The Roman Catholic

Don’t let the title above fool you. I’m a believer in evolution but in the theory that evolution is directed by God and not in the theory that it’s a random purposeless process.

This morning, I read an interesting article on Designer Babies by Tom Purcell. As I read the piece, I was struck by the fact that we humans still have many bad genes despite being around for some 1 million years. The theory of natural selection being the driver of evolution emphasizes that bad genes are weeded out of the gene pool by the early death of the carrier of the gene before it can be propagated.

So the question is, how come we still have these bad genes? What happened to natural selection (or weeding)? Was the gardener on holiday?

My belief (I’m disclaiming that I’m a geneticist or biologist), is that the theory of natural selection may be applicable only for animals without a spirit. Animals with spirits (human beings) are probably exempt from this “law”. We are directly under the observation of our Creator who has probably allowed the law of natural selection to be suspended for us. We will always have the gene for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. Maybe these diseases are there to remind us of our limitations and to be dependent on God and submit to His will. Animals without spirits don’t need to be reminded who their ultimate Master is. We humans have the tendency to be arrogant and become gods ourselves.

Back to the false philosophy that there is no God and that evolution is random and purposeless, I would like a geneticist explain the reason for the failure of natural selection over a million years in the history of humankind.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 30th, 2007 at 1:00 and is filed under Catholic Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.