Tag Archives: Evolution

Reinterpreting God- Part 1, A Starting Place

Today’s Post

Last week we concluded the identification of eighteen ‘principles of reinterpretation’ that we will use to address the traditional teachings of Western religion.  Since all religions in some way address and attempt a definition of the underlying ‘ground of being’, that of God, we will begin here.

Where to Start?

The concept of God as found in the many often contradicting expressions of Western religion can be very confusing.  Given the duality which occurs in both the Old and New Testament (such as punishment-forgiveness), layered with the many further dualities introduced by Greek influences in the early Christian church (such as body-soul) (”The Evolution of Religion, Parts 1-10,  Sept 3, 2015 to Jan 7, 2016), and topped by many contemporary messages that distort the original texts (such as the “Prosperity Gospel”) this is not surprising.  Finding a thread which meets our principles of interpretation without violating the basic findings of science but staying consistent with the basic Western teachings can be difficult.

A perhaps surprising starting place might come from the writings of one of the more well-known atheists, Richard Dawkins.   Professor Dawkins strongly dislikes organized religion, but in his book, “The God Delusion”, he casually remarks

“There must have been a first cause of everything, and we might as well give it the name God.  Yes, I said, but it must have been simple and therefore whatever else we call it, God is not an appropriate name (unless we very explicitly divest it of all the baggage that the word ‘God’ carries in the minds of most religious believers). The first cause that we seek must have been the simple basis for a ‘self-bootstrapping crane’ which eventually raised the world as we know it into its present complex existence.”

Here we find an excellent outline of the nature of the ‘fundamental principle of existence’:

–           It must be the first cause of everything

–          It must work within natural processes

–          It must be an active agent (“a ‘self-bootstrapping crane’ ”) in all phases of evolution from the Big Bang to the appearance of humans

–          It must be an agent for increasing complexity (“the raising of the world as we know it into its present complex existence”)

–          It must be divested of “all the baggage” (such as magic and superstition) of many traditional religions)

–          Once so divested, “God” is an appropriate name for this first cause

Dawkins goes on to claim that such a God cannot possibly be reconciled with traditional religion.  Paradoxically, he fails to grasp how acknowledging the existence of a “first cause” which raises everything to its current state is indeed at the core of all religion and offers an excellent place to begin this reconciliation.  Our process for this ‘reconciliation’ is of course that of ‘reinterpretation’.

For an example of such reinterpretation, in our preliminary outline above we find a reflection of Pope John Paul II’s statement on science’s relation to religion:

“Science can purify religion from error and superstition.”

So here in this starting place we can begin to see a view of God that is antithetical to neither science nor religion, but one in which John Paul II echoes Teilhard when he sees it as one in which:

“Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.”

But What About the Baggage?

Both John Paul II and Richard Dawkins recognize that Christianity has developed a complex set of statements about God.  How is it possible to put these statements into a context which is consistent with the simple outline offered above: to ‘divest them of their baggage’?  This is the objective of this last section of the blog.

The way to go about it?  We will use those ‘principles of reinterpretation’ which we identified in the last two posts to ‘divest the baggage’ in which the traditional statements about God are frequently wrapped.

A Preliminary Definition of God

To start this process, I offer a simple working definition of God:

“God is the sum total of all the forces by which the universe unfolds in such a way that all the entities that emerge in its evolution (from quarks to the human person) each have the potential to become more complex when unified with other entities.”

The question could be asked, “But isn’t this just Deism?’  We addressed this question in the posts, “But Isn’t This Just Deism?”-  6-20 August, 2015”, and noted the differences between our definition and that of Deism.  In summary, the Deists, most notably represented by Thomas Jefferson, conceived of a ‘ground of being’ which was responsible for everything which could be seen at that time.  In their minds, in order to strip “the baggage” from the religious expressions of their time, God had to be understood as a designer and builder of the world, but once having built it, retired from the project.  Theirs was a static world and in no need of continued divine involvement.  As they saw it, Man, given his intelligence by God, was capable of operating the world independently from its creator.

The Deists were off to a good start, but without the grasp of the cosmos and its underlying process of evolution that we have today, they were unable to conceive of a continuing agent of an evolution which continually manifests itself in increasing complexity.  Their static world postulated either an uninvolved God or (as they saw traditional religion’s belief) a God continually tinkering with his creation.

The Next Post

Next week we will begin to examine conventional conceptions of God, starting with that of ‘person’.

Reinterpretation, Part 1 – Relevancy

Today’s Post

Last week we concluded the third segment of the blog with a summary of the first three segments.  We also identified the observations, assertions and perspectives that we have gathered to form a basis for the fourth segment: Reinterpretation.  In this fourth and final segment we will address many of the statements of Western belief and explore the opportunities for reinterpretation that these new perspectives offer.

This week we will begin this segment with a look at the idea of ‘reinterpretation’ itself.

Why Do We Need Reinterpretation?

In his book, Man Becoming, Gregory Baum describes the work of Maurice Blondel in reinterpreting the traditional teachings of Christianity.  He summarizes a basic problem with Christian doctrine:

“A message that comes to man wholly from the outside, without an inner relationship to his life, must appear to him as irrelevant, unworthy of attention and unassimilable by the mind.”

In Blondel’s view, the key to relevance was reinterpretation.  In order to increase relevance, to increase our inner grasp of reality and understand the most fruitful engagement with it, we must constantly reinterpret it.

Baum notes that Blondel saw an impediment to the relevance of Christian theology in the tendency to focus on ‘God as he is in himself’ vs ‘God as he is to us’.  Jonathan Sacks echoes this tendency, noting that the main message of Jesus focuses on the latter, while the increasing influence of Plato and Aristotle in the ongoing development of Christian theology shows a focus on the former.  Both writers point out that this historical trend in Christianity is reflected in a theology of what and who God is apart from man.  This results, as Sacks notes, in a new set of dichotomies which were not present in Judaism, such as body vs soul, this life vs the next and corruption vs perfection (Nov 26, The Evolution of Religion, Part 7 : The Rise of Christianity: The Issue of Concepts).  Such dichotomy, they both note, compromises the relevance of the message.

An example of this dichotomy can be seen in the Question and Answer flow of the Catholic Baltimore Catechism:

“Why did God make me?

God made me to know, love and serve Him in this life so that I can be happy with Him in the next.”

Note that this simple QA reflects several aspects of such dichotomy.

First that ‘this life’ is simply a preparation for ‘the next’.    This life is something we have to endure to prove our worthiness for a fully meaningful and happy existence in the next.  Our goal here is simply to make sure that we live a life worthy of the reward of heavenly existence when we die.  Like the line from a child’s book, “First comes the work, and then the fun”.

Second, as follows from the first, the finding of meaning and the experience of happiness can’t be expected in human life.

o   Ultimate meaning is understood as ‘a mystery to be lived and not a problem to be solved’.  All things will not be made clear until the next life.

o   Happiness is a condition incompatible with the evil and corruption that we find not only all around us, but that we find within ourselves

o   Life is essentially a ‘cleansing exercise’, in which our sin is expunged and which, if done right, makes us worthy of everlasting life.

As both Blondel and Sacks noted, the increasing Greek content of this understanding in Christian history slowly moves God into the role that Blondel called the “over/against” of man.  It is not surprising that one of the evolutionary branches of Western belief, Deism, would result in the understanding of God as a powerful being who winds up the universe, as in a clock, setting it into motion but no longer interacting with it.

Dichotomy and Reinterpretation

So, where does this leave us?  The majority of western believers seem to be comfortable living with these dichotomies (not to mention the contradictions) present in their belief systems in order to accept the secular benefits of religion as outlined in the last segment:

–          a basis for human action

–          a contributor to our sense of place in the scheme of things

–          a pointer to our human potential

–          a contributor to the stability of society

While these benefits might be real, many surveys of western societies, especially in Europe, show a correlation between increasing education and decreasing belief.  Is it possible that (as the atheists claim) the price for the evolution of human society is a decrease in belief?  That the increasing irrelevancy of religion is a necessary byproduct of our maturity?

Or is it possible that the ills of western society require some connection to the spiritual realm claimed by religion?  Put another way: is it possible to re-look at these claims to uncover their evolutionary values?  How can the claims of religion be re-understood (‘re-religio’) in terms of their secular values: to look at them, as Karen Armstrong asserts, as “plans for Action” necessary to advance human evolution?  Certainly, in doing so, belief has the potential to recover the relevancy that is necessary for finding meaning.

In order to move toward such re-understanding, we will look at the idea of ‘reinterpretation’ itself, to explore how we can best apply the perspectives of Teilhard, Blondel, Armstrong and Sacks to the process of re-understanding our two thousand years of religious doctrine development.

The Next Post

Our lives are built on perspectives and beliefs that are so basic as to be nearly instinctual: how is it that we can come to see them differently?  Our histories, however, contain many stories of such transformations, and the unfolding of our sciences and civilizations are dependent upon them.

Next week we will take a look at some different approaches to how our perspective of the basic things in our lives can change, how we can ‘reinterpret’.

Bibliography for Science and Religion

Teilhard de Chardin and the Mystery of Christ– Christopher F. Mooney, Image Books edition, 1968

Mooney was a Jesuit priest and contemporary of Teilhard who sought to present Teilhard’s thinking on the great ‘mysteries’ of Christianity, such as the position that Teilhard saw for the person of Christ as the manifestation of the ‘axis of evolution’.

The Phenomenon of Man – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Original English Translation 1959 by W.Collins Sons & Co, LTD; Reprinted in Perennial 2002

One of the two books by Teilhard, this one contains his essential understanding of the rise of complexity from the big bang to the present, and his projection of human evolution as “convergent” upon a future ‘Omega Point’. It also contains his integrative and comprehensive theory of human love as the energy of unification which precipitates the ongoing creation of the human person through ‘complexification’.

Activation of Energy – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Edition 1970 by William Collins Sons & Co, LTD

A collection of unpublished articles by Teilhard which articulates his understanding of Love as the principle energy which ‘unites human persons by what is essential in them to effect maturity’.

Human Energy – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1969 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

See above

Christianity and Evolution- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1971 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

This collection of unpublished works by Teilhard reflects his strong belief that the basic tenets of Christianity actually support the view that Evolution effects the creation of the human spirit.

Toward the Future- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1975 by William Collins Sons, Ltd

More unpublished works by Teilhard which speculate on the future of Mankind based on his understanding of evolution as creative energy.

The Divine Milieu- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1960 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

The second of the two books by Teilhard, this one focuses on his concept of God and relation to the human person.

The Future of Man- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1964 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

More unpublished works on the future of the human person.

Hymn of the UniversePierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1960 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

Excerpts from his other writings.

The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin– Henri de Lubac, English Translation 1967 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

Lubac is another Jesuit priest and contemporary of Teilhard. In this book he shows Teilhad’s basic ideas to be well within the framework of the Christian orthodoxy that he affirmed through his life.

Man Becoming – Gregory Baum, Herder and Herder NY, 1970

This book provides a relook at the writing of Maurice Blondel, who was a French theologian who preceded Teilhard in an attempt to make Catholicism more relevant to contemporary Christians. Blondel is notoriously difficult to read, and Baum provides a more user friendly version of Blondel’s belief that traditional expressions of theology can be reinterpreted into terms of everyday life.

Falling Upward – Richard Rohr

This book offers a view of traditional Catholic teaching that has been reinterpreted in the light of such thinkers as Teilhard de Chardin, in which the basic teachings of Christianity are seen as more authentic in the teachings of Jesus than in the rule-based theology that was heavily influenced by the ancient Greeks.

Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations – Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation <cac@cacradicalgrace.ccsend.com>

These ‘daily meditations’ articulate Rohr’s reinterpretation of Catholic (and in general Christianity’s) teachings as summarized above.

A General Theory of Love -Thomas Lewis, MD, et al, First Vintage Edition, January 2001

While reducing the phenomenon of human love to merely emotional reactions, this excellent book nonetheless provides a good understanding of human neurology and how it affects behavior, but pays too little attention to the role that reason plays in human relationships.

An Atheist’s History of Belief – Matthew Kneale, The Bodley Head, UK, 2013

While this book espouses an atheist point of view, it nonetheless is an excellent historical overview of the history of human behavior and the rise of religious belief.

Finding Darwin’s God – Kenneth R. Miller, 1999 Cliff Street Books

This book attempts to show that there is little conflict between centrist western religions and the general theory of Darwin’s Natural Selection. Miller sees the conflict basically occurring between materialistic atheists and fundamental Christians, with the middle ground of believers and scientists more comfortable with both intuitive and empirical thinking.

Only a Theory – Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul – Kenneth R. Miller, Penguin Books, 2009

Like his other book (above), this book addresses the danger of such fundamental thinking as Fundamentalism in fomenting an ‘anti-scientific’ mentality in America.

Unweaving the Rainbow – Richard Dawkins, Mariner Books Edition, 2000

This book is Dawkins’ attempt to show the ‘cuddly’ side of atheism: that emotional meaning can be derived from a position which denies the existence of meaning.

The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins, 2006, First Mariner Books

This book is Dawkins’ strongest attack on religious belief. Open any page and his disdain for religious belief, coupled with his elitist view of science, can be seen. Much of his attack is against the irrational manifestations religion, and no small amount can be seen to conflict with other of his viewpoints, such as his disbelief in the evolutionary increase in complexity contrasted by his insight that evolution creates complexity over time.

The Great Transformation – Karen Armstrong, Alfred A. Knop, 2006

Armstrong shows how the five great human religious movements emerged during the ‘Axial Age’ ( about 900 – 200 BCE)

Fields of Blood – Karen Anderson, Bodley Head Publishers, 2014

In response to the many atheistic accusations that most human conflict arises from religious beliefs, Armstrong asks, “As opposed to what?”

On Becoming a Person – Carl Rogers, Houghton-Miffin Sentry Edition, 1962

Rogers was one of the early “existentialist” psychologists, who believed that it was necessary for the psychologist to be ‘personally present’ to the client, that his personal investment in therapy was itself important to the healing which resulted. This book became an essential guide to what was to become known as ‘pastoral psychology’

The Divine Conspiracy – Dallas Willard, 1998, Harper Collins, First Edition

Dallas Willard is well respected in the Protestant Evangelical community. He provides a balanced view of this complex theological position.

Love- A History, Simon May, 2011, Yale University Press, First Edition

This, and the following three books constitute a small sample of the large volume penned by May. It offers a detailed history of the way human relationships have played out in history, and excellent insight into the evolution of psychology. He goes into great detail on Freud as an early pioneer. This book overviews and summarizes his observations. The next two go into great detail on love in the two eras as reflected in the titles.

The Philosophy of LovePlato to Luther– Simon May, 1966, Random House

The Philosophy of LoveThe Modern World– Simon May, 1966, Random House

The Philosophy of Love– Simon May, 2011, MIT Paperback

Origins – Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Norton Paperback, 2005

Tyson continues the journey of explanation from the TV “Cosmos” series, carrying scientific discoveries up to the present day.

Religion and Science-Historical and Contemporary Issues- Ian G. Barbour, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997

This book is a very comprehensive review of thinking in both the scientific and religious communities. While it leans toward a lack of conflict between them, it falls short of the strong confluence seen by Teilhard.

The Triune Brain – Jaak Panksepp, Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998.

This excellent article details discovery and description of the three layers of the human brain: reptilian, limbic and neo-cortex.

The Great Partnership, Science, Religion and the Search for Meaning – Rabbi Jonathan
Sacks, Schocken Books, 2011

This excellent book traces the evolution of language, culture and religion through the formation of Greece from the near-east cultures about 500 BCE, showing the increasing influence of ‘right-brained’ thinking on what had been centuries of culture dominated by ‘left brained’ thinking. His insights into the re-merging these two currents as can be seen in Christianity offer a basis of understanding religion in the context of human evolution.

A God That Could Be Real, Spirituality, Science and the Future of Our Planet – Nancy Ellen Abrams, Beacon Press, 2015

On the surface, this book would also seem to address the idea that God that can be accessed through science. While offering an excellent explanation of ’emergence’, a phenomenon in which complexity naturally rises from otherwise simple components, she confuses the result with the cause. Limiting God to that which emerges from ’emergence’ simply begs the question of what causes it.


What is Religion? Part 2: The Evolution of Understanding

Today’s Post

Last week we looked at this question from the viewpoint of religion as a way to look at reality and our place in it, but hampered by the diverse and often contradictory manifestations of belief.  This week’s post will continue to address this question by looking at religion from the perspective of Teilhard: by situating it in the context of evolution.

Religion in the Context of Human Evolution

The key characteristic of evolution as it continues in the human, the skill of using the neocortex brain to deal with the primal urgings of the lower limbic and reptilian brains, offers a starting place to look at religion.

As Teilhard has observed, anything totally new (atoms, cells, persons) in the universe initially emerges in the appearance of its predecessor.   The earliest cell, for example, emerges ‘dripping in molecularity’, and operates at the level of the sophisticated, complex molecules from which it evolved.  The trappings of ‘life’ do not appear until much later.  So it seems in the case of the human.  Emerging from the forest of pre-humans, the first human may be distinguished anatomically from his predecessors by the presence of the large neocortex, but otherwise barely so.  It is many thousands of years before humans become aware of their uniqueness, and still many more before this uniqueness begins to be understood objectively.

The history of this evolution of understanding can be found in the human management of the primal urges of the lower brains.  This skill is learned over time and is part of acquired philosophical and cultural behavior.  As Richard Rohr states, this skill is as necessary for our personal evolution as it is for our evolution as a species:

“(It is necessary for us to) move beyond our early motivations of personal security, reproduction and survival (the fear-based preoccupations of the ‘reptilian brain’) … to proceed beyond the lower stages of human development.”

From Society to Self

Initially, religions emerged as a collection of evolved rules necessary for orderly society, and these rules are backed up by belief in supernatural sources.  It is not until the Axial Age (900-200 BCE) (September 17, “The Evolution of Religion, Part 2- The ‘Axial Age’ “) that these beliefs begin to address the human person himself, and philosophical systems begin to emerge to provide explanations.   As Karen Armstrong sees it:

“For the first time, human beings were systematically making themselves aware of the deeper layers of human consciousness.  By disciplined introspection, the sages of the Axial Age were awakening to the vast reaches of selfhood that lay beneath the surface of their minds.  They were becoming fully “Self-conscious””

As she observes, in spite of the many streams of thinking which developed during this brief period of time:

“The fact that they all came up with such profoundly similar solutions by so many different routes suggests that they had indeed discovered something important about the way human beings worked”.

Some religions, particularly those in the East, are less focused on god or gods, and more on behavior by which individuals can achieve their potential.

Other religions, particularly those in the West, focus more on positing the rules in a personal godhead, and basing religious beliefs on faithfulness to the rules.  Again, from Karen Armstrong, commenting on Western expressions:

 “It is frequently assumed, for example, that faith is a matter of believing certain creedal propositions.  Indeed it is common to call religious people “believers” as though assenting to the articles of faith were their chief activity.”

However, she goes on to say of the Axial sages:

“…they all concluded that if people made a disciplined effort to reeducate themselves, they would experience an enhancement of their humanity.  In one way or the other, their programs were designed to eradicate the egotism that is largely responsible for our violence, and promoted the empathic spirituality of the Golden Rule.  The consistency with which the Axial sages-quite independently-returned to the Golden Rule may tell us something important about the structure of our nature.”

As we noted last week: Teilhard understood the need for an understanding of both ‘the self’ as well as this ‘structure of our nature’ from both the scientific and religious perspectives:

“To explain the workings of the universe we must understand the forces and process by which it comes to be, and this understanding must include the human person.”

This simply stated approach to such an understanding is also the basis for beginning to approach God from the perspective of science (“understanding the forces and processes”) and extending this perspective to religion (“including the human person”)

Karen Armstrong also notes that most religions are based on the intuitive belief that the ‘forces’ by which the universe comes to be include a ‘personal’ aspect.  In support of such a synthesis, she cites the earliest (700 BCE) Eastern belief that:

“There is an immortal spark at the core of the human person, which participated in – was of the same nature as – the immortal brahman that sustained and gave life to the entire cosmos.  This was a discovery of immense importance and it would become a central insight in every major religious tradition.  The ultimate reality was an immanent presence in every single human being.”

The Next Post

Today’s post addressed the definition of religion in the context of evolution.  Next week’s post will address how belief underlies our ability to act as part of our becoming more what we have the potential to become.

What is Religion? Part 1: Making Sense of Things

Today’s Post

Having taken a brief look at the evolution of religion over the last several weeks, today we will begin a final look at religion by addressing the question, “what is religion”?

The Many Manifestations of Belief

In previous weeks, we have looked at religion from a secular point of view: as simply the ongoing human attempt to make sense of our surroundings and develop strategies to help us cope with it.  Both history and even the most casual look at the world today, however, shows these attempts to result in a bewildering array of beliefs, practices and social structures which fall into the general category of ‘religion’.

Ian Barbour proposes a general definition of the term ‘religion’:

“A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.”

This sort of definition rolls up an understanding of our environment into beliefs about the causes of this environment and the practices to be observed for us to appropriately deal with it.

East vs West

The content, modes and expressions of such beliefs, however, vary significantly among the many manifestations to be found among the many cultures in the world.  The differences between East and West beliefs and practices, for example, are significant enough to suggest that conventional definitions of the term ‘religion’ will not stretch sufficiently to encompass them all.

For example, there are significant differences between understandings of the human person and his place in society between the West and East.  In the East, ultimate fulfillment of the person consists in ‘dissolution’ into the ‘whole’, while in the West, it consists of articulation of the person in the form of a ‘soul’, which is gathered into the ‘whole’ intact.

Even the basic understanding of time is different between East and West.  The Western understanding of time as an ‘arrow’ preceding from a beginning and eventually coming to an end.  This is contrary to the Eastern understanding of time as cyclical, with its vision of the unending repetition of birth, death and rebirth on both the personal as well as the cosmic level.

Karen Armstrong comments on such differences:

“The idea of religion as an essentially personal and systematic pursuit was entirely absent from classical Greece, Japan, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, China and India.  Nor does the Hebrew Bible have any abstract concept of religion; and the Talmudic rabbis would have found it impossible to express what they meant by ‘faith’ in a single word or even in a formula.”

All expressions of belief, however, having occurred over such a great span of time and including the thoughts of so many thinkers, have accumulated diverse and often bewildering explanations and claims to truth.  The evolution of religion as the human attempt to make sense of his surroundings has gone on for such a long time that every possible belief (attempt to make sense) has evolved along with it.

Understanding Ourselves

The history of religious thinking, therefore, can certainly be seen as an often clumsy, un-integrated and contradictory attempt to articulate the personal aspect of the forces by which we, and the rest of the universe, have come into existence.

Teilhard noted the need for an understanding of both these forces and the persons which emerge from them:

“To explain the workings of the universe we must understand the forces and process by which it comes to be, and this understanding must include the human person.”

This simply stated approach to such an understanding is also the basis for our approach to God from the perspective of science (“understanding the forces and processes”) and extending this perspective to religion (“including the human person”).

So, In keeping with the insights of Teilhard de Chardin, one way of understanding religion is to place it into the context of human evolution.

The Next Post

Next week we will address the question ‘what is religion’ from this point of view.