Is the human soul evolved from matter, or directly created by God?
The Church teaches that while the human body may have developed from pre-existing living matter under divine guidance, every individual human spiritual soul is immediately and directly created by God at the moment of conception. The human soul is not produced by the parents, nor is it a product of biological evolution. Because the soul is spiritual, it is intrinsically immortal; it does not perish when the physical body dies, and it will be reunited with the body at the final resurrection.
Sources
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 366
- Jeremiah 1:5
Awaiting review by the chaplaincy. Written in our own words; the Church's own texts are the authority.