Post by Schola on Jul 27, 2005 8:10:21 GMT -5
The Difference it Makes:
The Importance of the Traditional Doctrine of Creation
by Hugh Owen
“Teach All That I Have Commanded You”:
In Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus gave the Great Commission to his Apostles. “Go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And lo, I will be with you always, until the end of the age.”
Although they lacked professional training, great learning, or even outstanding human virtues, the eleven Apostles succeeded in carrying out the greatest evangelization that the world has ever known. They succeeded not because they made maximum use of their own gifts and abilities but because they were totally obedient to their Master’s commands and received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Our Lord took pains to emphasize that any evangelization accompanied by the fullness of his power must include ALL the Truths that He had entrusted to the Apostles. It follows that any proclamation of the Gospel that omits or even downplays essential elements of the Good News will be lacking in power. This would be especially true if any fundamental element of the Gospel, as proclaimed by the Apostles and early Fathers, were to be omitted or perverted. The doctrine of creation and the Fall forms the foundation for the Church’s understanding of Redemption and Sanctification. In the light of this truth, it may come as a shock to many to realize that the understanding of creation and the early history of man proclaimed by all of the Apostles and Church Fathers differs drastically from that which is being proclaimed in most contemporary Catholic institutions of learning from kindergarten to the post-graduate level.
Whereas the Apostles and Fathers of the Church believed and proclaimed the literal historical truth of the early chapters of Genesis, the vast majority of contemporary Catholic evangelists and catechists believe and proclaim theistic evolution—the doctrine that God used billions of years of natural processes to produce the various kinds of living things, including man. Since God’s commandments do not change, the restoration of the literal historical interpretation of Genesis holds a key to success in the new evangelization. To build a new evangelization on the foundation of theistic evolution would be like trying to build a high rise building on a foundation of sand.
Nowadays one often hears educated and devout Catholics ask the question, “What difference does it make whether God used six days or billions of years of evolution, as long we believe that He did it?”
This little booklet answers that question. It does not expose the bankruptcy of molecules to man evolution as a scientific theory—that has already been done very effectively.[1] Instead it focuses on the spiritual devastation that theistic evolutionism has wrought in the souls of the Catholic faithful.
The Difference It Makes
It will be helpful to begin by defining our terms: theistic evolutionism (TE) and the traditional doctrine of creation (TDC).
Theistic evolutionism holds that God created matter in the beginning, and then used billions of years of natural processes, including death, destruction, mutations, and disease, to produce the various kinds of living things, including the human body. Generally speaking, theistic evolutionists deny the historicity of Genesis 1-11 and believe that Noah’s Flood was a local flood, that the Tower of Babel incident never actually happened, and that human languages evolved from primitive to more complex over long periods of time.
The traditional, patristic, magisterial doctrine of creation holds that God created all of the different kinds of creatures during a very brief creation period at the beginning of time by an act of his Divine Will. According to this understanding, God created a perfectly harmonious world for our first parents, Adam and Eve, a few thousand years ago. He created Adam first, and then created Eve from Adam’s side. There was no human sickness, death, disease, harmful mutations or man-harming natural disasters before the Fall. Prior to the Original Sin, all of nature was under the dominion of Adam and Eve and was subservient to them. Even after the Original Sin, early man was physically and mentally superior to modern man, and the early patriarchs actually lived to the long ages ascribed to them. There was a global flood in Noah’s day which killed all of the people and land animals except for those on Noah’s ark, and all of the basic language-families complete with their unique grammars and modes of thought were instantaneously created by God during the Tower of the Babel incident.
So: What difference does it make which of these two interpretations of Genesis one believes in?
We will argue that it makes a world of difference. And we will offer eight reasons why TE should be rejected and the TDC restored to its rightful place as the foundation of the Gospel.
Reason #1
Theistic evolutionism fosters contempt for Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and undermines confidence in God and his Word. The traditional understanding of Genesis fosters a love and appreciation for Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and strengthens trust in God.
Theistic evolutionists and defenders of the traditional doctrine of creation both agree that the literal historical interpretation of Genesis was upheld by all of the Fathers, Doctors, and magisterial pronouncements of the Catholic Church for more than 1800 years. According to this common doctrine:
God created all of the different kinds of creatures ex nihilo in six days or less.
Adam was created before Eve who was formed from Adam’s side.
God created a perfectly harmonious world for Adam and Eve. There was no human sickness, death, disease, harmful mutations or man-harming natural disasters prior to the Fall.
Prior to the Original Sin, all of nature was under the dominion of Adam and Eve and was subservient to them.
Original Sin brought human death, disease, harmful mutations, and man-harming natural disasters in the world.
There was a global flood in Noah’s day which killed all of the people and animals on the earth except for those on Noah’s ark.
Early man was physically and mentally, superior to modern man. The patriarchs lived to the long ages ascribed to them.
All of the basic language-families complete with their unique grammars and modes of thought were instantaneously created by God during the Tower of the Babel incident.
Like Jesus, who taught that the Scripture “cannot be broken,” all the Apostles and Fathers of the Church taught and believed that Scripture was “God-breathed” and free from all error, and that the Holy Spirit moved the sacred authors to write exactly what He wanted them to say. Later, at several ecumenical councils, the Church recognized the unanimous interpretation of the Fathers as a certain rule of Scriptural interpretation. Without exception, the Apostles and Fathers believed and proclaimed the literal historical truth of Genesis 1-11, including all of the particular ideas mentioned above. Consequently, the Catechism of the Council of Trent, backed by the authority of an ecumenical council, authoritatively taught this interpretation of Genesis and interpreted the words of the Apostles Creed and the Fourth Lateran Council on creation in accord with that interpretation.
It follows that if theistic evolutionism is true then God permitted his one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church to teach authoritatively—if not in every instance dogmatically—a completely erroneous account of the creation and early history of the universe. Moreover, He willed that the correction of this error come not “from the contemplation and study of believers” and the teaching of the bishops—as Dei Verbum says that it should—but from the speculations of non-believers whose theories eventually fomented a revolution in the conventional wisdom within the Catholic Church. If this is true, who would trust such an incompetent, self-contradictory “god”?
Theistic evolutionism not only proclaims an incompetent god who contradicts himself, but breeds contempt for any kind of wisdom handed down from the “primitive” past. Since theistic evolutionists believe that the world is in a state of continuous evolution, they hold that man’s knowledge is continually superseded by “new developments.” The following story illustrates the devastating effects of this evolutionary mentality.
A Jewish rabbi recounted the following exchange on an airplane between his rabbi mentor and the communist head of the biggest labor union in Israel. After the plane took off, two young men appeared at the row of seats occupied by the rabbi and the communist, and began to assist the rabbi with his needs. The young men replaced the rabbi’s shoes with slippers since his feet swelled when the plane flew above 30,000 feet. Later they brought him a bag of homemade sandwiches and then they came with drinks. After observing all of this, the communist official remarked:
“Rabbi, I’m very impressed that your sons are so attentive to you.” So the Rabbi said, “Sons? No, those aren’t my sons. Those are my disciples. If my sons were here they would really be looking after me.” And the communist official began to weep a little bit. The rabbi said to him, “What’s the matter?” And he said, “You know, I’ve got four sons and in all the years - my four sons are grown - in all the years they’ve never done anything for me. And you’re telling me that in the short space that we’ve been together so far, in spite of what I’ve seen your disciples do, your sons would be doing even more for you! How can I not weep?” And so the rabbi said to him, “You shouldn’t weep. Your sons are as faithful to your teachings as mine are to mine.” The communist official said, “What are you talking about? I didn’t teach them not to ever do anything for me.” The rabbi said, “Maybe not in so many words, but didn’t you teach your children that human beings come from apes?” And the communist official said, “Well, of course! That’s the truth. I told them where we come from. I sent them to schools that taught that method.”
The rabbi said to him, “So then you must understand that each successive generation is one generation more removed from this ignoble beginning of apes. Therefore you are a little closer to the apes than they are. They are more developed than you are, because you’re a generation back closer to the apes. Therefore it’s only appropriate for a lesser life form to respect a higher one. And therefore if you’ve always served and taken care of your sons, you’ve done exactly what’s appropriate in accordance with your life view. But I chose a different approach. I taught my sons that we’re descended from God. That means every generation is a generation further away from this glorious origin. And therefore it’s only appropriate that my sons should respect me, not because of what I am, but because I represent one generation closer to the source.”[2]
This story poignantly illustrates the way that evolutionism—even in its theistic form—fosters contempt for Sacred Tradition, for cultural traditions, and for the wisdom of our fathers.
Reason #2
Theistic evolutionism fosters an anti-hierarchical vision of reality, including the Church and the family; the traditional doctrine of creation supports a hierarchical vision of reality, including the Church and the family.
The traditional understanding of Genesis conveys a hierarchical vision of reality, including a hierarchical understanding of the Church. Theistic evolutionism fosters an anti-hierarchical understanding of the Church. By envisioning the emergence of the first man and woman from ape-like parents, theistic evolution denies any kind of hierarchical relationship between Adam and Eve—although this flatly contradicts the traditional understanding of Genesis. According to patristic understanding, Adam was literally created before Eve. As dogmatically decreed at the Ecumenical Council of Vienne, Eve was literally created form Adam’s side, forming a type of the creation of the Church from the side of Christ on the Cross. In this way the creation of Eve mirrored the eternal generation of Christ by the Father. As Christ is “eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God . . . one in being with the Father,” so Eve was brought forth from the side of Adam, and shared the same nature as Adam. And just as the Holy Spirit is the endless living Love who proceeds from the Father through the Son, so the offspring of Adam and Eve were intended to be the fruit of their parents’ love, thus completing, in the human family, a perfect finite reflection of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.
By denying the supernatural creation of Eve from Adam’s side, theistic evolutionism denies the Trinitarian and hierarchical nature of the human family. For the theistic evolutionist, Adam and Eve both arise from the lower animals by a process of natural evolution. The sexual act through which human children are propagated is thus reduced to an animal activity rather than a reflection of the Trinitarian mystery. According to the patristic understanding of Genesis, Adam was created to be Eve’s mediator, teacher, and protector. [For this reason the Hebrew words for “guard and to keep” connote the activities of a priest.] Adam alone receives the divine command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the Fall does not take place until Adam—seeking to please his wife rather than God—joins her in disobedience to God’s command.
By denying each human father’s God-given responsibility to teach, govern, and sanctify his family, theistic evolutionism has contributed much to the emasculation and degradation of Catholic men. No longer reminded of his duty to teach, discipline, and spiritually direct his wife and children, the Catholic father now cheerfully abdicates his most important responsibilities, leaving his wife and his children’s teachers to teach, discipline, and sanctify his sons and daughters. But—since no one can take the place of a father—this is a burden they cannot bear. And so his abdication sets in motion the total disintegration of society.
The effects of this deviation from Tradition extend far beyond the human family to the very Household of God. By denying the divine design for the human family, theistic evolutionism challenges the hierarchical structure and male character of Church leadership. If Adam was not created before Eve but evolved at the same time as she did from ape-like creatures, then he has no special role in relation to her. And, since the Church is the “household (or family) of God,” if there is no divinely-designed hierarchy in the family placing man at the head, then why should there be a hierarchy in the Church, and why should men hold any special role as priests of the Church, since men and women have both “evolved” from the apes through natural processes? Indeed, if man was not created by God to be a priest to his wife and children, then why should the Church insist on a male priesthood? Why should the leader of the Church be a “Holy Father” instead of a “Holy Mother”?
Reasons #3
Theistic Evolutionism confuses and undermines the distinct divinely-instituted roles of men and women and indirectly contributes to the confusion of sexual roles. The traditional understanding of Genesis defines and strengthens the God-given roles of men and women and protects the dignity of both sexes and the leadership role of men.
According to the patristic understanding of Genesis, human sexuality is a gift from above, a reflection of the Trinitarian mystery. According to this traditional understanding of human sexuality, contraception, homosexuality, sinful behavior, and bestiality are all sacrilegious sins, in that they defile the life-giving reflection of Trinitarian divine love and render it sterile. According to theistic evolution, however, human sexuality came up from the apes. Homosexuals even argue that homosexuality is “natural” since certain species of apes and baboons practice homosexual play. Since man’s body evolved from animals of this kind, they argue, it is foolish to argue that homosexuality is against our nature.
The Importance of the Traditional Doctrine of Creation
by Hugh Owen
“Teach All That I Have Commanded You”:
In Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus gave the Great Commission to his Apostles. “Go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And lo, I will be with you always, until the end of the age.”
Although they lacked professional training, great learning, or even outstanding human virtues, the eleven Apostles succeeded in carrying out the greatest evangelization that the world has ever known. They succeeded not because they made maximum use of their own gifts and abilities but because they were totally obedient to their Master’s commands and received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Our Lord took pains to emphasize that any evangelization accompanied by the fullness of his power must include ALL the Truths that He had entrusted to the Apostles. It follows that any proclamation of the Gospel that omits or even downplays essential elements of the Good News will be lacking in power. This would be especially true if any fundamental element of the Gospel, as proclaimed by the Apostles and early Fathers, were to be omitted or perverted. The doctrine of creation and the Fall forms the foundation for the Church’s understanding of Redemption and Sanctification. In the light of this truth, it may come as a shock to many to realize that the understanding of creation and the early history of man proclaimed by all of the Apostles and Church Fathers differs drastically from that which is being proclaimed in most contemporary Catholic institutions of learning from kindergarten to the post-graduate level.
Whereas the Apostles and Fathers of the Church believed and proclaimed the literal historical truth of the early chapters of Genesis, the vast majority of contemporary Catholic evangelists and catechists believe and proclaim theistic evolution—the doctrine that God used billions of years of natural processes to produce the various kinds of living things, including man. Since God’s commandments do not change, the restoration of the literal historical interpretation of Genesis holds a key to success in the new evangelization. To build a new evangelization on the foundation of theistic evolution would be like trying to build a high rise building on a foundation of sand.
Nowadays one often hears educated and devout Catholics ask the question, “What difference does it make whether God used six days or billions of years of evolution, as long we believe that He did it?”
This little booklet answers that question. It does not expose the bankruptcy of molecules to man evolution as a scientific theory—that has already been done very effectively.[1] Instead it focuses on the spiritual devastation that theistic evolutionism has wrought in the souls of the Catholic faithful.
The Difference It Makes
It will be helpful to begin by defining our terms: theistic evolutionism (TE) and the traditional doctrine of creation (TDC).
Theistic evolutionism holds that God created matter in the beginning, and then used billions of years of natural processes, including death, destruction, mutations, and disease, to produce the various kinds of living things, including the human body. Generally speaking, theistic evolutionists deny the historicity of Genesis 1-11 and believe that Noah’s Flood was a local flood, that the Tower of Babel incident never actually happened, and that human languages evolved from primitive to more complex over long periods of time.
The traditional, patristic, magisterial doctrine of creation holds that God created all of the different kinds of creatures during a very brief creation period at the beginning of time by an act of his Divine Will. According to this understanding, God created a perfectly harmonious world for our first parents, Adam and Eve, a few thousand years ago. He created Adam first, and then created Eve from Adam’s side. There was no human sickness, death, disease, harmful mutations or man-harming natural disasters before the Fall. Prior to the Original Sin, all of nature was under the dominion of Adam and Eve and was subservient to them. Even after the Original Sin, early man was physically and mentally superior to modern man, and the early patriarchs actually lived to the long ages ascribed to them. There was a global flood in Noah’s day which killed all of the people and land animals except for those on Noah’s ark, and all of the basic language-families complete with their unique grammars and modes of thought were instantaneously created by God during the Tower of the Babel incident.
So: What difference does it make which of these two interpretations of Genesis one believes in?
We will argue that it makes a world of difference. And we will offer eight reasons why TE should be rejected and the TDC restored to its rightful place as the foundation of the Gospel.
Reason #1
Theistic evolutionism fosters contempt for Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and undermines confidence in God and his Word. The traditional understanding of Genesis fosters a love and appreciation for Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and strengthens trust in God.
Theistic evolutionists and defenders of the traditional doctrine of creation both agree that the literal historical interpretation of Genesis was upheld by all of the Fathers, Doctors, and magisterial pronouncements of the Catholic Church for more than 1800 years. According to this common doctrine:
God created all of the different kinds of creatures ex nihilo in six days or less.
Adam was created before Eve who was formed from Adam’s side.
God created a perfectly harmonious world for Adam and Eve. There was no human sickness, death, disease, harmful mutations or man-harming natural disasters prior to the Fall.
Prior to the Original Sin, all of nature was under the dominion of Adam and Eve and was subservient to them.
Original Sin brought human death, disease, harmful mutations, and man-harming natural disasters in the world.
There was a global flood in Noah’s day which killed all of the people and animals on the earth except for those on Noah’s ark.
Early man was physically and mentally, superior to modern man. The patriarchs lived to the long ages ascribed to them.
All of the basic language-families complete with their unique grammars and modes of thought were instantaneously created by God during the Tower of the Babel incident.
Like Jesus, who taught that the Scripture “cannot be broken,” all the Apostles and Fathers of the Church taught and believed that Scripture was “God-breathed” and free from all error, and that the Holy Spirit moved the sacred authors to write exactly what He wanted them to say. Later, at several ecumenical councils, the Church recognized the unanimous interpretation of the Fathers as a certain rule of Scriptural interpretation. Without exception, the Apostles and Fathers believed and proclaimed the literal historical truth of Genesis 1-11, including all of the particular ideas mentioned above. Consequently, the Catechism of the Council of Trent, backed by the authority of an ecumenical council, authoritatively taught this interpretation of Genesis and interpreted the words of the Apostles Creed and the Fourth Lateran Council on creation in accord with that interpretation.
It follows that if theistic evolutionism is true then God permitted his one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church to teach authoritatively—if not in every instance dogmatically—a completely erroneous account of the creation and early history of the universe. Moreover, He willed that the correction of this error come not “from the contemplation and study of believers” and the teaching of the bishops—as Dei Verbum says that it should—but from the speculations of non-believers whose theories eventually fomented a revolution in the conventional wisdom within the Catholic Church. If this is true, who would trust such an incompetent, self-contradictory “god”?
Theistic evolutionism not only proclaims an incompetent god who contradicts himself, but breeds contempt for any kind of wisdom handed down from the “primitive” past. Since theistic evolutionists believe that the world is in a state of continuous evolution, they hold that man’s knowledge is continually superseded by “new developments.” The following story illustrates the devastating effects of this evolutionary mentality.
A Jewish rabbi recounted the following exchange on an airplane between his rabbi mentor and the communist head of the biggest labor union in Israel. After the plane took off, two young men appeared at the row of seats occupied by the rabbi and the communist, and began to assist the rabbi with his needs. The young men replaced the rabbi’s shoes with slippers since his feet swelled when the plane flew above 30,000 feet. Later they brought him a bag of homemade sandwiches and then they came with drinks. After observing all of this, the communist official remarked:
“Rabbi, I’m very impressed that your sons are so attentive to you.” So the Rabbi said, “Sons? No, those aren’t my sons. Those are my disciples. If my sons were here they would really be looking after me.” And the communist official began to weep a little bit. The rabbi said to him, “What’s the matter?” And he said, “You know, I’ve got four sons and in all the years - my four sons are grown - in all the years they’ve never done anything for me. And you’re telling me that in the short space that we’ve been together so far, in spite of what I’ve seen your disciples do, your sons would be doing even more for you! How can I not weep?” And so the rabbi said to him, “You shouldn’t weep. Your sons are as faithful to your teachings as mine are to mine.” The communist official said, “What are you talking about? I didn’t teach them not to ever do anything for me.” The rabbi said, “Maybe not in so many words, but didn’t you teach your children that human beings come from apes?” And the communist official said, “Well, of course! That’s the truth. I told them where we come from. I sent them to schools that taught that method.”
The rabbi said to him, “So then you must understand that each successive generation is one generation more removed from this ignoble beginning of apes. Therefore you are a little closer to the apes than they are. They are more developed than you are, because you’re a generation back closer to the apes. Therefore it’s only appropriate for a lesser life form to respect a higher one. And therefore if you’ve always served and taken care of your sons, you’ve done exactly what’s appropriate in accordance with your life view. But I chose a different approach. I taught my sons that we’re descended from God. That means every generation is a generation further away from this glorious origin. And therefore it’s only appropriate that my sons should respect me, not because of what I am, but because I represent one generation closer to the source.”[2]
This story poignantly illustrates the way that evolutionism—even in its theistic form—fosters contempt for Sacred Tradition, for cultural traditions, and for the wisdom of our fathers.
Reason #2
Theistic evolutionism fosters an anti-hierarchical vision of reality, including the Church and the family; the traditional doctrine of creation supports a hierarchical vision of reality, including the Church and the family.
The traditional understanding of Genesis conveys a hierarchical vision of reality, including a hierarchical understanding of the Church. Theistic evolutionism fosters an anti-hierarchical understanding of the Church. By envisioning the emergence of the first man and woman from ape-like parents, theistic evolution denies any kind of hierarchical relationship between Adam and Eve—although this flatly contradicts the traditional understanding of Genesis. According to patristic understanding, Adam was literally created before Eve. As dogmatically decreed at the Ecumenical Council of Vienne, Eve was literally created form Adam’s side, forming a type of the creation of the Church from the side of Christ on the Cross. In this way the creation of Eve mirrored the eternal generation of Christ by the Father. As Christ is “eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God . . . one in being with the Father,” so Eve was brought forth from the side of Adam, and shared the same nature as Adam. And just as the Holy Spirit is the endless living Love who proceeds from the Father through the Son, so the offspring of Adam and Eve were intended to be the fruit of their parents’ love, thus completing, in the human family, a perfect finite reflection of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.
By denying the supernatural creation of Eve from Adam’s side, theistic evolutionism denies the Trinitarian and hierarchical nature of the human family. For the theistic evolutionist, Adam and Eve both arise from the lower animals by a process of natural evolution. The sexual act through which human children are propagated is thus reduced to an animal activity rather than a reflection of the Trinitarian mystery. According to the patristic understanding of Genesis, Adam was created to be Eve’s mediator, teacher, and protector. [For this reason the Hebrew words for “guard and to keep” connote the activities of a priest.] Adam alone receives the divine command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the Fall does not take place until Adam—seeking to please his wife rather than God—joins her in disobedience to God’s command.
By denying each human father’s God-given responsibility to teach, govern, and sanctify his family, theistic evolutionism has contributed much to the emasculation and degradation of Catholic men. No longer reminded of his duty to teach, discipline, and spiritually direct his wife and children, the Catholic father now cheerfully abdicates his most important responsibilities, leaving his wife and his children’s teachers to teach, discipline, and sanctify his sons and daughters. But—since no one can take the place of a father—this is a burden they cannot bear. And so his abdication sets in motion the total disintegration of society.
The effects of this deviation from Tradition extend far beyond the human family to the very Household of God. By denying the divine design for the human family, theistic evolutionism challenges the hierarchical structure and male character of Church leadership. If Adam was not created before Eve but evolved at the same time as she did from ape-like creatures, then he has no special role in relation to her. And, since the Church is the “household (or family) of God,” if there is no divinely-designed hierarchy in the family placing man at the head, then why should there be a hierarchy in the Church, and why should men hold any special role as priests of the Church, since men and women have both “evolved” from the apes through natural processes? Indeed, if man was not created by God to be a priest to his wife and children, then why should the Church insist on a male priesthood? Why should the leader of the Church be a “Holy Father” instead of a “Holy Mother”?
Reasons #3
Theistic Evolutionism confuses and undermines the distinct divinely-instituted roles of men and women and indirectly contributes to the confusion of sexual roles. The traditional understanding of Genesis defines and strengthens the God-given roles of men and women and protects the dignity of both sexes and the leadership role of men.
According to the patristic understanding of Genesis, human sexuality is a gift from above, a reflection of the Trinitarian mystery. According to this traditional understanding of human sexuality, contraception, homosexuality, sinful behavior, and bestiality are all sacrilegious sins, in that they defile the life-giving reflection of Trinitarian divine love and render it sterile. According to theistic evolution, however, human sexuality came up from the apes. Homosexuals even argue that homosexuality is “natural” since certain species of apes and baboons practice homosexual play. Since man’s body evolved from animals of this kind, they argue, it is foolish to argue that homosexuality is against our nature.