Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-07-14
God Created Soul,
Matter Contingent,
Views of Catholic

III
sunnort of Bryan's contentious re-
specting evolution naturally awak-
ems interest in the attitude OF the
Catholic church toward evolution.
Dana Tiverton writes for the Bos-
ton Herald Of July II an article
which purports to give the views OF
zone local Jesuit of prominence:
God Creator Of All
ain the beinning," he said. GOD
created all matter. From that first
primal creation up to the time OF
Adam, the first man., was there eVo-
luton? Or were all the forms ere
ated in their species? We leave that
to science to settle. Was Adam, the
first man, created directly by Goa, or
was he produced from some stock
common to monkey and man! IN
other words, did he breath a soul IN
to the anthropoid?
1.-The theory should not be taught
by writing or orally that God breath
ed a soul into the common ancestor
of man and anthrapoid, and thereby
produced man, because we have not
sufficient data to uphold that theory,
and the church at present holds TO
the opinion that, as Eve was direct
~ created, so, too, was Adams ere
alton direct. But upon one point 1t
is in1exible-that God created di,.
rectly the soul of man."
The Jesuit author and associate
editor Of America, DIR. Joseph Huss-
lein, in his book, Evolution and So
cial Progress" outlines the position
of the Catholic church under sub
heading, THE Church and Mans
Origin" as follows:
The position of the church upon
the subject of mans origin and an
tiquity will be found eminently sci
entific by any one who approaches
this theme without bias. University
professors have been as certain of
hundred other things that have since
been proved to be false, as many of
them are still obsessed with the idea
of an infallible materialistic .evolu-
ton, impossible as it has been shown
to be. both philosophically and scien-
tifically. ~
THE master minds of science have
been Christian, and in the depart
ments of biology itself, the strong
hold of evolution, all the great found
ers, with one exception, were positive
believers and almost half of them
Catholics. If brilliant minds like
Mendel, Pasteur. Malpighi, Schwann
and Muller found no difficulty in per-
fectly harmonizing their biology and
their religion, without one Earring
note of discord, lesser minds might
well consider that the fault may
possibly lie with them if they fail to
see the actual agreement that GER
tainly exists between all true scien-
tific facts and the teachings Of the
church. If the latter cannot possibly
be brought into harmony with the
cries that lack all proof and proba-
bility, and which in many cases are
philosophic absurdities, why blame
Christianity
In the more specific explanation of
the attitude of the Catholic church
which follows DR.. Husslein taxes the
general stand of mot proven" and
discusses the possibility of the Gre
ator having breathed soul into a
man-like brute at certain stage in
his development
God Created the Soul
THE church, in the first place,
holds the doctrine of the direct crea
ton of the soul of man." he says
No one can claim, in the name of
science, that any facts have ever
been advanced to prove that the in
tellectual soul of man was evolved
from the brute. Even We're we 10
admit the existence of that link be-
tween brute and man, which has
quite rightly been called missing
there would be no evidence to show
that after certain stage Of evolu-
ton had been reached God did not
breathe into this brute, evolved from
the primal matter He had created
and gifted with the live He alone
could have bestowed, an immortal
soul. Such might certainly have
been the course Of nature, had God
SO willed it.
Aside from all mention of Scrip
ture and Revelation, reason, as we
nave seen, demands no less than
these three creative acts: the creation
OF the primal matter, of the first life
and of the intellectual soul of man.
Briefly, to repeat:
Experience and philosophy alike
tell us that matter is contingent. 1t
therefore requires a necessary cause
mat OF its very nature is self exist
eht ana non contingent. This Being
we call God.
Science again tells us that life did
not exist in the beginning in this
Ilaterlal universe, and that 1t could
not nave been transported here from
some distant planet, since this would
but transfer the difficulty to another
sphere. Science further informs rs
that Spontaneous generation cannot
De admitted. Philosophy confirms
me truth of this by showing the alb
surolty OF supposing that life could
arise from dead matter.
clearly there is need here there
lore' Oh the interference of an ex-
ternal agency. Again, the agency
that was necessary to create life. we
call God. Finally, the intellect of man
transcends all things purely sensitive
ana material. 1t differs essentially
from the brute instinct. The brute is
incapable of intelligent language be-
cause 1t is incapable of forming mem
tai distractions, because it is without
the faculty of reason. To bridge this
thlrd chasm creative act must of
necessity be supposed, a necessity
which no one, indeed, could question
except under the influence of the pre-
conceived prejudice of materialistic
evolution.
The Supreme Intelligent Being.
VINO alone is able to create the ner-
sonal, intelligent soul of man, we call
God-not an impersonal, material.
Monlst1c god, that is nothing more
imam the material universe itself, and
.Hei eIoIe couid not have called into
pelnS life or intellect, wanting all
tnese things itself from the Begin
hlhg; but personal, living, intelli-
gent creator. Since somewhere self
existence must be postulated of
some intelligent being, or nothing
could exist at all, we are forced bv
our reason to come to this one SUI
preme Being, necessarily self-existent
by His very nature. and so above all
mere finite and continent matter. who
alone was capable of calling into ex-
istence matter and force, life and
soul.