Today’s Post

Last week we completed a look at how the concept of the ‘Trinity’ addresses three facets of the ‘ground of being’ that underlays the entire universe and has, as Richard Dawkins suggests, “raised the world as we know it into its present complex existence”.

This week we will look a little deeper into this agency, seeing it through a model proposed by Teilhard which illustrates how these three facets work together to effect this ‘raising’ over time.

This post is a summary of those posted from September 2 May to 16 May 2019.

The Universal Spiral of Evolution

Teilhard’s insight into evolution moves the subject from a biological process on a single planet which moves life toward manifestations that survive over time (Natural Selection) to one which increases the complexity of its products beginning at the ‘big bang’ and continues to this day, not only on this planet but at every place in the universe. As we have seen, he sees three factors are at work at each step of the the elements of ‘the stuff of the universe’ to effect this increase. He proposes this model as a way of viewing this process

In this simple figure, each element of evolution is acted on by three ‘vectors’ of evolutionary energy.

In the first vector, a, the element engages in union with other elements of the same rank, This unifying force produces a new product whose measure of complexity is slightly increased from the ‘parent’ elements, such as the atom which is a product of the union among electrons, protons, and neutrons. Teilhard refers to this vector as ‘tangential’.

The second vector, b, is an indication of the force which increases the potential for further union and complexity of the new product. Teilhard’ term for this is ‘radial’.

The resulting magnitude of complexity of the new product is indicated in the third vector, c,

By which the elements move forward and upward on the spiral as they increase their complexity.

Teilhard sees this convergent spiral as illustrating the process of evolution at every stage of every component of evolution in the entire cosmos. All components are acted upon by these three forces.

He notes, however, that every stage of evolution, while these three forces apply they appear in different ways to effect the outcomes of closer union, increased capacity for union and as a result, increased complexity. The forces of evolution by which atoms result from unifications of electrons, protons and neutrons, for example, while conforming in general to his model, are manifested quite differently from those which effect the evolution from atoms to molecules, and radically different from the appearance of the cell, the neuron, consciousness, and finally consciousness aware of itself: the human person. As the level of complexity increases, articulating and understanding how the three vectors play out becomes increasingly difficult.

This model, while explanatory of the underlying process of complexification as it rises throughout the entire universe, is not universally accepted by science. The complaint is that it can be seen as ‘teleological’, and hence a ‘back door’ intrusion of religion into the field of science.

There are, however, scientists who empirically inquire into such tangible complexification, such as Paul Davies, who, in his book, “The Cosmic Blueprint”, says

“I have been at great pains to argue that the steady unfolding of organized complexity in the universe is a fundamental property of nature”. (underline mine.)

   And, as we have seen, even the more clear-headed atheists, while dismissing religion as a valid school of thought, can refer to a process which

“…eventually raised the world as we know it into its present complex existence. “

The Spiral of Evolution in the Human Person

If, as Teilhard asserts, the basic three vectors of the fundamental forces of evolution apply as well to humans as to atoms, how can they be seen as active in our lives?

If the three facets or ‘vectors’ identified above are still active in the human species, how do they manifest themselves in our lives?

We saw in the last post how the concept of a ‘triune God’ can be understood as the basic forces of evolution working in three interconnected ways, identified by Teilhard as ‘tangential’, ‘radial’ and resulting ‘vertical’, the increase of complexity.   Teilhard refers these three ‘facets’, or ‘vectors’ as that seen in one of Paul’s great summaries of the teaching of Jesus: the ‘theological virtues’.

The first of Paul’s three human components of this converging spiral is ‘Love’, the component of unity.   Love is the ‘hominized’ (Teilhard’s term) characteristic of the vector labelled ‘a’ in the diagram. In doing so, Teilhard frees the concept of ‘love’ from its popular understanding as a strong emotion and allows it to flower as the energy of the power of evolution to unite its products in ways that increase their complexity. To Teilhard, Love is less an act of emotion or instinct that encourages our relationships and more one of uniting us in such a way that we become more what it is possible for us to become. From this perspective, love is ‘ontological’: to love is to become. It is the energy which unites in such a way as to move us forward on the spiral.

Paul’s second component is that of ‘Faith’, the hominized appearance of ‘b’ in the figure above.   Faith is the pull of our lives toward the axis of evolution and hence the human response to the universal evolutional principle of complexification.

As we become more adept at ‘articulating the noosphere’, we begin to better understand the structure and the workings of the reality in which we are enmeshed. Such articulations of the universe will be undermined, however, if they are not preceded by a ‘faith’ that they exist at all. While this sounds like religious terminology, imagine if Newton had not first believed that there was some objective, measurable and most of all ‘comprehensible’ force by which objects moved from ‘static’ to ‘dynamic states. Faith is the first step toward increasing our grasp of reality and enhancing our response to the energy of evolution.

The third of these three components is ‘Hope’, ‘c’ in the figure. Hope is the result of engaging in Love and Faith which results in the opening our eyes to a future now seen as pregnant with possibility. It encourages us on our journey toward our potential for increased complexity as we move forward (and therefore upward) on the spiral.

One of the gifts of evolution in the human is the ability to look into the future, as murky and risky as that might be. If our look into the future is pessimistic and without hope, such negativity inhibits our movement up the spiral, toward a future in which the results of our growth are bleak, the fruit of our love is rejection, and we see ourselves as hopelessly inadequate to build a full life. Without hope, the evolutionary power of love, itself guaranteed over the fourteen or so billion years of universal becoming, is diminished.   Hope is that component of evolution by which we ‘rise’ as we move forward on the spiral.

The Next Post

For the past several weeks we have been tracing the traditional approach to God, Jesus and the Trinity. Fundamentals of Western religion, through the eyes of Teilhard to their secular sides. This week we looked at the whole picture in terms of Teilhard’s ‘spiral of evolution, showing how these concepts emerge as manifestations of the forces of universal evolution, and further how they can be seen to work in our individual lives.

Throughout this journey, we have touched on the idea of ‘spirituality’, assuming some sort of underlying agency which moves the universe, and ourselves, from less to more complexity.

Next week we will look at this commonly used term in more depth as we address the ‘secular side of spirituality’.