Catholic Christians

Home

Can We Dismiss The Genesis Creation Story?

Know This…
The Book of Genesis has not one but two creation stories. We can't dismiss either one of them. The Church says we don't have to believe the literalist interpretation that God created the universe in six 24-hour days, but we must accept and believe the following. 1-God created the heavens, the earth, and all that exists out of nothing. 2-the 'six days of creation' are meant to show the orderliness of God's approach to bringing everything into existence. 3-we all descend from one set of first parents. 4-God gave man (male & female) dominion over all earthly things.

John: God not only brought everything into existence, His will keeps it in existence. If God chose to stop willing the existence of any part of His creation it would fall back into the nothingness from which it came.

James: We can believe in a creation that took six 24-hour days or an evolutionary process that God causes and guides; but we cannot believe in an 'atheistic' evolution where random forces alone brought things into existence.

John: We cannot dismiss Adam and Eve or their fall as fiction. At their creation, God infused a human soul into their bodies. Every human being has descended from them. Multiple sets of 'first parents' would negate the Church's teaching of original sin.

James: In 1996, Pope John Paul II told the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that there is not one but many theories of evolution and some are contrary to Church teaching. The Church does not fear science. She knows that true science cannot contradict God or His creation.

View this entire Faith Chat