From the perspective of evolution

I will go to my grave thinking and trying to think things out. In seminary I learned about the problem of perspective. It was an “aha” moment. Because of the limitations of time and place, I can only see things from my own perspective. The same is true for every individual. My own best chance of better understanding life is to listen to the perspective of others. Together is our best approach to getting it right.

I am an American. There is an American point of view. There is also a German point of view, a British point of view, a Russian point of view, an Iranian point of view, a Chinese point of view, and even a North Korean point of view. The perspective of each nation has validity of some kind. There are some things that we have to learn from each other. With these realities, I should expect differing opinions. In truth, when there is a lack of discussion, I immediately suspect something is going seriously wrong. It is like working a puzzle with missing pieces.

The reality of perspective was and is disconcerting. I can never arrive at certainty about anything. I cannot make progress toward understanding apart from community. Then in the midst of thinking through the limited nature of my perspective, I faced another reality. The evolving nature of all things.

There is nothing that is fixed. Everything is in motion. Further, everything has always been moving and changing. It is not simply human beings that have evolved and continue to evolve; the world, the solar system and the universe are evolving. When I was younger, Charles Darwin was someone to refute. When he brought the evolution of species to the public attention, we all should have been listening with very attentive ears. The scientific world listened, but the general public did not. Our society and our churches in particular were committed to fixed understandings. Traditions are very important in a stable society and need to have a voice in every discussion. However, tradition cannot have the final word in a discussion because the final word in an evolving universe can never be spoken. Evolution demands that we be ready for a life of changing our minds.

What Charles Darwin did in the scientific world, Alfred North Whitehead did in the world of philosophy. For Whitehead, evolution was not simply a reality to be applied to science and biology but to our entire understanding of life. Whitehead, while conveniently ignored by a majority of philosophers and theologians, is the fountainhead of process philosophy and theology. His influence is now growing rapidly around the world. While mathematics was his basic field of interest, Whitehead believed that process was applicable to every area of life. Charles Hartshorne and David Cobb were his American theological heirs. The message of process furthered by Hartshorne and Cobb is not generally embraced by Christian theologians but nevertheless has made its place in Christian theologies as a footnote that will not go away.

In my own thinking I cannot avoid the reality of evolution and its impact on everything we study and do. When I do theological pondering, I cannot avoid the reality of my limited perspective and the claim of evolution on all things.

Natural theology has been a part of theological thinking for as long as our knowledge of human history will allow. The traditions of the Israelites and Christians encourage us to observe nature and learn about the creator. Before we faced the realities of evolution, our understanding of all things was that nature was fixed, dependable, and always orderly. That mistaken understanding of nature has lead us to believe in a God, who was fixed, unchanging and mistakenly dependable. What haappens to the witness of nature if we embrace a natural world that is constantly changing, evolving, moving?

When faced with the reality of evolution, many of my thinking, pondering Christian friends and thinkers abandon the Christian faith. To me that is unfortunate and short-sighted. I instead want a different approach to life that fully takes into account the realities of modern science. Stated pointedly, I can no longer believe in a God in static terms and categories. I embrace an understanding of a God who is constantly changing and moving forward. I embrace an understanding of a God who is fully engaged in all that she/he has helped to form and shape. I embrace an understanding of a God who can love an ever-changing humanity that is yet to discover and enjoy its life fully. I am committed to a Christ whose mobility allows me to be fully engaged in the chaos of life. I refuse to bow down to an ordered life that suffocates creativity.

I am an every Sunday worshiper. When creeds are repeated, I no longer participate. When I sing beloved hymns with words that are absurd in a modern world, I sing them anyway because I love the music. When I listen to sermons that assume a rigid, fixed, unchanging God, I weep in silence.

I feel no discomfort with worshipping a loving, ever changing, creative God, who is fully at home with modern science.

May a sense of humor be the prize of all who keep trying to understand it all.