A model 5 mark answer.....

Evolution is the process of mutation and natural selection which leads to changes in species over time to suit particular environments. Charles Darwin first came up with the theory in 1859, in his book called ‘On the Origin of the Species’. Having studied various animals/ birds in the Galapagos Islands he noticed differences in the animals depending on the island they lived in, which would be passed on to their offspring in order for them to survive. Richard Dawkins is a British scientist who is often referred to as the most famous atheist in the world. He is a great supporter of Darwin’s theory and rejects any notion of a creator God who has a plan for the universe and rejects the concept of an immortal soul given by God to humans. He argues that humans are merely a more advanced form of animals and thus have no greater importance on earth. Catholics, however believe that human beings were created purposefully by God in imago dei, as part of his loving plan and that they have an immortal soul, which makes them unlike other animals as they are rational, free and moral. As stated in Gaudium et Spes, one of the 4 documents which resulted from the second vatican council ‘all men possess a rational soul and are created in God's likeness’. For Catholics there is ‘no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of faith’. Pope Pius XII stated this in his encyclical ‘Humani Generis’ he said that evolution was a ‘serious hypothesis’. Fifty years later, Pope John Paul II said that evolution is ‘more than an hypothesis’ but that there is ‘a significant argument in favour of the theory’. Therefore according to Pope John Paul II, beliefs about God as creator and scientific theories of evolution are compatible, and there is ‘no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation’.