How can understanding evolution contribute to a deeper understanding of reality?

Today’s Post

   Last week we concluded our multilayered look at ‘mysticism’, raising it from the image of a single person experiencing the ‘ecstasy’ of being intimate with the ‘ground of being’ that is present in everything to one in which human persons come to be what they can be through the ‘enstatic’ experience of a clearer knowledge of what lies in the liminal space between what is real and what we know about it.

This week we will embark on a series which looks into this ‘liminal’ space through Teilhard’s ‘lens of evolution, but this time by following the insights of contemporary authors who excel at this skill and seeing how Teilhard’s unusually optimistic forecast for the future is indeed unfolding beneath our feet as we tread the path.

What is Evolution and How Do Humans Fit in?

Nearly all of the approaches that we have taken in our look at ‘making sense of things’ have been based on the fundamental perspective in which the universe as seen as a system which has been in the process of coming to ‘be what it is’ over a long period of time.  Teilhard and others refer to this process as ‘universal evolution’ even though there seems no general acceptance of this term in either Science or Religion, our two great systems of ‘making sense of things’.

Many scientists avoid the term in referring to the development of the universe from the ‘Big Bang’ to the biological cell, and few accept the use of the term to address the continuing ‘development’ of human cultural systems.

While Christianity has come to decrease its resistance to the term, many of those comfortable with it still insist on supernatural influence.

Thus, if we are going to try to use Teilhard’s ‘lens of evolution’ to ‘make sense of things’ from a universal perspective, it is necessary for a clearer understanding not only of the term itself but more importantly of how it can be seen to be active in human life.

As Teilhard sees it, the entire universe itself is evolving.  From his scientific vantage point this perspective is valid since everything which emerges in an evolving universe can be seen to do so due to some event from a pre-existing simpler thing.  He presents his case in great detail in his book, “The Phenomenon of Man” in which he sees evolution occurring in three phases: ‘pre-life’, ‘life’ and ‘thought’.   ‘Pre-life’ is period of the ten or so billion years following the ‘Big Bang’ postulated by Physics.  The ‘life’ era spans the period on this planet from the appearance of the cell to the appearance of the human, and the era of ‘thought’ begins some two hundred thousand years ago with the first human.

Teilhard’s unique insight is to see evolution as a single process which is active in each era, underpinning the appearance of the ever-increasing complexity which can be seen at work in each step.

The characteristic of complexity, as he sees it, takes on many forms as it increases from the activity by which more complex molecules emerge from combinations of less complex atoms all the way up the evolutionary chain to the activity by which relationships among human persons result in human ‘psychisms’ which not only move their cultural groups toward greater cohesiveness, but bestow on the participating individuals a greater measure of fullness.

His recognition reflects a true ‘widening of vision’, now become ever more capable of grasping both past and future, both material and spiritual, both singly and collectively, in a way that recognizes the presence of a universal agency in the universe.  This agency not only underpins the part we play, but more importantly, the fullness which is possible to us as we play in it.  To him, “fuller being comes from closer union and closer union comes from fuller being” at every stage of evolution in the history of the universe.

Teilhard developed his approach to such a holistic insight into evolution from his paleontological research and the general grasp of the universe as ‘dynamic’ in nature as the discovery of physics exploded in the early 20^th century.  In his lifelong journey to understand the concept of increasing complexity in terms of what had become a static understanding of God, he never ceased his efforts to reinterpret both the languages of Science and Religion into a ‘language of the real’.  Such a language would permit “a clearer disclosure of God in the world”, one in which both the ‘phenomenon of Man’ and the ‘phenomenon of existence’ could be understood in common terms.

In the late nineteen forties, when he wrote his masterwork, “The Phenomenon of Man”, his projections of the future evolution of the human species seemed very idealistic.  The world had just seen not once but twice, the most catastrophic conflicts in human history.  Not only had these conflicts left much of the developed world in ruins, they raised the specter of total human eradication as a possible next step.  Even today, our increasing political, ecological, and cultural polarization sees his optimistic views of the future of humanity as highly ungrounded.  Many in the Western religious camp increasingly see the state of humanity so ‘fallen’ that only supernatural intervention can save it.

Thus, the question can be asked, “With all of this, how can Teilhard’s optimistic projections be seen as valid today?”  Are there any contemporary insights, grounded in objective data, which show Teilhard’s projections to be on target?

The answer is ‘yes’, and we will pursue them in two parts.

The first set of insights comes from Richard Dawkins, noted professor of human and biology sciences who, while contributing to the study of evolutionary biology, is also well known for his anti-religious fervor.  However, we will see in looking into his books, “The Selfish Gene” and “The God Delusion”, show his wider view of life and how human evolution can be seen to resonate with that of Teilhard.

The second set of insights comes from Johan Norberg, historian of ideas, who first takes an objective ‘evolutionary measure’ of human evolution in his book, “Progress”, then in his second book, “Open”, addresses the human structures that have emerged in history that have provided the scaffolding of human society to emerge into its current complex state.

Both books reflect both Teilhard’s optimism as well as a quantification of his projections, and we will address them in the coming weeks.

Next Week

This week we began a series which looks into two contemporary facets of Teilhard’s insights into ‘evolution’ to explore how such reflect both Teilhard’s optimism as well as a quantification of his projections.

Next week we will explore the insights of Richard Dawkins, noted professor of human and biology sciences, to see how his grasp of evolution can be seen to not only agree with Teilhard,