Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

Evolution...

I've been off and on fascinated by the evolution/creationism debate. Here's an interesting excerpt from John Allen's latest:

Even processes that appear random, he said, can have an underlying logic.

“The idea that calling something ‘random’ means that it’s without direction is a mistake,” [Nobel laureate Charles] Townes said. “In a gas, for example, random interaction among particles ensures uniform distribution and temperature. In other words, an unplanned process produces an orderly outcome.”

“Evolution,” Townes said, “is like that. It’s a random process that produces spectacular things.”

And an excerpt from the Vatican’s International Theological Commission document, “Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God.”

In the Catholic perspective, neo-Darwinians who adduce random genetic variation and natural selection as evidence that the process of evolution is absolutely unguided are straying beyond what can be demonstrated by science. Divine causality can be active in a process that is both contingent and guided.

I can see why it's such a debate. Moderns crave the personal and evolution seems too impersonal for some tastes. Not to mention the long-running debate over scriptural inerrancy, another hot-button issue. Combine the two and voila! From Catholic Answers' Karl Keating:

Q: I was under the impression that death in the world (all death- plants, animals, and humans) was a fruit of original sin, ie. God did not create death. If this is the case, then how could the Church accept the idea of biological evolution? Since death would have to occur over the course of generations to provide for "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest." Thanks for your time.

A: by Karl Keating: You have brought up one of the difficulties in squaring evolution with the biblical account of the Fall. There have been various attempts to do so. Whether any of them is adequate is for the individual to determine for himself. All the Church teaches is that theistic evolution is not necessarily incompatible with the faith. It doesn't teach that it really happened--or that it didn't.