C3/CCC Sermon Transcript for February 15, 2009
You are Life becoming more alive, God becoming more God, Spirit in action. You leap from moment to moment, float deep inside a snowflake, tippytoe from star to star, and shine like the brightest sun. Life evolves from cell to organism, question to deeper mystery, ever more complex and conscious, all things sourced by a great unknown, an unseen order and bound by the elastic string of time. Today we celebrate the surprise and wonder of evolution, and the genius of Charles Darwin. Just in case that sounds a little heavy, let me begin with a lighthearted but true story. A man wrote to the Smithsonian Institute, pretty sure he had discovered a two million year old skull. This was the reply they sent the man- Dear Sir: Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labeled "211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post. Hominid Skull." We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents "conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago." Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be the "Malibu Barbie." There are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin: 1. The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone. 2. The dental pattern evident on the "skull" is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the "ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams" you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time. Without going into too much detail let us say that: a. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on. b. Clams don't have teeth in any case. It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon dated. To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results. Ouch! That’s got to hurt. I can only imagine that this is what its like for scientists dealing with many religious claims. Religion Without Science is Blind What is the relationship between science and religion? Einstein said, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Let’s start with religion without science. Religion without science is blind. If you think religion is belief in facts and events, for example that God is creator, and that Genesis is a literal account of creation, then these claims need to be subjected to the same scientific standards as any non religious claims. Just as we expect theories such as evolution to be tested, so a theory that God created the world needs to be tested. Not only is religion without science blind, but it can be dangerous to your health. Do you know what the Darwin Awards are? They are awarded annually to the people who improve the collective human gene pool by removing their genes from it. People come up with all sorts of insane ways to harm and kill themselves. One of the nominees in 2008 was the “balloon priest”, a Brazilian priest who created his own flying machine out of balloons and a lawn chair. He was inspired by the infamous “Lawnchair Larry” who survived his stunt. The balloon priest even packed a cell phone and a GPS for safety. The problem was that he didn’t learn how to use his GPS. When he realized he was in trouble somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, he called for help on his cell phone. Of course they asked him where he was. He couldn’t tell them because he couldn’t work his GPS. As a wise person said this week, if you want to know where you are going and how to get there, you have to know where you are to begin with. The priest made a fatal mistake. Instead of trusting in his GPS to guide him, he trusted in blind faith and, alas, he was led straight to heaven. Religion that denies the laws of nature is blind and dangerous. The good news is that blind faith is not the only way to do religion. The type of religion that we practice here at C3, along with many people around the world, has its eyes wide open to the beauty of nature, the wonders of the intellect, and the genius of science. Science Without Religion is Lame Science can do very nicely without superstitious religion. But religion offers a helpful balance to science when it adds value and imagination to the shared human experience. Jacob Needleman tells the story in his book, A Sense of the Cosmos, about a person who buys a gun. He doesn’t know what it’s for, but likes the shape and feel of it. It seems useful to him but he doesn’t know why. He discovers that it works well for pounding nails into walls. So he concludes that he has found the true nature of the gun; it’s a hammer. He can even prove his theory by repeatedly and successfully hammering nails into the wall. Religion at its best asks essential questions about nature beyond names and labels. Religion at its best inspires the type of imagination that considers the essential value in life beyond function and usefulness. There is a beautiful verse in John’s gospel, spoken by Jesus. He says- “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14;12) Let me translate those words into a progressive framework. I understand “going to the Father” as a metaphor for going deeper into life, hinting at essence. “Going to the Father” indicates going beyond the surface, asking what lies beneath and why. Jesus says that those who follow in his example will in fact go deeper than he did. He states his own form of spiritual evolution; increased depth and increased consciousness. Now let’s go deeper into Genesis and religion to see what lies beneath and how it connects with Darwin’s evolutionary theory. Evolution and Genesis Many people still fear Darwin’s ideas. Less than half of the population of America agrees that evolution explains the origins of human life (48%). Looking at different religious responses- 81% of American Buddhists agree that evolution explains the origins of life, 80% of American Hindus, 77% of American Jews, 58% of Catholics, 44% of Muslims, and wait for it ….only 35% of American Protestants agree that evolution explains the origins of human life. Why do Protestants have such a huge problem with evolution? It seems to threaten belief in God and the authority of the Bible. It doesn’t have to. Consider this lighthearted story- One day a group of Darwinian scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one Darwinian to go and tell God that they were done with belief. The Darwinian walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need you. We're to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so we don’t need you.” God listened very patiently and replied to the man, "Very well, how about this? Let's say we have a The Darwinian said, "Sure, no problem" and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt. God looked at him and said, "No, no, no. You go get your own dirt!!!!" It’s a fun story that raises questions about the relationship between nature and human ingenuity. Maybe you can have both God and evolution, at least certain understandings of God. What if Genesis was not intended to describe how the world began? What if it was the best attempt of an ancient culture to describe the unseen order that gave shape and grounding to their life? Evolution- God’s Upgrades There are so many different understandings of God, and each one relates differently to evolution. Let me outline some different possibilities, using air travel analogies. Creationism- Stand By God This is the belief that God is an external being who created the world in seven days and intervenes periodically in the course of history. I call this the stand by God because all we can do as humans is stand by and wait for our names and details to be called. This view of God will always clash with evolution and science in general. Not only will creationism clash with science, but it can also be an oppressive ideology. The idea that God created the world with a predetermined order has been a justification for racism, environmental abuse and gender discrimination. It’s a problematic perspective that clashes badly with evolution. Deism- God’s Upgrades Deism has a much easier relationship with evolution. Deism is the belief that God sourced the natural world, set it all in motion but then didn’t intervene from there on. So you could say from a deistic perspective that evolution is God’s way of doing upgrades. Despite much conjecture that Darwin was an atheist, there is solid evidence that he was actually a deist. Darwinism is the theory that the laws of nature (no matter what their source) make the emergence of more complex life forms from simpler ones inevitable. These are Darwin’s own words- Deism and evolution are quite compatible. As long as certain natural laws are in place, increasingly complex life is inevitable, and it happens in small and successive stages. Neither science nor religion can explain why the particular natural laws that make evolution inevitable are the way they are. That’s the wonder and mystery that science and religion share in common. So deism might be a better match for you- evolution is God’s way of doing upgrades. Co-creation- Evolution’s Co-pilot Maybe deism doesn’t quite capture your perspective. Maybe you are looking for a way to think of creation and evolution that gets at the balance between self responsibility and wonder. Maybe you prefer to think of God and evolution in some sort of co-creative role. Evolution is flying the plane and you are the co-pilot. God is the wondrous unseen order of life; the why behind the natural laws that make air travel possible. The depths of this unseen order are unfathomable. Questions only hint at it. Names only offer us the illusion that we are coming closer to understanding it. You both wonder at the mystery of an unseen order, and you take full responsibility for your actions and responses. Many names- One Life No matter what your beliefs about God, all of us can affirm that there is a relationship between all the parts of life. Even when life seems to be pure chaos, there is an unseen order that lies beneath. Even when your life feels as if it’s coming to a stark brick wall, it’s really a new opportunity in disguise. Life is full of second chances and opportunities for growth. Even when you feel clueless, you are lying in the lap of an immense intelligence. You are a receiver of its truth and an organ of its activity. You are life becoming more alive. Let me offer one last thought about evolution, in relation to the future. Albert Einstein is said to have performed an experiment when he was contemplating relativity. He asked himself a question: If you were literally riding on the edge of a light beam and you held a mirror in front of you, would you see yourself? And the answer is no. If nothing travels faster than light, light can’t get to the mirror to reflect your reflection, so you would see nothing. That’s a great analogy for the wonder of evolution. If you look into the future, there is no absolute blueprint or script. You face an open future, and you have the opportunity to c-create your own destiny. How liberating! I celebrate Darwin. I celebrate evolution. Evolutionary theory offers no threat to my religious ideals, and it doesn’t need to threaten you either. I celebrate science, and the relationship between science and religion. I celebrate your open future. Evolution speaks to the highest spiritual ideals of grace, connectedness and an open future. close window | ^ top | home |