What did God the Creator create, and why? This question, urgent to participants in the debates over evolution, is urgent to others too -- all concerned about the environment, for example.

The human person, created by God, possesses inherent dignity and worth. Created by God, the life of each human person must be respected, the church teaches.

The universe, created by God, also possesses inherent dignity and worth. Often, human beings are described as the earth's stewards. They have a responsibility to treat the earth as a home for themselves and future generations. We are the world's caretakers, not its exploiters, the church teaches.

My point is that in acknowledging God as Creator, our responsibility toward creation increases. Genesis saw God not only as a powerful Creator, but as a loving one. God's love for creation as its Creator becomes a mandate for us.

Respect for life is a mandate for those who believe that God is the human being's Creator. It is a mandate for those who believe that God is the world's Creator too.

We're called to recognize the source of life and to continue God's creation by giving life to others and to the world.

D. Gibson
Editor, Faith Alive!

By FATHER JOHN W. CROSSIN. OSFS
Catholic News Service

Is God's revelation to us in Scripture compatible with evolution? Or not?

The media regularly cover these questions as they are debated by school boards or in classrooms and courtrooms. Scholarly journals discuss the details of what are known as "creationism," "intelligent design" or "neo-Darwinian evolution."

All this discussion comes across as a complicated puzzle.
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By PAT WARGOCKI
Catholic News Service

Can one believe that God is the Creator of the universe and also accept theories of evolution?

According to Jesuit Father George V. Coyne, the answer is a resounding "yes." He believes that science reflects God's infinite purpose, and so they're not at odds.

Father Coyne has a keen perspective on both worlds. He is a religious man, one who has been a Jesuit since age 18. He is also a scientist at the Vatican Observatory, where he has been director since 1978.
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By FATHER LAWRENCE BOADT, CSP
Catholic News Service

The church insists the Bible is entirely true, not about science facts, but about what we need to know for salvation.

In debates over evolution, people want to know whether the Bible is to be taken literally in saying that creation took place in seven days. People want to know also whether the human being is unique, specially created by God unlike any other creature as body and soul.

Such questions became acute in the late 19th century with the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species" in 1859 and the publication of the Babylonian creation and flood accounts in 1872. People who wanted to debunk Christian claims used Darwin to say that we humans are just a highly developed species of animal with more brain capacity than others, but no difference in substance. They said that the Babylonian accounts showed that the Bible borrowed typical creation stories from its neighbors.
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IN A NUTSHELL

• We ask, What is true about evolution? And what is an interpretation or an exaggeration?
  
• Catholics believe that both the truth of evolution and the truth of revelation are from God.
  
• The Bible is entirely true, not about science facts, but about what we need to know for salvation.