Today’s Post

Religion, as a reflection of man’s attempt to make sense of his surroundings and understand his potential, is one manifestation of the way the process of evolution unfolds in the human.  The unfolding of science and philosophy are others.  Today we will begin to take a final look at the evolution of religion in the context of Teilhard’s insights into the continuing evolution of the human person and his society.

The Continuation of Evolution in the Human

The central theme of this blog has been and continues to be the perspective on evolution as developed by Teilhard de Chardin.  This perspective not only connects the three major phases of evolution,

• physical, as seen in the evolution of matter to complex molecules
• biological, as seen in the many branches of the tree of life
• personal, as seen in the appearance of consciousness aware of itself

but, more important to the objectives of this blog, it provides a context for understanding the continuation of evolution as it proceeds through the human person and his society.

As we saw in the February 19 post, “Looking at Evolution, Part 3: Continuation of Evolution Through the Human Person”, there is a tendency to see the process of evolution as coming to a halt in the present day: that humans have “arrived”.  The process of evolution seems to have stopped, or slowed to a snail’s crawl, and it is difficult to detect any further substantial changes.  Indeed, viewing evolution from the perspective of biological “Natural Selection”, shows only the slightest rate of change in our physical make up.

As Teilhard points out, it’s much more probable that the process of evolution which got us here isn’t going to stop, but will instead continue.  This shouldn’t be a surprise: if you plot the continuous rise of complexity in the past, the continuing increase in the future is expected unless something drastically changes in the underlying process.  Therefore, we can expect the process of evolution to continue through the human person and the energies which unite him.

Ian Barber echoes Teilhard’s thinking in his book, “Religion and Science”, in which he recognizes both the continuation of evolution through the human person as well as the “change of state” that was addressed in the above referenced post:

“Today we can see that in the long history of the world, the emergence of humanity marks a genuinely new chapter- not one disconnected from previous chapters and yet one that involves factors not previously present.  Something radically different takes place when culture rather than the genes becomes the principal means by which the past is transmitted to the future and when conscious choice alters that future.”

If we see the evolutionary unfolding of entities and energy through Teilhard’s eyes, leading from more simple things to more complex things which have more capacity for interconnection, then we can extrapolate this continuation of evolution to ever more complex human persons and more conscious and skillful cooperation with the energies of human connection.

This ‘skillful cooperation” is the cornerstone of basic religion, one among the other skills that humans develop to continue to actualize their human potential: the skill of using the human brain to make sense of things and the acquired wisdom of doing so.

The Advent of the Human Person

So, what’s really different about the human person?  Considering the materialistic belief that “we are all molecules”, and the atheistic belief that “there’s nothing special about humans, they’re just a different form of animal”, what really changes (if indeed anything does) in the transition from ‘pre-human’ to ‘human”?  Are not animals conscious?  Are they not aware?  Do they not have feelings?  And if so, how can it be said that humans are different?

Teilhard observes that the single most important characteristic which separates humans from their non-human ancestors is their ‘redundant awareness’, which he refers to as ‘reflexive consciousness’.  In simpler terms, humans ‘know that they know’; they are aware of their awareness.

His use of the word ‘reflexive’ also carries a deeper meaning: the ‘rebounding’ effect that such consciousness has on the human person.  Knowledge of one’s knowledge contributes to personal growth, enhancing capacity for relationship, which enhances knowledge.  “The knowledge of knowledge builds knowledge”.  This iterative process can best be understood as a ‘spiral’ in the maturity of human persons in which each loop leads towards increased consciousness (a measure of increased complexity), and adds to the potential for the next loop of the spiral.

So, given the fact that evolution continues in the human person, how does religion come into play?

The Next Post

Next time we will continue our examination of religion through Teilhard’s perspective of evolution.