Evolutionary Creation
2009 Evolution Weekend
Mike Ghouse
Several Abrahamic Religious leaders 'assume' that evolution is in conflict with creationism. It frightens them about the unknown; which is human. They have an unquestionable need to believe that what they know is the final word of God; a different point of view is anathema to them. The non-Abrahamic faith followers need not gloat; a new idea is usually an abomination to someone or the other including some of them. Whether you are a believer in a God, or several or no God, you would still find a new idea bring insecurity, like some one has pulled the rug from under you and you are out of your comfort zone.
We need to give God a lot more credit than we have given him (her or it) now. Let's give him the benefit of doubt that his word (or wisdom) perhaps includes evolution and every one of us needs to push the refresh button of our thinking, and find meaning in it. Let's make Good look good. Religion is about what we believe.
Is it possible that Adam was the first man in the process of evolution who was able to communicate coherently, take care of himself and survive against the nature's oddities? He was able to survive the fires, storms, blizzards, floods and furies of nature. Did God feel pleased with this new species that finally perfected to become a permanent part of the universe unlike the others that faded into oblivion? Did God call him “Adam” because he was the first one to stand out on his own? God's word is all embracing and that is what he may have meant in the Bible, Torah and Qur'aan. I am sure the other scriptures carry similar wisdom; it is rather our shortcoming in understanding the spectrum of God’s word rather than the word itself. Let’s be open to learning.
An old Jewish folk tale makes the point. One day God said to Abraham, “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be here,” to which Abraham replied, “True, but if I weren’t here there wouldn’t be anyone to think about you.”
Pastor Randy Spaulding, “Science was a part of the ancient world, but religion and science had not split into “sacred” and “secular” realms. They existed side by side as simply two ways of being curious about life.
”The great chasm between science and religion came in the 16th century, when Copernicus guessed that the earth circled the sun instead of vice versa. This was counter to the biblical understanding that believed everything revolved around the earth. Copernicus and the Bible could not both be right. The Church stuck with the Bible and the scientific community separated from the church, finding themselves condemned as heretics and heathens.”
The key word is, “understanding”, which implies incomplete understanding.
Spaulding, “Religion is superstitious and locked in a vintage paradigm!” yells Science. “Science is nihilistic and devoid of morals!” Shouts Religion. For a progressive Christian like myself, and perhaps some of you, I find myself caught in the middle. My conservative Christian friends and family frown at me for affirming Evolution. My liberal and scientific friends roll their eyes at me for believing in God.”
Rev. Paul J. Kottke, “It is a false choice to feel that one must choose between science and faith. The language of one is factual [focused on the parts]. The language of the other is liturgical, metaphorical [focused on the “whole,” the being of life]. Both science and faith are gifts of God’s revelation to us – to be used in ways that create hope, meaning, and the fulfillment of life” and he continues, “To me, it is self-evident that both creation and evolution are gifts of God’s revelation into the world. If one is perceptive enough, then one will see the evidence of God’s presence in both the beauty of creation and in the theory of evolution.”
Robert Tucker, a Unitarian Universalist Minister writes, “I am also careful to stay informed as to what science says, so that I can distinguish “faith” from “fact.” That is something many Christian clergy fail to do. A classic example occurred the year following Darwin’s publication of on The Origin of Species. In June of 1860, a famous meeting took place at Oxford University. Speaking for the Church was Bishop Samuel Wilberforce.
Defending the scientific view was biologist, philosopher and paleontologist Thomas Henry Huxley. After his savage speech denouncing Darwin and Huxley, Bishop Wilberforce asked the scientist: “If anyone were to be willing to trace his descent through an ape as his grandfather, would he be willing to trace his descent similarly on the side of his grandmother?” “The audience greeted this with rapturous applause.” Huxley responded: “A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling, it would rather be a man who, not content with an equivocal success in his own sphere of [religious] activity plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance.” [I.e., the Bishop!] At this point “bedlam broke out...and ladies fainted from shock. From that moment the relationship of science to religion would never again be the same.” [Fadiman, revised ed., 283f.] To which I can only say, “Amen!”
I close with this prayer of the scientist and the priest, Father Teilhard de Chardin:
Lord, we know and feel that you are everywhere around us; but it seems that there is a veil before our eyes. Let the light of your countenance shine upon us in its fullness. May your deep brilliance light up the innermost part of the [shadows] in which we move. And, to that end, send us your Spirit, whose flaming action alone can operate the birth and achievement of the great transformation which sums up all inward perfection and towards the unity for which your creation yearns. [The Divine Milieu, p. 132]
This year represents the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin (12 February 1809) and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work On the Origin of Species in 1859. This backdrop provides a rich opportunity to demonstrate that religion and science have much to offer one another. Please join us and congregations all around the world in celebrating Evolution Weekend 2009!
13 -15 February 2009 -- Evolution Weekend
From the Clergy Letter “Evolution Weekend is an opportunity for serious discussion and reflection on the relationship between religion and science. One important goal is to elevate the quality of the discussion on this critical topic - to move beyond sound bites. A second critical goal is to demonstrate that religious people from many faiths and locations understand that evolution is sound science and poses no problems for their faith.
Evolution Weekend makes it clear that those claiming that people must choose between religion and science are creating a false dichotomy. Through sermons, discussion groups, meaningful conversations and seminars, the leaders listed below will show that religion and science are not adversaries.
To examine some of the sermons members of The Clergy Letter Project have delivered on this topic and to view some of the resources they have found useful, click this link: http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evolution_weekend_2009.htm
In a few generations, evolution would not be in conflict with creationism, when we fully grasp the wisdom of the word of God (creator or cause of creation.) All the religions that subscribe to the idea of Adam's creation need to ponder on God's word - if God meant he created Adam out of thin air or he let that thing called Adam evolve through the process of creation.
Let the discussions for and against continue, on the way, we would learn more about it.
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer on Pluralism, interfaith, terrorism, peace, interfaith, Islam, Multiculturism and India. He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com
I am no scientist.Neither I am religious enough to understand and opine on the subject one way or other.But, as ordinary thinking man I do have a question.It doesn't make scientific sense to me.If man has evolved from ape, is man end of evolution.Or, man would be evolving more into a superman.And, whether we should all believe in what religious scriptures say, that man was created by Allah and God.
ReplyDeleteHasni
Adam was the first man who was able to survive the furies of nature; he did not wither away with winds, sun, floods, earthquakes, and lightening, cold and hot weather. Adam was perhaps the first one to figure out how to live and the danger of extinction was gone with him. His species was established. God perhaps, called him the first man, and may be the term Ashraful Mukhlookhat, the honored creature among creatures came to describe this species.
ReplyDeleteReligious scriptures cannot be wrong, God's word is lot universal than our comprehension and God's minute may a million years in our terms. Who knows yet an advanced species of humans may evolve, who will be asharfuler mukhlookhat, more capable to fight the diseases and utilize the God given intelligence to learn to survive 200 years on an average and live healthier life.
I do know this God's word cannot be wrong, it is our understanding that is evolving... from a flat earth we have come to believe a round earth that revolves around the sun. It took us time to figure it out and Insha Allah, we will figure out God's wisdom, and put evolution and creation as a process.
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
Both Evolution and Creation go together in the Kingdom of God. Both go together hand in hand. However, it needs intelligence to distinguish one from the other. They exist in this cosmos and helping each other to perfect His creation.
ReplyDeleteI am appending below my paper: "Intelligent Design Verses Evolution" and it will crystallize what I have asserted above. I wrote it in December 2005 and it is available on my Website under section "A". I request each of you to go through this paper minutely and understand both the concepts in its true perspective.
Hope you will share it with your friends.
Shukrun
1 of 3
ReplyDelete“INTELLIGENT DESIGN” AND “EVOLUTION”
Judge John Jones III a republican appointed by President Bush has rejected the concept of “Intelligent Design” as it tantamount to the theory of Creation in his ruling on last Tuesday [December 20, 2005] in his judgment in an appeal filed by the Dover school board, Harrisburg, Pa. as it is beyond the scope of science to analyze it scientifically. He asserted that it violates the First amendment of the US Constitution. He opines so much in spite of his acceptance that Darwin’s “Theory of Evolution is imperfect” and cannot explain its every aspect, (but) it should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untenable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into a science class room to misrepresent well established scientific propositions”
Judge Jones even accepting the imperfectness of the theory of Evolution still insists not to entertain in any way the theory of Creation to be taught in the class room and thus keep the boys and girls of his generation and generations to come blind of the fallacies of one man’s [Darwin’s] imagination or just his guess work about the growth of animate objects in nature or to be more precise the “humans’. His obstinacy and short sightedness about the laws of nature is obvious. He has made the supporters of secular cults happy. Alternatively, he should have been able to explain the “missing link” of the theory of Evolution as when and at what stage of evolution humans became “conscious specie” and how they got the power of thinking and expression, the “Nutq”, the power of Al-Bayan [speaking and expressing his mind to his fellow being]. .Instead of accepting these shortcomings he became adamant in supporting Darwin’s unproven “guess” work till to day. He should have thrown this theory out side the classroom and save millions of students from keeping them in ignorance in the name of science. He abhors the existence of an “Intelligent Design” but could not advance any other thinking process to explain the “missing link”. This is called the rigidity or the “oppressive design” of scientific cruelty.
2 of 3
ReplyDelete“INTELLIGENT DESIGN” AND “EVOLUTION”
However, if Judge John had thought over the cosmos, its planning, make up and growth from its inception to this day, he would have definitely concluded that both the theory of Creations and Evolution have been working and contributing together in the development of the universe as we see it today. The universe was created with a great “thud”, a “Big bang” or with a word “Kun” Fayakoon [Be and it is there], by the will of the Creator or the Intelligent Design”. So is the case with humans, the most perfect and the most complicated design in the wilderness of nature. Man descended to earth only when the earth became habitable for human’s living conditions through the evolutionary process that took billions and billions of years to complete. The mortal frame of man and what it contains is so vast, complex and complicated that the modern science in spite of its enormous claims in medicine and technology could hardly decode its ten percent genes so far. The human body and its intellectual frame are still a mystery and a challenge for man’s ingenuity to discover. Only an Intelligent Designer could make it so nice, so perfect and so immaculate that one sustains doubt that would biological science ever be able to span and scan its make up in its entirety? It was not possible through evolutionary process only. Had there been no Intelligent Design behind human creation, man could not have the shape and his inherent qualities of heart and mind as he is today.
Equally, the abode of man, the earth is full of so many wonders that man has yet to reach its depth. In original shape it was like a red hot, molten lava or floating nebula when it started taking into a “designed” shape. The Intelligent Designer had to provide every thing that man would have needed for his urgencies and up-bringing from birth to death, cradle to grave, individual and collective requirements right from primary molecular age to modern civilized era and beyond till eternity. Only an Intelligent Design could envision human’s growing needs for all times to come and managed them to be available to him as and when its need arises. Thus, the growth of earth was stemmed through evolutionary process and was made fit for man to live and survive on its surface, a joint collaboration both of Creation and Evolution. Only an insane man will deny these hard facts of our existence on earth.
3 OF 3
ReplyDelete“INTELLIGENT DESIGN” AND “EVOLUTION”
When all was set on earth through evolutionary process and it was habitable for man to live, the “Intelligent Design caused the man to descend on earth in the shape of Adam and Eve. The man was created as he is today as a conscious and accountable human being and maintained in heaven while the earth was made habitable for him through evolutionary process. Darwin failed to go beyond his evolutionary process that he rightly observed in progress in nature all around and hence could not explain the missing link that Judge John Jones is stubbornly denying to accept as the only reality of life on earth. In spite of so many shortcomings in his approach, the Judge himself had “honestly” admitted the shortcomings of Darwin’s Evolutionary theory.
In fact, both the theory of Creation and that of Evolution as observed by Darwin in nature are complimentary and supplementary to each other. One supports the other as I have elaborated above. If teaching about Intelligent Design or the Divine Theory of Creation is disallowed in our educational campuses, our educational system will remain lopsided. The bogy of Evolutionary process will lead us nowhere, creating only bottleneck for our students and teachers alike to explain the “gap” or the “missing Link”: how and where to trace it, leaving the man guessing about his origin, thereby making him to live like an irresponsible creature on earth like animals with no sense of responsibility and accountability as we see around us.
If Judge Jones and persons like him accept the existence of an Intelligent Design, they will have no choice except to act, live and behave like responsible humans on earth and the great powers of the world will have to live within their means. This life pattern will be against their individual desires and instincts and hence they prefer, and like to live like “animals” on earth, rendering the earth into a “pasture-free-for-all”. The theory of Evolution, thus, suits their wild reckless behavior on earth. Hence they reject the theory of Creation as it goes against their political ambitions. So, they don't want to teach their children what would hamper their universal game of exploitation. “Poor” Judge Jones has served only as a determined tool of this “reckless” phenomenon.
[December 25, 2005]
Shamim Siddiqi
WWW.dawahinamericas.com
Brother Shamim,
ReplyDeleteMy hat off to you...
I will share this with a group that is becoming big in reconciling evolution and creation - we are about a thousand members in it now, only two Muslim in it thus far- me and Dr. Shanavas, who has written extensively on the subject. I liked your writing.
The essence of my comments to Hasni earlier and your comment is similar with different physical aspect of it.
Superb piece!
"Man descended to earth only when the earth became habitable for human’s living conditions through the evolutionary process that took billions and billions of years to complete. The mortal frame of man and what it contains is so vast, complex and complicated that the modern science in spite of its enormous claims in medicine and technology could hardly decode its ten percent genes so far. The human body and its intellectual frame are still a mystery and a challenge for man’s ingenuity to discover. Only an Intelligent Designer could make it so nice, so perfect and so immaculate that one sustains doubt that would biological science ever be able to span and scan its make up in its entirety? "
Here was my take:
Adam was the first man who was able to survive the furies of nature; he did not wither away with winds, sun, floods, earthquakes, and lightening, cold and hot weather. Adam was perhaps the first one to figure out how to live and the danger of extinction was gone with him. His species was established. God perhaps, called him the first man, and may be the term Ashraful Mukhlookhat, the honored creature among creatures came to describe this species.
Religious scriptures cannot be wrong, God's word is lot universal than our comprehension and God's minute may a million years in our terms. Who knows yet an advanced species of humans may evolve, who will be asharfuler mukhlookhat, more capable to fight the diseases and utilize the God given intelligence to learn to survive 200 years on an average and live healthier life.
I do know this God's word cannot be wrong, it is our understanding that is evolving... from a flat earth we have come to believe a round earth that revolves around the sun. It took us time to figure it out and Insha Allah, we will figure out God's wisdom, and put evolution and creation as a process.
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
A degree of TAWHID pertains to ONENESS of the SOURCE of CREATORSHIP (Khaliqiyya) and so this simply means that there is NO Creator but GOD (ALLAH) and so whoever or whatever dons the rob of EXISTENCE is of necessity HIS Creation and the Quran mentions this aspect clearly also in Sura al Ra'd and Sura al Ghafir...and so kindly try not to offer any twisted versions by making distinctiosn between Science (Darwin) or whatever and Islamic belief in this regard....the Intelligence also bears witness to the ONENESS of Creatorship and so whatever Darwin or others may create or may have created or discovered or made, always stood in need of something other than themselves, in order to translate what they did from possibility into actuality and naturally this could only have been fulfilled by Allah and only through HIM can all the subsequent aspirations be realized and all muslims, are aware of this and so there is no need to take undue shots at Mike, for he knows this too !
ReplyDelete