How can the phenomenon of spirituality be seen in evolution?

Today’s Post

Last week we introduced the concept of spirituality as a natural phenomenon, and saw how it can be understood as underpinning the continuation of human evolution as seen in the development of human ideas.  This week we will broaden our look to see the essential part played by spirituality in universal evolution.

The Spiritual Basis of Evolution

We have seen in our secular perspective of God how the principle metric of evolution can be seen as the increase in complexity over time, and how this increasing complexity has yet to be quantified by science but yet is critical to science’s understanding of how the universe unfolds.  As John Haught puts it

“The obvious fact of emergence- the arrival of unpredictable new organizational principles and patterns in nature- continues to elude human inquiry as long as it follows … naturalism in reducing what is later-and-more in the cosmic process to what is earlier-and-simpler.   A materialist reading of nature leads our minds back down the corridor of cosmic time to a state of original subatomic dispersal- that is to a condition of physical de-coherence.”

  We have also seen how the emergence of complexity in universal evolution underpins the principle by which “later-and-more” entities can emerge from those which are “earlier and simpler”.  Teilhard sees an energy at work by which this happens at every rung of evolution.  At the rung of fundamental particles, it can be seen in the effecting of electrons from bosons, then the effecting of atoms from electrons, and the effecting of molecules from atoms.  At the rung of the human person, it is the energy which unites us in such a way that we become more complete.  Teilhard recognizes that at the human level this energy manifests itself as ‘love’.

   Thus, as Teilhard see it, the essential process at work in the universe can be seen in every stage of its emergence as

 “Closer union from fuller being, and fuller being from closer union”

   It is at work, therefore, as we look backward in time at all previous steps of evolution.  While science does not yet have a term for this energy, the religious term is ‘spirit’.

As Teilhard points out, in the collection of his thoughts, “Human Energy”, therefore, the roots of this essential ‘complexifying’ energy of evolution are deeply embedded in the ‘axis of evolution’.

“Spirituality is not a recent accident, arbitrarily or fortuitously imposed on the edifice of the world around us; it is a deeply rooted phenomenon, the traces of which we can follow with certainty backwards as far as the eye can reach, in the wake of the movement that is drawing us forward.  ..it is neither super-imposed nor accessory to the cosmos, but that it quite simply represents the higher state assumed in and around us by the primal and indefinable thing that we call, for want of a better name, the ‘stuff of the universe’.  Nothing more; and also nothing less.  Spirit is neither a meta- nor an epi- phenomenon, it is the phenomenon.”

   As Teilhard sees it, this ‘secular’ approach to spirituality overcomes yet another dualism that is common to religion: spirit vs matter.

“Spirit and matter are (only) contradictory if isolated and symbolized in the form of abstract, fixed notions of pure plurality and pure simplicity, which can in any case never be realized.  (In reality) one is inseparable from the other; one is never without the other; and this for the good reason that one appears essentially as a sequel to the synthesis of the other.  The phenomenon of spirit is not therefore a sort of brief flash in the night; it reveals (itself in) a gradual and systematic passage from the unconscious to the conscious, and from the conscious to the self-conscious.”

   Teilhard is making an essential point about spirit and matter, the ‘stuff of the universe,’ here.  He sees matter evolving to higher levels of complexity (‘synthesizing’) under the influence of the energy of complexification (‘spirit’), and the increased complexity which results from such synthesis is therefore capable of more complex interaction.  This increased material level of complexity is a manifestation of an increased level of spirit.  To Teilhard, spirit is “nothing more; and also nothing less” than the energy of evolution.

Universal Spirituality and Dualism

He goes on to elaborate how the ‘spirit/matter’ dualism so endemic in religion is resolved by the realization that instead of spirit and matter in opposition to each other, they are simply co-operative aspects of the ‘stuff of the universe’ as it emerges and continues to evolve to levels of greater complexity:

“The problem of the world, for our minds, is the association it presents of two opposed elements (spirit and matter) in a series of linked combinations covering the expanse between thought and unconsciousness.  Now if consciousness is taken to be a meta-phenomenon, this dualism in motion is simply and verbally noted, without any attempt or even any possibility of interpretation.  If this dualism is pushed aside as an epi-phenomenon, it is conjured out of sight.  But it is simply and harmoniously resolved, on the other hand, in a world in which consciousness and its appearance are regarded as the phenomenon.  Everything then takes its natural place in a universe in process of changing its spiritual state…And hominization (the appearance of the human) merely marks a decisive and critical point in the gradual development of this change.”

   In Teilhard’s perspective, therefore, the basic process of universal evolution can now be seen as a process of matter “changing its spiritual state’.  ‘Spirit’ can now be seen as that which underlies the very axis of evolution, finally becoming fully recognizable in the human person and his society.

Science and The Agency of Spirituality

If spirituality is indeed an agency by which matter becomes more complex over time, it should be capable of being addressed empirically by science.  Richard Dawkins suggests that it will ultimately be found to consist of a simple process, a “’bootstrapping crane’ which raises the complexity of matter over time”.

As we saw in our look into ‘spirit’ as the ‘third person’ of the Trinity, Paul Davies notes that a new branch of science, ‘Information Theory’ posits a ‘quantum of information’ in each grain of matter which directs it toward connections with other grains which result in products whose characteristics are more complex than the original components.  He sees such activities in the capability of the complex molecule, DNA, to direct the production of the cell’s energy source, ‘proteins’ by RNA molecules.  In this action, the ‘blueprint’ of DNA amounts to a ‘software’ which guides the RNA’s enrichment of the ’hardware’ of the cell.

Teilhard simply extrapolates this process backward to the subatomic processes described in the Standard Model of physics and forward to the cellular complexification charted by the biological theory of Natural Selection, thence to the commonly observed interactions among human persons which stimulate both their personal growth and the development of their societies.

The Next Post

This week we took a look at the concept of spirituality from Teilhard’s secular perspective, and saw how spirituality is a phenomenon essential to the process of evolution as it lifts the universe to ‘its current level of complexity’.

Next week we will continue our exploration of Christian concepts by applying this perspective to the Christian concept of ‘grace’.