Are Creation and Evolution Compatible

The debate of over creationism and evolution has been going on for a long time and there is tons of arguments supporting either cause.There is an interesting point that I heard from Dr. Peter Kreeft in a lecture recently that put the whole debate into perspective. His point is that the original arguments do not negate either position.

One side says that God created everything, the other that we have evolved by natural selection. Putting it in perspective Kreeft says that the argument is like saying, "I have written this blog." and the other side says "this blog was typed on a computer." Neither statements are wrong one statement is general the other is more specific to the method. Likewise, the statements of creation and evolution would seem not to contradict each other; however, each has significant consequences.

Creation

The following data come from multiple works of Dr. Kreeft, both his Modern Scholar lectures "Faith and Reason" and Thomas Aquinas, as well as "Handbook of Christian Apologetics".
I think its good to begin with the statement ex nihilo; nihil fit (out of nothing; nothing comes). We know that it is impossible for something to come from nothing; yet, here we are, existing and asking questions like these. Everything has a cause and if we regress far enough we come to the first cause and creator whom we call God. Since God is not matter, the law ex nihil; nihil fit  does not bind God, because he transcends nature. Something that is finite cannot create from nothing; therefore, God is infinitely powerful and can create infinite change from non-being to being.

You say "well, who created God"? The simple answer is nobody. God is infinite -from everlasting; he is the adequate cause of nature.  Again God is pure actuality, i.e. He is not in potentiality —He is complete perfection. To say who made god is a contradictory statement, because it is like saying who changed the unchangeable.

The consequences of creation effect what we know of God and that is: his omnipotence (he must be all powerful to create from nothing; omniscience; omni-benevolence (He created us simply for our sake, since we are not necessary for Him). Likewise, we know that nature being created by God is intelligible, good (Christians should not believe that the physical world is evil; this is Manechaeism and Gnosticism which are heresies.), and real (Christians also believe in the reality of existence; we do not exist in someones conscious or unconscious mind).

Lastly, the final conclusion of Creationism is that if the universe is created by God, then we are subject to Him. Do your children have authority over you (parents have authority over their children in the hierarchical order and government of God)?  Does the play or story a poet writes lord it over the author — this sounds like nonsense, but for all those who deny Gods reign —the atheist, agnostic, and disobedient, their dissidence is very apparent.

Evolution

I will start by saying that the verdict on evolution is not conclusive. There are some in and outside of the Church who will elevate evolution to a substantial theory, rather than a mere hypothesis. Regardless of this fact, if evolution were true, the creationist may use the argument that since God is omnipotent, evolution could be the modus operndi for creating specific species including Humans —he is all powerful after all and thus it is possible.

The bottom line if evolution is true aside from God, we should have a completely materialistic philosophy toward life —God and religion become meaningless. Some argue that belief in evolution completely takes God out of the picture —Kreeft does not think so. If however, God chose to use evolution as his process for developing the human species, then at what point did the ape acquire a spirit and intellect? That important question is whether we have an eternal soul; scripture tells us we do, as well as all the other phenomena surrounding the saints and near death experiences. Furthermore, souls do not evolve because they are not formed of mater. "[Y]ou cannot get a wholly different thing —thought, consciousness, reason, self-awareness—from mere bits of matter. Awareness of the material universe is not one more part of that universe. "(Kreeft)

The three meanings of "evolution" commonly are: the fossil record, natural selection and absence of intelligent design. There prior two senses of evolution may not contradict the Bible, but the last does. We know there is absolutely zero empirical evidence for transitional forms in the fossil record, nor the inheritance of characteristics outside of specific species. With this in mind the stated adopted notion of evolution requires just as much faith if not more to believe rather than creationism.

The absence of intelligent design does contradict the bible however, and I will be honest it would take a blind dumb and def man to not see order and hierarchy saturating our world. A macro-cosmic example of order in the universe, is the recent discovery that all of the galaxies in the universe are evenly spaced verified by deep space images by the Hubble telescope. The micro example one could look at and which is become popular are the arguments found in genetics, which reveals the evidence not merely of individual features of biological complexity but rather of a fundamental constituent of the universe: information. I cant comment in any detail on it now, simply because these topics become highly scientific and I want to keep this short. Genetics has come a long way since the 1950's and I hope to write more on it in the future. The stamp of intelligence is best put by Farrel in My Way of Life:

The Stamp of intelligence is printed deep in the very being of the universe of unintelligent things; for the theme of that cosmic poem is a them of law and order shining forth from creatures totally incapable of themselves of disposing things to any end, let alone to cosmic ends. Whether we look at the harmony of the universe and see order written in the capital letters of unvarying procedure and of microscopic details in the leaf of a tree, the ear of an animal, or the eye of a man, there is that same clear evidence of a gigantic, an infinite intelligence. We have been given a share in that intelligence that we might read the poem that only infinite intelligence and meaning of it is reserved to the mind that wrote it.

To wrap this up, here is the gist:
Q. Can a Catholic believe in evolution?
A. Although there is no evidence for evolution, it is possible for God to have used it to form species This view does not contradict Gods initial Creation of the universe, provided you do not believe there is no intelligent design and order in the universe. However, the question still remains at what point does the soul come into the picture, seeing that it is not matter and cannot evolve.

I have not sufficiently put forth all the arguments opposing evolution and its implications; I hope to remedy this soon, while providing  the teaching of the magestierium in conjunction with those arguments.