Science To Re-think Ideas About Evolution

By Deacon Pat Knier, Pastoral Associate
Saints Peter & Paul Parish, Kiel; St. Ann Parish, St. Anna; Holy Rosary Parish, New Holstein

Darwin had it all wrong. Vanity of vanities, we think we know it all. I was reading an article recently from “The National Catholic Register” titled “Real Presence Challenges Science” by Patti Armstrong (1). The article focuses on an interview with Ron Tesoriero, co-author of the book “Unseen New Evidence: The Origins of Life Under the Microscope.” The book examines three well-documented Eucharistic miracles that uphold the Catholic belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The scientific investigation reveals that what was previously bread (a host), had transformed into living heart tissue, and that complex life has come into existence spontaneously from non-living matter.

A previous article documented the Eucharistic miracle in Argentina that occurred in 1996. Similar studies were performed by different teams of scientists on the miraculous bleeding host that occurred in Lanciano, Italy in 750 A.D. and the most recent miracle that occurred in Sokolka, Poland on October 12, 2008. All three findings of each scientific examination by separate teams of scientists concluded with the same results. They were all in fact human heart muscle living tissue, with human DNA, and the same AB blood type.

The book mentioned in this article “formulates an argument that goes to the very question of the origin and evolution of life.” According to Tesoriero, “the standard set out by Darwin, the father of the Theory of Evolution, is no longer tenable. [This is] because it states that all life forms of Earth today are the product of an evolutionary process over billions of years and must have evolved from a single, ancient cell created by chance.” Darwin had claimed in his book "The Origin of Species," “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”

So, it looks like by Darwin’s own words, God has completely blown his theory out of the water, (or element pool so to speak). So, where do we go from here to understand the origins of life and species? Do we need to re-write all of the textbooks and re-teach all of the minds that were convinced of the idea that chimpanzees are our cousins? How can we ever find the funds or the initiative to begin such a monumental undertaking?

Maybe a good place to start is by looking to the past. Perhaps looking at a time when people respected the ideas of others and weren’t inclined to lead protests when we disagreed with them. We could look at attitudes of people in times when all human life was sacred (all lives mattered). We may look to a system that guided our thoughts so we knew the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. The very thought, a time when humans believed they were divinely guided for a purpose, other than individual interpretation? Let’s think for a moment what most people believed in those days. It was written in a book called Genesis, and started with a familiar phrase; “In the beginning, when God created the Heavens and the Earth…”

(1) National Catholic Register, July 10-23, 2016