Can scientific evolution help us better understand spiritual evolution?
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - FEATURES
[SP EXCLUSIVE]
:: spiritual evolution by afeatheradrift
The most elegant part of scientific theory is the ease with which science accepts new information and adjusts past ideas and hypotheses that were incorrect. In a sense, the scientific method itself, like evolution, has a built-in feedback loop that can fix or abandon what doesn't work and pursue traits (or ideas) that are useful and rewarding. It made me wonder: Can faith evolve and grow in the same way?
For the answer, I’m turning to an unlikely place: evolution. More than 15 years ago, archeologists discovered Ardipithecus ramidus (or 'Ardi') in Ethiopia. Ardi was a likely human ancestor that walked upright around 4.4 million years ago in the jungle and is the earliest candidate for a human ancestor ever to be found. Ardi has the intermediate characteristics we would expect from a human ancestor—she was an able climber, yet could still walk upright on the ground; she had a more dexterous hand than a chimpanzee; she did not walk on her knuckles. In other words, she has characteristics that are distinctly unlike both chimpanzees and humans—characteristics unique to her species. Since the initial discovery, teams of researchers have been painstakingly performing and compiling research about Ardi, much of which was published last month in the journal Science.
Ardi has shed light on one of the most mysterious parts of human evolution—the beginning. To be clear, Ardi is not the common ancestor that humans and chimpanzees shared (around 6 million years ago), but she is the closest we have ever come to finding such a creature. And while Ardi solidified many theories that already existed about human evolution, she radically changed other prevalent notions. For instance, remember this picture of human evolution from a chimp-like creature to an upright man?
It’s wrong. Chimpanzees and humans did share a common ancestor, but that is not to say that the common ancestor looked anything like a chimp. In fact, scientists believe that chimpanzees have undergone more biological change than humans in the 6 million to 7 million years since sharing a common ancestor.
In faith, perhaps that common ancestor is “God” and whatever that means to His believers. Or maybe, it’s the founders of the various religions. We can certainly see the effects of a type of spiritual evolution by looking at the myriad of religious beliefs in the world today. There are thousands of belief structures that fall only under the umbrella of “Christianity.” All of these sects certainly share a common ancestor somewhere in the past—Judaism. For some reason, at some time, each of these sects was forced to differentiate itself and subsequently followed a slightly different line of thought or action—just as at some point, chimpanzees and humans embarked on separate evolutionary journeys from the same ancestral beginning.
Who would think by looking at them today that the Greek Orthodox Church and the Pentecostals share a common spiritual ancestor? They do. Looking at humans and chimps, it can be hard to fathom that there is a relationship between the species—but there is. Now, it’s just a matter of knowing what to do with that understanding.
How does your religion or spirituality evolve over time? And what can science teach us about the evolution of faith?
Yes. We are from the universe, as is everything. It was only a matter of time before we figured out that science and spirituality are different faces of the same coin.
@hwamajean Carl Sagan was a super cool dude who knew a lot about the universe and stuff
For those of us who are Christian, it would be madness to think that our religion, faith and spirituality has not evolved over the centuries. If if had not, we would still be running the crusades and burning people as heretics and witches. Even the hypocrisy that is often the dark side of the religious coin has evolved. Only now when human rights and compassion has taken center stage, has the method changed. We who were once forced to go to church by the very people who condem us for being free thinkers, are now free to believe in our own way and have it be somewhat acceptable (God forbid they should criticise us for our choices). I mean it is better to have some sort of belief than none at all, right? Only now the condemnation takes the form of certain people who believe they are so just in their beliefs, they feel they are compelled by God to shoot and kill doctors who perform abortions, or other such acts they percieve to be against God.
God particle?
Star people perhaps... I remember one elder explaining to a scientist ( about Mother's Earth place ) " It's Turtles all the way down.. but then I remember stories of old grandmother Spider spinning a web to hold the earth.
We wrote our stories on the Rock, they are the oldest keepers...
Ther's a book about "Mad Bear Anderson, from Tusarora & he tells the story of the youngest of the ancients fighting with the Creator, who responses with love until the contest of moving mountains... False Face Masks.. that's a hint...
Uumm, maybe it faith which sustains the gods...
Neil Gaiman/American Gods: page 103
"When the people came to America they brought us with them.They brought me - I told you I would tell you my names,,,I am called Glad-of-war,GrimRaider &Third. I am One-Eyed. I am called All-Father & I am Gondlir Wand-Bearer. I have as many names as there are winds, as many titles as there are ways to die. My ravens are Huginn & Muninn- Thougth & Memory;...)
Page 107
When the people came to America they brought us with them. They brought me & Loki & Tjor, Anansi & the Lion-God, Leprechauns & Kobolds & Banshees, Kubera & Frau Holle & Ashatroth, & they have brought you. We roe here in their minds & we took root. We traveledwith the settlers to the new lands across the sea.
The land is vast, soon enough, our people abandoned us, remembered us only as creatures of the old land, as things that had not come with them to the new. Our true believers passed on,or stopped believing, & we were left lost scared & dispossessed, only what little smidgens of worship or belief we could find.
Now, as all of you will have had reason aplenty for yourselves, there are new gods growing in America clinging to growing knots of belief: gods of credit & freeway, of Internet & telephone, of radio & hospital & television, gods of plastic & of beeper & of neon."
ISBN#0-380-97365-0 (mine's a library copy...LOL)
One of the three things I love about cities: Public Transportation, Public Libraries & Public Swimming in the winter...
page 92 was what I was gonna write, but I figure it best for you to read for yourselves.
I was raised to KNOW that science & religion are the two sides of the same coin.
My "Absent Shawnee" friend raised her girls & then went to Smith College & transferred to Harvard to investigate this very "Indigenous" concept.
Donna Meness
Kitigan Zibi Anishnebeg Community
Algonquin Nation
born member of www.idloa.org
William Commanda has spent a lifetime working for greater understanding of Aboriginal culture and traditions, as well as for peace, justice and racial harmony. A respected Algonquin elder, he served as chief of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg- the largest community of the Algonquin Nation for nearly two decades, and is the founder of the Circle of All Nations, an organization dedicated to promoting Indigenous wisdom and peace. He led the Sunbow Five Walk for Mother Earth, is a respected spokesperson and spiritual leader at national and international gatherings, participates regularly in United Nations peace and spiritual vigils, and is acknowledged globally for his work in promoting interracial and intercultural harmony, justice, and respect for Mother Earth. He is the recipient of a Justice Award, and A Wolf Project Award and a Harmony Award & the Order of Canada for his efforts to foster racial harmony. He has organized several international gatherings of Indigenous elders and spiritual leaders of the Americas to foster respect and reconciliation amongst nations. As the official keeper of three sacred wampum belts, he continues to share his wisdom and teach others about Algonquin history.He's over 95 yrs. old now I think. http://www.circleofallnations.ca/
He was given the Wampum belt by my grandmother when they returned to her care after the Tuscarora Chief Clinton Rickard & my grandfather- Frank Meness both died in the 1970's. Both the USA in 1924 & Canada in 1948 tried to force citizenship or "enfranchisement." but Chief Clinton Rickard asked the question, "how can you be a member of a sovereign nation and be force to be a citizen in a foreign government?" as did Deskaheh during his an appeal for justice to the League of Nations in Switzerland in 1924. It has been a continuous appeal as stated in the book "A Basic Call to Consciousness" which has been described as " "What is presented here is nothing less audacious than a cosmogony of the Industrialized World presented by the most politically powerful and independent non-Western political body surviving in North America. It is, in a way, the modern world through Pleistocene eyes. . . .
Needless to say, "Canadian or American " citizenship is rejected by those of us raised to resist this encroachment of our sovereign rights. The first IDLA Border Crossing Celebration took place July 14, 1928. This event symbolizes the continuous assertion of our sovereignty as Indian Nations. The belts are instrumental in teaching settlers & their gov't about agreements made prior to the formation of both Canada & the USA. www.idloa.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOw6S_immM4&feature=related (sovereignty)
For more teaching :
Oren Lyons (Onondaga/Turtle Clan)
Oren Lyons was born in 1930 and raised in the traditional lifeways of the Haudenosaunee on the Seneca and Onondaga reservations in northern New York State. Chief Lyons has authored or edited numerous books including Native People Address the United Nations (1994); Voice of Indigenous Peoples (1992); and Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U.S. Constitution (1992).
http://www.nmai.si.edu/iss/2008/me_we... (complete video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN325mJAVM0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDF7ia23hVg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqfvUA2vRAM&feature=related (part2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9piIziXU9RE&feature=related (part3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quuA99ggOZ4&feature=related
And what can science teach us about the evolution of faith?
Next post....LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbjzujo1Qx8("; Religious vs Spiritual" )
- LIFE's BIG QUESTIONS
- ATTACK A CHALLENGE
http://www.examiner.com/x-26557-Columbia-Faith--Reason-Examiner~y2009m10d14-Richard-Dawkins-speaks-on-evolutionary-biology-at-USC