Church vs. Natural Selection
Everyone learns Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution and natural selection at some point in their lives. In science class at school, kids are taught about Darwin’s discoveries with the finches on the Galapagos Islands and how each finch had a differently shaped beak, due to natural selection. Kids sometimes do not learn how religion plays a huge part in science, especially in evolution. For many years after Darwin’s theories were presented to the public, most people did not believe evolution was real because they followed the Bible. The Old Testament in the Bible states that everything on Earth was created by God, so therefore is perfect and unchanging. Views have since shifted in the Catholic Church, with more and more people believing and advocating evolution as a real and extrodinary thing.
Presentation on the Catholic Church and Natural Selection:
Reflection
Researching the Catholic Church’s view on evolution and natural selection was super interesting because my team’s research presented ideas different from our initial thoughts. Before researching, as shown on slide 2, my group and I thought there was a great divide between the church and theories of evolution due to what we have learned in AP Bio and AP US History class. We have learned about how Darwin’s theories were not accepted at first because people chose to believe the Bible. In 1925, a biology teacher, John Thomas Scopes, was imprisoned in America for teaching evolution. Both of the events made us believe there has always been a large divide and controversy between the church and evolution.
After researching more in detail, my group found that there is less of a divide between the church and science than we thought. In a way, ideals of evolution in America have “evolved”. More and more people find a happy medium between science and religion; some use science to explain “how” things happen and use their religion to find meaning in historical events.
My group and I did a great job explaining the Catholic Church’s views on evolution and how they have changed over the years. We found that Catholics believe religion and science sometimes go hand in hand. Our quote from Pope Francis was super informative and relevant to our topic. I wish we found more direct quotes from Popes or people in high positions in the catholic church to show primary evidence of the church’s views on evolution. I also think my group and I could’ve cut out more words on our slides and replaced them with pictures, diagrams, or other types of visuals. We should have added bullet points to the speaker notes so our presentation didn’t overwhelm our audience or bore anyone.
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