Evolution and the Emergence of Life

Lesson 42 –
Evolution and the Emergence of Life

Where does life come from? Is it caused by God? Or does it result from a vast and complex interaction of causes within the world? Could the answer be: both? And if yes, what distinctions do we need to make?

In previous videos, we have examined the Biblical accounts of creation, Thomistic philosophical principles about creation and divine governance, and also contemporary scientific accounts of randomness and order, the origins of the cosmos, and the development of life. In this video, we’ll try to bring things together and give the essential elements of an answer.

Course Reading

Summa Theologiae I q. 65, a. 4 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae I q. 115, a. 2 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Excerpt from the Summa Theologiae I q. 115, a. 2 :

[I]n the first production of corporeal creatures no transmutation from potentiality to act can have taken place, and accordingly, the corporeal forms that bodies had when first produced came immediately from God, whose bidding alone matter obeys, as its own proper cause. To signify this, Moses prefaces each work with the words, "God said, Let this thing be," or "that," to denote the formation of all things by the Word of God, from Whom, according to Augustine [*Tract. i. in Joan. and Gen. ad lit. i. 4], is "all form and fitness and concord of parts.