Creation versus Evolution - Can't We All Just Get Along?
Ever since Charles Darwin published “The Origin of Species” back in 1859,
there has been an ongoing debate between the religious and scientific
communities that we collectively refer to as “Creation versus Evolution”.
Where this debate will end up over time is anyone's guess. I can't say that I
know anything about the debate. But I can introduce you to some ideas that
may provide a helpful context within which to think about the debate. Many
people are beginning to consider the possibility that creation and evolution
are the same thing being viewed from two different perspectives. Are you
open minded enough to consider that possibility? Then read on...
The chief concern most religious people have with the theory of evolution is
that they believe it’s necessary to not believe in God in order to believe in
evolution. That however is based on a misunderstanding of unconditional
love and/or a misunderstanding of the nature of God as both Transcendent
and Immanent.
So first of all, what is unconditional love? Unconditional love is a way of
being in the world that is nurturing, supportive, and protective of life in all its
forms regardless of the quality and/or content of that life. It is rare for a
person to live their life from within the context of unconditional love. Some
estimates put the ratio at around 1 out of every 250 people on earth that
actually live unconditionally loving lives. Many people don’t realize that in
order for unconditional love to thrive at this time it must incorporate courage
in the form of lovingly enforced boundaries that keep shame filled people
from harming the unconditionally loving person. Unfortunately up until
recently, humanity as a whole has not been very courageous. However, the
courage that led to the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin wall
marked the beginning of a new courage filled age for mankind (but that’s a
whole different subject).
Many religious people are comfortable with the concept of God as being
Transcendent (God the Father). Transcendent means that God surpasses
and is independent of physical existence so that God is completely outside
of and beyond the world. One can think of God Transcendent as being the
context within which the content of existence exists.
But many people are not completely comfortable with the idea that God is
also Immanent. They often don't consider the possibility that God is also
manifesting (or creating) each and every moment of time within existence.
In other words, that God (The Holy Spirit) pervades all things that exist and
actually “breathes life” into all living things by creating the next moment of
existence with them in it! Many people like to think of our universe as a
series of billiard balls that God hit with a cue ball one day thousands (or
billions) of years ago and that it’s been running on that initial energy ever
since. That’s a Newtonian paradigm based on the concept of existence
being linear. However, through the paradigm of quantum physics we have
now begun to realize that existence is in fact non-linear. One way to
understand this is to realize that our experience of existence is linear, but
existence itself is not linear. So it’s more accurate to realize that God (The
Holy Spirit) is actually actively creating each new moment and breathing
new life into you from moment to moment in order for you to experience the
glory of each and every moment of His amazing creation.
Within that context then, what is the nature of “God the Son” within the Holy
Trinity? “God the Son” is essentially every form of life in all its amazing
splendor and diversity! The Holy Spirit is formless, but the forms of life the
Holy Spirit breathes life into manifest in various forms over time. Those
forms of life are the third part of the Trinity. The human ego has clouded the
greater meaning of the concept of salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ
taught. Jesus of Nazereth didn’t just teach about the salvation of the human
race, but the salvation of all life as we know it! Humans just happen to be
the highest form of life on the planet. As it turns out, about 2,000 years
after Jesus of Nazereth lived, died, and rose from the dead, humans created
enough nuclear weapons to wipe out all life on the planet several times
over! Think about it. If you were God and you could see that humanity was
going to grow in knowledge faster than they grew in wisdom to the point
where they exterminated all life on the planet, what would you do? Would
you swoop down at the last minute and disintegrate all the nuclear missiles
in mid-flight (and completely obliterate free will)? Or would you just plant a
seed – the concept of salvation – even if the person carrying it would be
brutally killed? Who knows…
So from within that context, why are shameful things allowed to happen
within God’s constantly evolving creation? Again, it’s important to remember
that God is unconditionally nurturing, supportive, and protective of all life.
Unconditional love respects the “free will” of all life forms to develop into
whatever form of life it will. As hard as it is to comprehend, unconditional
love actually allows each life form to “choose” for itself whether to be
supportive of other life forms (or not). The main difference that separates
humans from animals is the capacity for imagination. While animal
"intelligence" is still evolving slowly, human imagination has fueled ideas and
culture which are evolving quickly. Humans therefore have a much wider
range of levels of consciousness to choose from as they grow from infancy
to adulthood to old age. So humans (just like every other form of life) are
allowed to choose how they want to “evolve”. But because of the human
capacity for imagination, humans can quickly “de-evolve” and act like nasty
viruses acting in shameful ways that harm and/or destroy life. But nearly all
humans also have the potential to quickly evolve into unconditionally loving
people who nurture and support all of life (through salvation). When one
begins to live their life in an unconditionally loving way, it’s only natural to
begin nurturing, supporting, and protecting life. It's important to understand
however that part of the wisdom of unconditional love must necessarily
include lovingly enforced boundaries (tough love).
So what are these boundaries? Let’s say you are an unconditionally loving
person and someone is attempting to cross one of your healthy boundaries
(a healthy boundary is one that supports your life without intending harm to
any other life). Let’s say someone has a knife, is threatening to kill you and
your family, and is attempting to break into your house. At first you do your
best to simply avoid the conflict (get everybody out the back door). If that’s
not appropriate (and sometimes conflict is appropriate), then you attempt to
deflect the person from crossing your boundary (e.g. call 911). If the
person gets into the house before the police arrive, it comes down to you or
them and you may have to hurt (but not permanently harm) them in order to
get them to retreat back across the boundary. In a life or death situation,
you may need to maim the person so you can run away to get help. As a
last resort in a life or death situation, you may have to kill the person in order
to save your life and/or other lives. In life or death situations, it’s perfectly
appropriate to make decisions on the basis of triage (saving the most
“innocent” lives). Some may ask why the unconditionally loving person doesn’
t remain passive and allow themselves to be killed. That’s certainly a valid
choice. However, for the highest good of the human race (and his/her
family), it’s usually better to have one less shameful person walking around
than one less unconditionally loving one.
As for atheists and others who see evolution as proof that there is no God,
they’re simply being simplistic. The fact that life is evolving neither proves
nor disproves the existence of God. But one thing we can all agree on is
that a world of people devoted to the practice of unconditional love would be
a wonderful world indeed. It begins with you. I encourage you to make a
commitment to practice unconditional love in all that you do.
But as always, the choice about where you go from here is up to you.
So what would you like to chat about now?
Ever since Charles Darwin published “The Origin of Species” back in 1859,
there has been an ongoing debate between the religious and scientific
communities that we collectively refer to as “Creation versus Evolution”.
Where this debate will end up over time is anyone's guess. I can't say that I
know anything about the debate. But I can introduce you to some ideas that
may provide a helpful context within which to think about the debate. Many
people are beginning to consider the possibility that creation and evolution
are the same thing being viewed from two different perspectives. Are you
open minded enough to consider that possibility? Then read on...
The chief concern most religious people have with the theory of evolution is
that they believe it’s necessary to not believe in God in order to believe in
evolution. That however is based on a misunderstanding of unconditional
love and/or a misunderstanding of the nature of God as both Transcendent
and Immanent.
So first of all, what is unconditional love? Unconditional love is a way of
being in the world that is nurturing, supportive, and protective of life in all its
forms regardless of the quality and/or content of that life. It is rare for a
person to live their life from within the context of unconditional love. Some
estimates put the ratio at around 1 out of every 250 people on earth that
actually live unconditionally loving lives. Many people don’t realize that in
order for unconditional love to thrive at this time it must incorporate courage
in the form of lovingly enforced boundaries that keep shame filled people
from harming the unconditionally loving person. Unfortunately up until
recently, humanity as a whole has not been very courageous. However, the
courage that led to the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin wall
marked the beginning of a new courage filled age for mankind (but that’s a
whole different subject).
Many religious people are comfortable with the concept of God as being
Transcendent (God the Father). Transcendent means that God surpasses
and is independent of physical existence so that God is completely outside
of and beyond the world. One can think of God Transcendent as being the
context within which the content of existence exists.
But many people are not completely comfortable with the idea that God is
also Immanent. They often don't consider the possibility that God is also
manifesting (or creating) each and every moment of time within existence.
In other words, that God (The Holy Spirit) pervades all things that exist and
actually “breathes life” into all living things by creating the next moment of
existence with them in it! Many people like to think of our universe as a
series of billiard balls that God hit with a cue ball one day thousands (or
billions) of years ago and that it’s been running on that initial energy ever
since. That’s a Newtonian paradigm based on the concept of existence
being linear. However, through the paradigm of quantum physics we have
now begun to realize that existence is in fact non-linear. One way to
understand this is to realize that our experience of existence is linear, but
existence itself is not linear. So it’s more accurate to realize that God (The
Holy Spirit) is actually actively creating each new moment and breathing
new life into you from moment to moment in order for you to experience the
glory of each and every moment of His amazing creation.
Within that context then, what is the nature of “God the Son” within the Holy
Trinity? “God the Son” is essentially every form of life in all its amazing
splendor and diversity! The Holy Spirit is formless, but the forms of life the
Holy Spirit breathes life into manifest in various forms over time. Those
forms of life are the third part of the Trinity. The human ego has clouded the
greater meaning of the concept of salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ
taught. Jesus of Nazereth didn’t just teach about the salvation of the human
race, but the salvation of all life as we know it! Humans just happen to be
the highest form of life on the planet. As it turns out, about 2,000 years
after Jesus of Nazereth lived, died, and rose from the dead, humans created
enough nuclear weapons to wipe out all life on the planet several times
over! Think about it. If you were God and you could see that humanity was
going to grow in knowledge faster than they grew in wisdom to the point
where they exterminated all life on the planet, what would you do? Would
you swoop down at the last minute and disintegrate all the nuclear missiles
in mid-flight (and completely obliterate free will)? Or would you just plant a
seed – the concept of salvation – even if the person carrying it would be
brutally killed? Who knows…
So from within that context, why are shameful things allowed to happen
within God’s constantly evolving creation? Again, it’s important to remember
that God is unconditionally nurturing, supportive, and protective of all life.
Unconditional love respects the “free will” of all life forms to develop into
whatever form of life it will. As hard as it is to comprehend, unconditional
love actually allows each life form to “choose” for itself whether to be
supportive of other life forms (or not). The main difference that separates
humans from animals is the capacity for imagination. While animal
"intelligence" is still evolving slowly, human imagination has fueled ideas and
culture which are evolving quickly. Humans therefore have a much wider
range of levels of consciousness to choose from as they grow from infancy
to adulthood to old age. So humans (just like every other form of life) are
allowed to choose how they want to “evolve”. But because of the human
capacity for imagination, humans can quickly “de-evolve” and act like nasty
viruses acting in shameful ways that harm and/or destroy life. But nearly all
humans also have the potential to quickly evolve into unconditionally loving
people who nurture and support all of life (through salvation). When one
begins to live their life in an unconditionally loving way, it’s only natural to
begin nurturing, supporting, and protecting life. It's important to understand
however that part of the wisdom of unconditional love must necessarily
include lovingly enforced boundaries (tough love).
So what are these boundaries? Let’s say you are an unconditionally loving
person and someone is attempting to cross one of your healthy boundaries
(a healthy boundary is one that supports your life without intending harm to
any other life). Let’s say someone has a knife, is threatening to kill you and
your family, and is attempting to break into your house. At first you do your
best to simply avoid the conflict (get everybody out the back door). If that’s
not appropriate (and sometimes conflict is appropriate), then you attempt to
deflect the person from crossing your boundary (e.g. call 911). If the
person gets into the house before the police arrive, it comes down to you or
them and you may have to hurt (but not permanently harm) them in order to
get them to retreat back across the boundary. In a life or death situation,
you may need to maim the person so you can run away to get help. As a
last resort in a life or death situation, you may have to kill the person in order
to save your life and/or other lives. In life or death situations, it’s perfectly
appropriate to make decisions on the basis of triage (saving the most
“innocent” lives). Some may ask why the unconditionally loving person doesn’
t remain passive and allow themselves to be killed. That’s certainly a valid
choice. However, for the highest good of the human race (and his/her
family), it’s usually better to have one less shameful person walking around
than one less unconditionally loving one.
As for atheists and others who see evolution as proof that there is no God,
they’re simply being simplistic. The fact that life is evolving neither proves
nor disproves the existence of God. But one thing we can all agree on is
that a world of people devoted to the practice of unconditional love would be
a wonderful world indeed. It begins with you. I encourage you to make a
commitment to practice unconditional love in all that you do.
But as always, the choice about where you go from here is up to you.
So what would you like to chat about now?
OK. I'd like to devote myself to a lifetime practice of unconditional love.
What is the true nature of God?
I’d like to go back to the last thing you said. (Please click on your browser's "back" button. I can't do
that for you yet)
OK. Thanks for addressing my question. I’d like to chat with you about my feelings now.
You don’t understand me or my situation at all.
You know what Askew2u: I don’t agree with you.
I'm done chatting with you for now.
| Copyright © 2006 All rights reserved disclaimer |
