The Metaphysics of Evolution

A philosophical approach to debunking evolution.

Fr. Ripperger uses simple principles of logic and reason to show how the concept of macroevolution is inherently irrational and illogical. Some of the logical principles that you will learn about include the "principle of hierarchy of being", “excluded middle”, “non-contradiction”, “sufficient reason”, “cause is greater than the effect”, “proportionate causality,” “resemblance”, and “operation”.

In addition to that, there is some discussion on the many problems of theistic evolution. 

Drawing from Thomistic principles, Fr. Ripperger effectively demonstrates that the theory of evolution is totally incompatible with the metaphysics of Catholic tradition. This book will remedy any insecurities you might have on the topic of evolution and it will strengthen your ability to provide a worthy defense on a philosophical basis.

“Nothing cannot bring itself into existence because the existence was not there to begin with.”

“All things that are created do not act through their substances (essence/species) but through proper accidents called faculties and so the faculties are those by which a thing acts. These proper accidents or faculties flow from the essence… Metaphysicians observe that not any accident can exist in any substance, e.g. thought, which is an accident in man, cannot exist in a stone because the substance of a stone does not have enough act to cause the act of existence of thought.”

“The environment cannot cause an essence, for an essence is greater than its accidents.”

“A man goes out and stays in the sun for long period of time and his skin chances from white to tan… A particular substance (essence) can undergo accidental change within the context of what the substance is able to support according to its nature. This variation within a species is sometimes called microevolution. Hence, we see that microevolution is possible while macroevolution is not.”

“Macroevolution essentially asserts that a thing does not act according to its nature, for if it acted according to its nature, it would not produce something other than its nature.”

“Inorganic compounds cannot produce life because life does not exist in the inorganic compounds. Even when one has more than one set of causes, if life is not contained in those causes, life cannot come from those causes, regardless of how many there might be. To put this in the context of macroevolution, a ‘primordial soup and lightning’ cannot produce something that has life because neither one of them has it.”

“There are no transitional links and intermediate forms in either the fossil record or the modern world. Therefore there is no actual evidence that evolution has occurred either in the past or is occurring in the present.”

“Theistic evolution, whether it states that it is a natural process, which is really just a covert way of introducing constant miracles, or asserts outright that miracles are constantly necessary for the process, violates the principle of economy. It violates the principle of economy because it posits a number of causes, in this case God intervening as a cause on repeated occasions, without a sufficient reason.”

(Slightly abridged and paraphrased for brevity and clarity)

Vincent: Metaphysics of Evolution by Fr. Chad Ripperger! I’ve been on a Fr. Ripperger binge lately. Now I read this book because this is one of the areas that I could not defend well. I needed some tidying up. I needed to be able to defend it better, and who better to turn to than Fr. Ripperger? He’s so calm and collected with everything. So this is actually a philosophical approach to debunking evolution. It’s pretty enjoyable in that sense. So if you’re a philosophical person instead of a scientific person, this person is for you. I’m going to read a couple quotes and we can talk about them.

So who was the first philosopher to espouse that the world creates itself over and over again?

Charles: You got me.

Vincent: “Nothing can not bring itself into existence, because existence was not there to begin with.” You can’t go from nothing to something. All these atheists are trying to do this. I think Steve Hawking tried to do this where he said gravity is the eternal constant, and there was nothing else, and through that, everything happened. Then there’s the big bang. It tries to dodge the question of what did the creating? There has to be something that does the act of creating!

Charles: No, it just happened.

Vincent: Yeah, so Fr. Ripperger makes the point that when we say “nothing”, we aren’t truly thinking of “nothing”, we’re thinking of an absence of light, form, or something. It’s not truly “nothing.” So I thought that was interesting. It’s fascinating to me because you have geniuses who don’t abide by simple rules of logic.

Charles: Well there’s a reason for that. The will precedes the intellect. They go to what they want to go. And what they want to go to is atheism because atheism frees them from restraint. If there is no God, you can do whatever you like. There’s a downside, however. If there’s no God, nothing’s worth anything.

Vincent: Yeah. OK, next quote. I love this one, this is so good: “Inorganic compounds cannot produce life because life does not exist in the inorganic compounds. Even when one has more than one set of causes, if life is not contained in those causes, life cannot come from those causes, regardless of how many there might be. To put this in the context of macroevolution, a ‘primordial soup and lightning’ cannot produce something that has life because neither one of them has it.”

Charles: Wait a minute, didn’t he ever see Frankenstein?

Vincent: Oh gosh, that’s true!

Charles: Now how was he able to bring his monster to life? It was through lightning, through electricity!

Vincent: That’s true!

Charles: See? That’s a great comeback to Fr. Ripperger. Arguments from movies.

Vincent: Well it’s not movies per se. What did Mary Shelley say? She didn’t say lightning, did she?

Charles: She said electrical force.

Vincent: Oh OK, because hers was a little more philosophical, it wasn’t so dramatic.

Charles: Yeah she missed out on the whole “Give my creation life!”

Vincent: That’s an interesting take Charles. OK, last quote:

“Macroevolution essentially asserts that a thing does not act according to its nature, for if it acted according to its nature, it would not produce something other than its nature.”

Now I actually arrived at this independently. You see nature and you feel something. You feel wonder. You see a beaver dam, and you say to yourself “Oh this is nature!” But when you go into a city, in an urban environment, you don’t think to yourself “Oh, that’s nature.” So how do you do that? How do you go from one thing to the next? How do you go from “nature” to “not nature?” You can’t do that. Nature will always be nature.

Charles: You can hold your breath and make it so.

Vincent: I’m going to bring up one last thing which is another area that Fr. Ripperger talks about: theistic evolution. There are some theologians who try to bridge the gap and make everything work. So I have one quote here on what Fr. Ripperger thinks of theistic evolution:

“Theistic evolution, whether it states that it is a natural process, which is really just a covert way of introducing constant miracles, or asserts outright that miracles are constantly necessary for the process, violates the principle of economy. It violates the principle of economy because it posits a number of causes, in this case God intervening as a cause on repeated occasions, without a sufficient reason.”

In other words, God is creating these miraculous ways for animals to change their nature, but why are we doing this process to begin with in this quasi-natural thing. It violates the principle of economy.

So this is the approach Fr. Ripperger uses, where he takes simples rules of logic, and then he says how each part of evolution violates a very simple rule. So I highly recommend it. It’s a short book. I will offer one caveat. It does take some time to wrap your head around some of these sentences and concepts. But you just say the sentence one more time in your head, and you get it. And once you have these things down, you’ll be able to adequately defend the Catholic position on this matter. It’s $9.95 on the Tumblar House website and I highly recommend it. All of Fr. Ripperger’s books are selling like hotcakes right now.