FACT OF EVOLUTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTIONISM 329 



Evolutionists of the nineteenth century were interested primarily 

 in demonstrating that evolution has actually taken place. They 

 succeeded eminently well. Evolution as an historical process is 

 established as thoroughly and completely as science can establish 

 facts of the past witnessed by no human eyes. At present, an 

 informed and reasonable person can hardly doubt the validity of 

 the evolution theory, in the sense that evolution has occurred.* 



Just a few months before this statement was published, Pope 

 Pius XII wrote the following statement in the encyclical 

 Humani Generis, the Catholic Church's most important and 

 explicit comment on the problems connected with evolutionary 

 thought: 



If anyone examines the state of affairs outside the Christian fold, 

 he will easily discover the principal trends that not a few learned 

 men are following. Some imprudently and indiscreetly hold that 

 evolution, which has not been fully proved even in the domain of 

 natural sciences (nondum invicte probatuTn in ipso disciplinarum 

 naturaliurri ambitu) , explains the origin of all things, and audaci- 

 ously support the monistic and pantheistic opinion that the world 

 is in continual evolution.^ 



Dobzhanski certainly meant to include the origin of the human 

 species by this evolutionary process which he claimed to be an 

 indubitable fact. But Pope Pius XII, when he expressed his 

 mind on the question of the origin of man from some pre-exist- 

 ing living form, again reverted to an expression which seems 

 contrary to the statement of the geneticist (and the majority 

 of scientists speaking on the question) . After making it clear 

 that the Church by no means disfavors the evolutionary inquiry 

 into the origins of man from living matter in keeping with 

 the most careful research, he adds: 



However, this must be done in such a way that. reasons for both 

 opinions, that is those favorable and unfavorable to evolution, be 

 weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation and 

 measure . . . Some, however, highly transgress this liberty of dis- 



* Genetics and the Origin of Species, 3rd ed. (New York, 1951) , p. 11. 

 ® Cf . translation of the Encyclical Letter Humani Generis prepared by The 

 Paulist Press, New York, 1950, p. 6. 



