Ask Fr. J – Did Adam come from an ape?

Q: Did Adam come from an ape?

A: In asking this question you actually have brought two issues that the Catholic Church has been dealing with in recent years. First lets talk about Adam. The creation story is found in the book of Genesis, it is in fact two creations…right? Just say “Yes Father.” And nod your head like you think you know what I am talking about. The first Creation is found in Genesis 1:1- 2:4 and the second creation starts in 2:5, this is the creation that has Adam in it. Well both of these versions of Creation are there to teach us a very simple truth…everything was created by God because he loves us. Don’t get yourself all caught up in trying to figure out what a “day” was to God back then or how does evolution fit into all of this because neither of these ideas have anything to do with God’s love and how he created us. Remember the bible is simple and you don’t have to read more into it than God already wrote.

The second issue has to do with the “ape” part. The Catholic Church has always believed and taught that human beings were always human beings and they were never anything other than human beings (and this is how you write an entire sentence using only one two-word phrase). I don’t know if you had the chance to go see the new version of the “Planet of the Apes” yet (the special effects are truly killer), but even in a movie, which is sort of playing with the whole idea of evolutionism, it still points out that humans and apes, no matter how similar, are two separate species.