Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/533

 CREATION

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CREATION

only defer and not solve the problem) ; since, moreover, the world-substance has not emanated from the divine naturo, it follows that it must have been prodnred by some extraneous cause, from no pre-uxist ins; iiiatorial, i. e. it must have been created. 'I'liat that oxt rancnus cause is (iod, the self-existent, nocossary, alisohilc. in- finite, and consequently personal Deity, is jiroved from the finality and order manifest in the cosmos that has developed from the original material, which order demands an efficient and a directive cause of supreme if not infinite intelligence: and from the further fact that the creative act can proceed only from a truly infinite and therefore personal agent, as will be shown towards the end of this article.

To the c)uestion: In what condition was the world- matter created, whether homogeneous or differenti- ated into various specific substances? neither Reve- lation nor science gives answer. Until lately the practically tmiversal opinion of Catholic philosophers favoured an original essential differentiation of the elements. Since, however, the tendency of physico- chemical experimentation and inference now points with some probability to a radical homogeneity of mat- ter, and since philosophy is boimd to reduce the world to its fewest and simplest principles, the opinion seems justified that the original matter was created actually unditTerentiated, but with inherent potency toward elemental and. subsequently, compound diversifica- tion through the action, reaction, and grouping of the ultimate particles.

When — probably through some such processes as are suggested by the well-known nebular hypothesis (Kant, Laplace) and by the inductions of geology — the material universe was disposed for the simplest forms of life, then God said: " Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it w-as so done" (Gen., i, 11) — the work of the third creative day. At a svib.sequent, ''God created the great whales and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind" (ib., 21) — the work of the fifth day. And again, "God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind" (ib., 24, 25) — part of the work of the sixth day. In these simple words the in- spired author of Genesis describes the advent of life, plant and animal, on our earth. It does not fall within the scope of the present article to discuss the various meanings that have been assigned to "the days of creation". Suffice it to say that Catholic exegctes are allowed the widest liberty of interpretation com|)ati- ble with the obvious substance and purport of the sacred narrative, viz., that God is "the creator of heaven and earth". Accordingly, we find some theo- logians following St. Augustine (In Gen. ad litt., I), that the six days signify only a logical (not a real) suc- cession, i. e. in the order in which the creative works were manifested to the angels. Others interpret the days as indefinite cosmical periods. Others, though these are at present a vanishing number, still follow the literal interpretation. An immense amount of time, patient research, and ingenuity has been spent in the task of harmonizing the successive stages of ter- restrial evolution, as deciphered by geologists from the records of the rocks, with the Mo.saic narrative ; but the highest tribute to the success of these efforts is that they more or less graphically corroliorate what must be already a priori certain an<l evident, at lea.st to the believer, that between the truth of Revelation and the truth of .science there is, and can be, no discord. But whatever may be thought of the effort to vindicate in

detail the parallelism claimed to exist between the geological succession of living forms and the order de- scribed in the Bible, it is certain that some general par- allelism exists; that the testimony of the strata cor- roborates the story of the Book, according to which the lowliest forms of plant life, "the green herb", appeared first, then the higher, " the seed-bearing tree", followed in turn by the simpler animal tj-pes, the water creature and the winged fowl, and finally by the highest organisms, " the beasts of the earth and the cattle".

IV. Cre.vtion and Evolution'. — If now, from the general interpretation of the Biblical account of crea- tion, we turn to the biologico-philo.so[)hical problems which it suggests, and which revert to it for what solu- tion it may have to offer, we find Catholic thinkers exercising an equally large liberty of speculation. "Considered in connection with the entire account of creation", says a recent eminent Jesuit exegete, "the words of Genesis cited above proximately maintain nothing else than that the earth with all that it con- tains and bears, together with the plant and animal kingdoms, has not produced itself nor is the work of chance; but owes its existence to the power of God. However, in what particular manner the plant and animal kingdoms received their existence: whether all species were created simultaneously or only a few which were destined to give life to others: whether only one fruitful .seed was placed on mother earth, which under the influence of natural causes developed into the first plants, and another infused into the waters gave birth to the first animals — all this the Book of Genesis leaves to our own investigation and to the revelations of science, if indeed science is able at all to give a final and imquestionable decision. In other words, the article of faith contained in Genesis remains firm and intact even if one explains the manner in which the different species originated according to the principle of the theory of evolution" (Knabenbauer, "Stimmen aus Maria-Laach", XIII, 74; cf. Muckermann, "Attitude of Catholics towards Darwinism and Evolution", 78.) The two general biological problems connected with the Biblical cosmogony are the origin of life and the succession of organisms. Concerning both these prol)- lems all that Catholic Faith teaches is that the begin- nings of plant and animal life are due in some way to the productive power of God. Whether, with St. Augustine and St. Thomas, one hold that only the primordial elements, endowed with dispositions and powers (rationcs seminales) for development, were created in the strict sense of the term, and the rest of nature — plant and animal life — was gradually evolved according to a fixed order of natural operation imder the supreme guidance of the Divine Administration (Harper, "Metaphysics of the School", II, 746); of whether, with other Fathers and Doctors of the School, one hold that life and the classes of living beings — orders, families, genera, species — were each and all, or only some few, strictly and immediately created by God — whichever of these extreme views he may deem more rational and better motived, the Catholic thinker is left perfectly free by his faith to select. It is well known that the theory of spontaneous generation of certain animalcukr, worms, in.sects, etc. was held by theologians and jihilosophers alike until compara- tively recent times, imtil, indeed, experimental evi- dence demonstrated the opposite thesis. The estab- lishment of the universal truth of biogenesis (q. v.), omne vivtim ex rim, was then seen to corroborate the teaching of the Bible, that life, plant and animal, is due to the Divine productive agency. Since the charac- teristics of living substance are contrary to those of the non-living substance, the characteristics of life being spontaneity and immanent activity, tho.se of inani- mate matter being inertia and transitive activity, the Divine efficiency, to which the origin and differentia- tion of life are a.scribed, h.as received the tiistinctive name of administration. The idea conveyed by the