Human Origins Revisited: On the Recognition of Rationality and the Antiquity of the Human Race

Soon after Charles Darwin proposed his theory of the origin of species (1859), Catholic theologians set out to harmonize the evolutionary account with the traditional Christian doctrine of creation. While there have been several attempts at achieving this, all of them encountered philosophical or theological problems. After Humani Generis (1950), the debate among Catholic scholars shifted to questions related to polygenism and the propagation of original sin. In this paper, we show that these new theories adopted philosophically or theologically problematic concepts of hominization. We also argue that there is ample paleontological evidence from anatomy and tool-making to support the claim that the so-called fossil hominids should be categorized as either apes or human beings (Homo sapiens). This postulate invites a new look at human origins, one that remains compatible with modern science as well as traditional theology and metaphysics.