Transcript The Sacred Cosmos: Christian Faith and the Challenge of Naturalism
The Sacred Cosmos:
Christian Faith and the Challenge of Naturalism 3. Evolution: The Journey Into God
Sunday, January 24, 2010 10 to 10:50 am, in the Parlor Presenter: David Monyak
Primary Reference
The Sacred Cosmos: Christian Faith and the Challenge of Naturalism
, Terrence L. Nichols, Brazos Press, 2003. (Reissued Jan 2009 by Wipf and Stock)
Primary Reference
The Sacred Cosmos: Christian Faith and the Challenge of Naturalism
, Terrence L. Nichols, Brazos Press, 2003. (Reissued Jan 2009 by Wipf and Stock)
Dr. Terrence Nichols
is Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul
Academic History
Ph.D. - Marquette University B.A. - University of Minnesota
The Sacred Cosmos
Christian Faith and the Challenge of Naturalism
Jan 3.
God and Nature
Jan 10: Origins: Creation and Big Bang
Jan 24: into God Evolution: The Journey
Jan 31: Human Nature: Embodied Self and Transcendent Soul, Part 1 Feb 7: Human Nature: Embodied Self and Transcendent Soul, Part 2. Conclusion: A Sacred Cosmos
We give you thanks, most gracious God, for the beauty of earth and sky and sea; for the richness of mountains, plains, and rivers; for the songs of birds and the loveliness of flowers. We praise you for these good gifts, and pray that we may safeguard them for our posterity. Grant that we may continue to grow in our grateful enjoyment of your abundant creation, to the honor and glory of your Name, now and for ever..
For the Beauty of the Earth, Book of Common Prayer, p. 840
This Week:
3. Evolution: The Journey Into God
Introduction
Introduction
The Challenge of Naturalism “The cosmos is all that ever was , is , or shall be .”
With these words, Carl Sagan in the popular
Cosmos
television series, proclaimed
naturalism
: the view that the natural world is all that exists, echoing the “opposing” Christian doxology:
“Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as it was , is , and ever shall be , world without end ...”
Introduction
The Challenge of Naturalism
Naturalism is the philosophical theory about reality that declares: nature is all that exists, there is no reality that is greater than and independent of nature, there cannot be any hope of an afterlife, nor any means to really transcend our natural condition.
Introduction
The Challenge of Naturalism
Nichols believes
Naturalism
is probably the most serious challenge facing Western Christianity.
A recent survey in
Scientific American
revealed: 90 percent of the members of the National Academy of Sciences consider themselves agnostics or atheists.
Among biologists: 95 percent.
Introduction
Can Naturalism Explain the World?
How well can
Naturalism
and humanity?
actually explain the world We have been considering naturalistic versus Christian explanations for: the origin of the universe (Jan 10) evolution (today) human nature (next week, Jan 31).
Religion and Evolution: Challenges
Religion and Evolution
Challenges God created man pretty much in his present form within the last 10,000 years Man has developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process, including man’s creation Man has developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. God had no part in this process
Religion and Evolution
Challenges
The five main reasons people cited who did not believe in evolution: Their belief in Jesus Christ Their belief in God Their religion or faith Insufficient evidence Their belief in the Bible Why is there such a perceived conflict between religion and the theory of evolution?
Religion and Evolution
Challenges
Reasons are complex.
Both our culture and biologists can be faulted.
One challenge: it is a fundamental Christian belief that there is a purpose, a goal, a “final cause” to creation: The cosmos and its creatures come from God in creation, And are being called back to God, to a final reconciliation of humanity and the cosmos with their Creator in a New Heaven and New Earth.
The method of science however is to focus only on efficient and material causes.
Science does not look for “final causes,” purposes or goals.
Religion and Evolution
Challenges
This
methodology
of science however has frequently been extended to a
metaphysics
in dogmatic proclamations by some biologists: Futuyma,
Evolution
, Chapter 10 “Genetic Drift: Evolution at Random, p. 225, 2005:
“… In fact, scientists consider purposes or goals to be unique to human thought, and they do not view any natural phenomena as purposeful.”
Richard Dawkins:
“The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”
Religion and Evolution
Challenges
A second challenge: while the
fact
of evolution is almost universally accepted by biologists, the
mechanism
of evolution — what causes evolution to occur — is disputed.
The full theory of evolution is thus immature, likely to change in the future This has made it risky for theology to respond to issues arising from the theories of evolution – especially issues related to the
mechanism
of evolution
Religion and Evolution
Outline
Define “evolution” Looks at the various proposed mechanisms for evolution (mechanisms through which God might act seen or unseen) Briefly look at theories of “Directed Evolution” Make the case that the modern Christian can view evolution as a journey into God: A journey in which nature has been granted a degree of freedom to evolve and “make itself” by its Creator, but A journey still guided and sustained by the Creator.
What is Evolution?
What is Evolution?
Definition
Charles Darwin in his
Origin of Species
“descent with modification.”
(1859): Living species had developed from a few simple ancestral species over vast stretches of time, by a variety of mechanisms, the main one being
natural selection.
Charles Darwin, 1809-1882
What is Evolution?
Darwin’s Observations
Darwin observed: Drawing by Charles Darwin of the variety of domesticated pigeons produced by “artificial selection” 1. In any species of plants or animals there was considerable variation.
Plant and animal breeders exploit this variation for their own purposes (“
artificial selection
”)
What is Evolution?
Darwin’s Observations Thomas Malthus 1766-1834
Darwin observed: 2. Every species of plant or animal leaves vastly more progeny than can possibly survive in the environment.
Thomas Malthus, in his
An Essay on Population
had earlier noted that food production increases arithmetically, whereas population increases exponentially Result: the human population will always outstrip its resources, and poverty and famine will be inevitable The only way to avoid this is to limit births
What is Evolution?
Natural Selection
There is therefore Darwin wrote, “a struggle for existence.” Those individuals best adapted to the environment will be more likely to survive and leave progeny, while those individuals less well adapted, or less “fit,” will not survive and leave progeny. This Darwin called “
natural selection
.” Gradual adaptation over long periods of time causes the evolution of life.
What is Evolution?
Natural Selection
The idea of
“natural selection”
is simple and easy to understand Too simple, according to some critics.
What is Evolution?
Modern Definition
Modern biologists would usually refine Darwin’s definition by saying evolution involves the emergence of
more complex
forms from
simpler
forms. Life develops: from single-celled organisms without nuclei (prokaryotes), to single-celled organisms with nuclei (eukaryotes), to multi-celled organisms, to creatures that can fly, swim, burrow, and run, to intelligent creatures like primates and human beings. Each of these transitions involves an increase in the order of
complexity
What is Evolution?
Modern Definition: Complexity
Complexity
: A “complex” system is one in which many diverse parts are interrelated into a functioning whole.
Measures of “complexity” might include: measure of the number of significant interconnections between the parts of a system.
amount of “
information
” necessary to describe that system (how long would a computer program be to describe the system?) Example: a functioning watch
versus
an undifferentiated lump of molten metal and glass (a melted watch) Melted watch: simple to describe (51 percent iron, 5 percent chromium, 5 percent silicon dioxide …) Functioning watch:
much
longer description required
What is Evolution?
Evolution and Modern Genetics
Darwin wrote his theory before the discovery of modern genetics.
He did not know the
source
or
how
the variations were of variations in a population,
passed on.
Darwin’s critics claimed any advantageous variation would soon be “washed out” by interbreeding:
What is Evolution?
Evolution and Modern Genetics
We now know heritable variations are
passed on
by
genes
, discrete units which retain their distinctiveness even if they are not expressed Human Chromosomes, containing the genetic information of a cell encoded as
“genes”
in a double stranded DNA molecule
What is Evolution?
Evolution and Modern Genetics
The
source
of variations are changes that can occur (from multiple causes) in the DNA molecule which encodes the genetic information.
Errors may occur in the copying of DNA, or damage done to DNA by ionizing radiation like x-rays or cosmic rays
What is Evolution?
Neo-Darwinism
Darwin’s original theory of evolution + modern genetics =
Neo-Darwinism
The Mechanism of Evolution
The Mechanism of Evolution
Possible Mechanisms
The
fact
of evolution is almost universally accepted by biologists, but the primary
mechanisms
of evolution — what factors cause evolution to occur — are still under debate.
Some options currently in play: Random Mutations (random permanent changes in DNA of germ cells) Natural Selection (survival of the fitness in the natural environment) At the level of the gene versus at multiple levels Chance (meteor strikes, global and local natural disasters) Life’s ability to change its environment (rather than simply
adapting to
environment) its Processes and “laws” of “self-organization” in complex systems that may channel the trajectories of evolving organisms.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism
: primary mechanism is:
random mutation
(random permanent change in DNA of the germ cells) coupled with
natural selection
the majority of mutations are harmful, some lethal A few mutations are beneficial, helping an organism adapt to the environment, survive, and leave more progeny (natural selection) Mutations can only change organisms by tiny degrees,
never
by
saltation
(= jumps or leaps)
The Mechanism of Evolution
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism
A compelling and triumphalist account of
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism
can be found in the writings of Richard Dawkins, British biologist and widely publicized atheists (author of
The God Delusion
)
Richard Dawkins 1941-
The Mechanism of Evolution
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism
Dawkins writes:
Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all.
We are survival machines, robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Stephen Gould and Punctuated Equilibrium
The Harvard University paleontologist
Stephen Jay Gould
(along with Niles Eldredge) developed a rival theory of evolution known as
“Punctuated Equilibrium”
( The fossil record reveals less often the gradual development expected in Orthodox Neo-Darwinism, and more often long periods of stasis
equilibrium
),
punctuated
sudden extinctions, or the by apparently sudden emergence of new species.
1941 to 2002
The Mechanism of Evolution
Stephen Gould and Punctuated Equilibrium
Biological Classification of Life For example, around the beginning of the Cambrian epoch (about 600 million years ago), all the basic animal phyla, each exhibiting a different body plan, suddenly appear in the fossil record. Gould called this the
“Cambrian explosion.”
It was followed by massive extinctions of many of the phyla, followed still later by diversification within the remaining phyla.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould 1941-2002
Gould also disagreed with
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism
by: Insisting that organisms shape their own environments, and are not simply passively shaped by natural selection
Natural selection
, Gould writes, is
“a necessary but by no means sufficient, principle for explaining the full history of life.”
The Mechanism of Evolution
Stephen Jay Gould
Gould also emphasized the role of
chance
evolution in He argued that massive extinctions play a major role in shaping the direction of evolution, and that the survival of species through these events is truly random, not the result of natural selection:
“The history of life is a story of massive removal followed by differentiation within a few surviving stocks, not the conventional tale of steadily increasing excellence, complexity, and diversity.”
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory
Complexity Theory
is a relatively new science that studies: how relationships between parts give rise to collective behaviors of a complex system (so called “emergent” phenomena or behaviors, including self-organizing behaviors) how such emergent phenomena interact and form relationships with its environment.
The older
Chaos theory
(the “butterfly effect”, the study of systems with extreme sensitivity to initial conditions) can be considered a subset of Complexity Theory.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory Lorentz Strange Attractor
Complex systems
, from computer-modeled networks to biological systems, exhibit a surprising degree of spontaneously generated, “emergent” order.
Examples: cellular automata, the strange attractors of
Chaos Theory
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory
Some have suggested that there are emergent phenomenon of complex systems that are truly novel entities, governed by their own natural laws: “more is different” Such novel entities may have the power to influence or change the parts that compose them.
Such
top-down causality
is a radical reversal of the
bottom-up causality
of most of science.
The application of
Complexity Theory
to evolution is just beginning to be explored, and is potentially enormously relevant.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory
A sampling of some early explorations: Stuart Kauffman* of the Santa Fe Institute:
I propose that much of the order in organisms may not be the result of selection at all, but of the spontaneous order of self-organized systems. . . . The order of organisms is natural, not merely the unexpected triumph of natural selection. …
* In January 2009 Kauffman became a Finland Distinguished Professor (FiDiPro) at Tampere University of Technology, Finland
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory
British biologist Steven Rose, an acerbic critic of Dawkins and of genetic reductionism, emphasizes the importance of considering organisms in evolution as novel complex systems (“more is different”):
So at each level different organizing relations appear, and different types of description and explanation are required. Hence each level appears as a holon —integrating levels below it, but merely a subset of the levels above. In this sense, levels are fundamentally irreducible biochemistry to chemistry ; ecology cannot be reduced to genetics, nor
Directed Evolution
Directed Evolution
Definition
“Directed Evolution:” the scientific evidence is best explained by concluding evolution is directed by a super-intelligent being.
Such theories “by definition” are outside the realm of mainstream science, whose
method
is to look only for natural causes and explanations.
They often identify a problem or inconsistency (a “gap” in knowledge) not easily explained by standard theory, and then explain the gap or problem by evoking God.
Directed Evolution
Intelligent Design
The most famous of these is
“Intelligent Design,”
which claims: Some features of the natural world exhibit features of design.
In particular, there are designs which are
irreducibly complex
such as the cilium of a swimming cell or the flagellum of a bacterium.
Flagellum of a bacterium
Directed Evolution
Intelligent Design
Flagellum of a bacterium Like a mousetrap or a watch, such structures only work if
all
the parts are present and arranged in a specific order. Move or remove one part, and the trap or the watch does not work.
How could such a structure been
gradually
selection?
built up in a stepwise fashion through random mutations and natural Conclusion: God must have reached into the evolutionary process at some point and inserted a designed organism or biological structure.
Directed Evolution
Problem of Gene Pleiotropy
Other problems or gaps that have been used to support a theory of Directed Evolution (= evolution is directed by a super-intelligent being):
The Problem of Gene Pleiotropy
Most genes are pleiotropic: they effect not just one structure, but many.
Thus, if one gene changes, many different systems, each already well adapted, change. Even if the change is beneficial for one system, it will almost certainly not be beneficial for the other systems.
Result: poorer adaptation and fitness overall. To significantly change an organism, it would be necessary to change many genes simultaneously in very specific ways. But the chances of this, in an undirected, random process would be simply astronomical.
Directed Evolution
Problem of Gene Redundancy
Other problems or gaps that have been used to support a theory of Directed Evolution (= evolution is directed by a super-intelligent being):
The Problem of Gene Redundancy
many structures are controlled by two separate genetic programs,
either
one of which would be sufficient to produce the structure or process by itself For an advantageous genetic change to occur in such a structure, it would require simultaneous changes in both blueprints, a change in many genes at the same time, a holistic change.
the chances of this, in an undirected, random process, to achieve a better fit to the environment, would be again be astronomical
Directed Evolution
The Problem of “Directed Mutation”
Other problems or gaps that have been used to support a theory of Directed Evolution (= evolution is directed by a super-intelligent being):
The Problem of “Directed Mutations”
Some experiments suggest that under starvation conditions (i.e., selective conditions) bacteria seem to be able, in some sense, to “choose” or “direct” their mutations so as to be able to survive.
This violates one of the basic tenets of neo-Darwinism: that mutations are undirected and random, that is, they have no relation to the welfare of the organism.
Directed Evolution
The Problems of Information Buildup
Other problems or gaps that have been used to support a theory of Directed Evolution (= evolution is directed by a super-intelligent being):
The Problems of Information Buildup
There has been a continual increase in information and complexity over the span of evolution. Why should this be the case? Why should evolution produce more and more complex beings over time? The Jewish physicist Lee Spetner has used
Information Theory
to question whether random mutation and natural selection by themselves can account for the buildup of information necessary for complex systems such as cells.
Directed Evolution
Signs of God, or Signs of God of the Gaps?
Such problems or inconsistencies may be signs of places where God is acting in the history of evolution.
Or they may be gaps in knowledge that science will later fill as the still young theory of evolution matures.
Evolution as a Journey Into God
Journey Into God
The Goal and Purpose of Creation
It is a fundamental Christian belief that there is a purpose, a goal, a “final cause” to creation: The cosmos and its creatures come from God in creation, And are being called back to God, to a final reconciliation of humanity and the cosmos with their Creator in a New Heaven and New Earth.
Journey Into God
The Goal and Purpose of Creation
Evolutionary biology cannot find such goals or purpose because: 1. Science focuses on efficient and material causes and does not consider “final causes” or purposes.
Jacques Monod: the rejection of final cause is constitutive of modern science.
2. We cannot really know the whole of a process, including its aim or purpose (if there is any), until the process is complete (Wolfhart Pannenberg)
Journey Into God
The Goal and Purpose of Creation
Christianity however knows what the end of the process of evolution will be, via revelation: Ephesians 1:9-10:
[God] has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth
Journey Into God
The Goal and Purpose of Creation
The author of the whole universe and all life is God: John 1:1,3:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made.
The direction of evolution towards increasing complexity, the emergence of conscious, intelligent, moral beings is not happenstance, but providentially ordered by God.
Journey Into God
Reality Structured as Journey
Christianity sees reality structured as a journey: The cosmos and its creatures come from God in creation, and are called back to fellowship with God in the eschaton, the end times.
In the Gospel of John: the Logos or Word descends into the world in the incarnation, and returns to God in the resurrection.
Journey Into God
Reality Structured as Journey
It would thus be natural for Christianity to view evolution also as a journey, in which: The culmination of human history is the gathering of all the blessed into fellowship with God.
The culmination of the whole cosmos is being set free
“from its bondage to decay … [to] obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God”
(Romans 8:21).
Journey Into God
Reality Structured as Journey
This view of
Evolution as a Journey Into God
does not mean the sole aim of evolution is to produce human beings or intelligent life.
Genesis 1 affirms
all
of creation is good.
Thomas Aquinas argued that God created so many and diverse kinds of creatures because only the whole panoply of creation would adequately express God’s goodness.
Traditional Christian doctrine affirms that in the eschaton (the end time), nothing that is good will be lost.
Journey Into God
A Journey Fraught with Tragedy
How do we deal with the fact that the evolutionary journey is one fraught with tragedy?
In nature, the price of life is the death of another, both to make room for new life and to provide resources for new life. True not only for individuals, but for species. Most species in the course of evolution have become extinct, their death opening up econiches filled by new, creative forms of life.
Journey Into God
A Journey Fraught with Tragedy
Nichols suggests the tragedy, death, and subsequent creative transcendence of evolutionary history: is the same pattern manifested in the life and death of Jesus: The cross, death, and resurrection. The cross and death seem to be the necessary prelude to the transcendence of the resurrection, Similarly, in Christian spirituality: one cannot ascend spiritually without first undergoing a dying to self. So too in organic evolution, we can see this pattern of cross, death, and subsequent transcendence.
Journey Into God
How Does God Act in Evolution?
So how does God act providentially in the process of evolution? Christianity rejects the “Deist” view that God designed the universe to produce life, wound it up like a watch and has simply let it run on its own.
God’s Spirit remains active as a creative principle in creation. As the psalmist declares in Psalm 104:24, 30:
How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures … When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.
(NIV)
Journey Into God
How Does God Act in Evolution?
We can speculate that God acts providentially and unseen in evolution through some of the mechanisms of evolution. God might: Act on the quantum level to affect some of the genetic mutations that in turn affect the development of species and the course of evolution, Act through emergent complex systems (“more is different”) to influence their self-organizing behaviors and their effects on their parts (top-down causality)
Journey Into God
A Creation with Freedom to “Make Itself”
While we believe God does guide evolution, God has also allowed the Creation a great deal of freedom to “make itself” God’s ultimate purpose is to bring forth free creatures who can know him and return to him in love, not “puppets” programmed to do what he wants.
Analogy with parent and child: The parent brings the child into being.
A parent does not coerce the child as it grows, but out of love lets the child develop on its own, providing guidance and direction.
Next Time (Jan 31):
4. Human Nature: Embodied Self and Transcendent Soul, Part 1
Sources of Graphics Used in This Series
Dark Energy Dark Matter: The Dark Side of the Universe , Sean Carroll, The Teaching Company Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe , Mark Whittle, The Teaching Company Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy , 2nd Edition, Alex Filippenko, The Teaching Company Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations , Brian M. Fagan, The Teaching Company Biology: The Science of Life , Stephen Nowicki, The Teaching Company Understanding Genetics: DNA, Genes, and Their Real-World Applications , David Sadava, The Teaching Company Evolution , Douglas J Futuyma, Sinauer Associates History of Christian Theology , Phillip Cary, The Teaching Company Wikipedia Astronomy Picture of the Day HubbleSite Millennium Simulation Project The Equations, Icons of Knowledge , Sander Bais, Harvard University Press, 2005