. These people hold that the concept of biological evolution is not akin to the denial of God, for they believe in God being the first cause to have brought life into existence. They explain that even if life came into existence in accordance with the supposed evolutionary method, it was still the one God who initially brought life into existence. The Theory of Evolution is in effect a negation rather than an affirmation of God. But this explanation is not right. According to the religious viewpoint, the position of God for us is not just that of the first cause; God is rather continuously involved in our life. Religious belief holds that God is controlling the universe continuously. There is an unbroken relationship between God and man which continues at every moment without any interruption. Besides, God is the Reckoner and man is accountable to Him for each and every deed he performs on this planet. On the Day of Judgement, God in his capacity as Master of the Day of Judgement will decide the eternal future of all human beings. All these positions of God get eliminated in the concept of evolution. In such a case, the concept of biological evolution can never be acceptable from the religious viewpoint. The desired relation between man and God is that of a living relationship. This relation exists at all times and at every moment through the remembrance of God, prayer, worship, contemplation, reflection and