{"id":2289,"date":"2026-10-24T19:41:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T19:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lloydmattlandry.com\/?p=2289"},"modified":"2026-10-24T19:41:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T19:41:56","slug":"october-22-2026-articulating-the-spiritual-basis-of-the-ground-of-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lloydmattlandry.com\/?p=2289","title":{"rendered":"October 22, 2026 \u2013 Articulating the \u2018Spiritual\u2019 Basis of the Ground of Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 How can Teilhard\u2019s \u2018lens\u2019 help us become aware of the aspects of spirituality in our lives?<\/em><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week we traced the \u2018spiritual ground of happiness\u2019 to the \u2018terrain of synergy\u2019 between science and religion.\u00a0 We saw that at the center of this terrain is the concept of \u2018increasing complexity\u2019 in evolution which opens the door to an overlap between science and religion and hence points the way to a truly integrated insight into human existence.<\/p>\n

We saw again how Yuval Harari\u2019s identification of the danger that our human capacities can alienate us from our evolutionary legacy connection with our environment.\u00a0\u00a0 But we also recognized that, contrary to his dystopian forecast, as we become more integrated and more whole in our individual lives and in our collective societies, we can come to recognize our true connection to the wellsprings of the cosmos.\u00a0 Or, as Teilhard puts it:<\/p>\n

“.. I doubt that whether there is a more decisive moment for a thinking being than when the scales fall from his eyes and he discovers that he is not an isolated unit lost in the cosmic solitudes and realizes that a universal will to live converges and is made human in him.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 This week we will look further into Teilhard\u2019s insights into the structure of the cosmos in such a way which justifies such strong confidence.<\/p>\n

Teilhard\u2019s Simple Picture of Cosmic Evolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

As we saw how examining the structure of cosmic evolution through Teilhard \u2018lens\u2019, evolution can be seen as proceeding throughout the cosmos from the \u2018big bang\u2019 in the form of a \u2018convergent spiral\u2019.\u00a0 As the products of evolution replicate themselves through joining and producing \u2018offspring\u2019 (eg atoms from groupings of electrons), they also experience a \u2018rise\u2019 in their complexity.\u00a0 This increase in complexity endows future products with an increase in their potential to unite and thereby increasing the potential for further increases in complexity.<\/p>\n

This increased potential of each product endows it with a greater capability for union, resulting in a spiral which \u2018tightens\u2019 as it \u2018rises\u2019.\u00a0 The resultant increased potential is a third agent whose direction is \u2018inward\u2019, seen in the decreasing diameter of the spiral: its \u2018convergence\u2019.\u00a0 From this simple model, Teilhard envisions that as these products become more complex as they rise, this complexity makes them more \u2018resonant\u2019 to the convergent nature of the \u2018axis of evolution\u2019.\u00a0 Therefore, to Teilhard, a characteristic of a more evolved product can be seen in its increased sensitivity to the universal energy of evolution.\u00a0\u00a0 More evolved products of evolution evolve more quickly.<\/em><\/p>\n

With these three forces, forward, upward and inward, applying as they do to every product of evolution in every age of the universe, Teilhard sketches the structure of cosmic evolution as it moves forward in the direction of increased complexity.<\/p>\n

Teilhard also notes that not only does the diameter of the spiral decrease with time, it decreases \u2018exponentially\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 The rate of convergence increases over time.\u00a0 It takes some eight billion years for complex molecules to emerge from aggregates of atoms, but only five billion years for brains to emerge, then less than one million years for brains to become aware of themselves.<\/p>\n

This is not, of course, religious teaching in any form.\u00a0 It is simply a way of empirically looking at scientifically accumulated data in a different way.\u00a0 The data by which the history of evolution is categorized becomes much more straightforward when the \u2018characteristic of complexity\u2019 is recognized, and, as we have seen, ultimately opens the door to science\u2019s addressing of the human person.<\/p>\n

Once the phenomenon of \u2018increasing complexity\u2019 is recognized in its universal context, all things in the cosmos become both inextricably linked and thus increasingly intelligible.\u00a0 Humans therefore become a valid subject of science once their place in the universal \u2018hierarchy of being\u2019 is recognized.<\/p>\n

That said, however, the problem still obtains that once the threshold of \u2018consciousness aware of itself\u2019 is crossed, it becomes difficult to study human evolution outside the conventional Darwinist paradigm of \u2018Natural Selection\u201d, which reduces humans to simple molecular activities under the influence of such things as \u2018chance\u2019 and \u2018survival\u2019.<\/p>\n

Teilhard\u2019s unique model of the \u2018convergent spiral\u2019 overcomes this barrier.\u00a0 His three \u2018vectors\u2019 of \u2018forward\u2019, \u2018upward\u2019 and \u2018inward\u2019 apply equally to every stage of universal evolution and to every new state of energy and matter that results from it.<\/p>\n

Science has little difficulty understanding the transition from pure energy (at the \u2018big bang)\u2019 through the evolution of complex molecules, as the \u2018Standard Theory\u2019 of Physics outlines.\u00a0 The transition to the cell, and the latter (and quicker) transition to consciousness are more difficult, and by the time we get to \u2018consciousness aware of itself\u2019, all bets are off.\u00a0 This is the main reason why the last stage is so poorly addressed by science.\u00a0 Humans are either \u2018epi-phenomenon\u2019 or simply the random result of pure chance; either way they are outside the scope of scientific enquiry as such.<\/p>\n

If science avoids addressing the human phenomenon, how can we apply Teilhard\u2019s tri-vector conception of evolution to its rise through the human?<\/p>\n

How Does Human Evolution Reflect the Evolutional Spiral?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we believe that the universe is evolving along Teilhard\u2019s three \u2018vectors\u2019, then we should be able to find examples of how they are playing out in human history.\u00a0 As we have seen, science so far has been of little help.<\/p>\n

Seeing our personal (and cultural) evolution through Teilhard\u2019s \u2018lens\u2019, it emerges as a continuation of universal evolution as it<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026continually finds new ways of arranging (our) elements in the way that is most economical of energy and space\u201d by \u201ca rise in interiority and liberty within a whole made up of reflective particles that are now more harmoniously interrelated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 High minded words indeed.\u00a0 Can we find examples?\u00a0 Consider Johan Norberg\u2019s book, \u201cProgress\u201d, which, in implicit agreement with Teilhard, does indeed offer both insight as well as articulation of these activities.<\/p>\n

We first looked at Norberg\u2019s \u2018articulations of the noosphere\u2019 last August, which clearly and objectively show an exponential increase in human welfare (a measure of human evolution) since 1850, and in which he cites many examples of Teilhard\u2019s<\/p>\n

\u201ccontinual find(ing of) new ways of arranging (our) elements in the way that is most economical of energy and space\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 In all nine of the examples of Norberg\u2019s increase in human welfare (Teilhard\u2019s \u2018arrangements\u2019), he cites the Western value of human freedom as the underlying causality.<\/p>\n

His findings illustrate the action of Teilhard\u2019s three \u2018vectors\u2019 of the spiral:<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fruitful Unity<\/u>: Each step of the exponential increase described by Norberg is precipitated by an action of human collective insight, a sharp and clear example of improved human relationships as the locus of the energy of evolution manifesting itself in the human.\u00a0 Unity is the first vector: that which connects the products of evolution to move them \u2018forward\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Resulting complexity<\/u>: As a result of each step, the complexity of society can be seen to increase in terms of more efficient organization, the reduction of human ills such as wars, famine, and disease, and increased human lifespan.\u00a0 Increasing complexity is the second vector, the \u2018upward\u2019 component.<\/p>\n