There They Go Again........…I thought as their mantra swept over me: “Don’t you know, no one has ever found an Evolutionary missing link, nothing is proven! Evolution is a joke! I’m telling you my God put the whole Universe here in six days, six thousand years ago, period!”
Then came the all too predictable clincher: “How can you think differently, were you there?”
I started my response, but fell silent, too depressed to go on. Why try to discuss the beauty, poetry and reality of god’s “intelligent design” - that is, the past many billions of years of ongoing creation - with friends who slam their ears and minds shut at any mention of evolution being Godly, beautiful and it’s about time we begin trying to appreciate it?
I’ll admit - I’m bewildered by the refusal of so many to wake up to God’s fantastic infinity.
Where to start in trying to crack that shell of reinforced fear? Would it help to point out that though some scientist pontificate on absolute randomness, such talk should be taken with a grain of salt? Individual scientists, just like religious folk are filled with conceits and foibles. Why not admit we all strive for understanding, but are shackled by our own human tunnel-vision? Side opinions shouldn’t detract from the essence of the scientific data that continues to be collected and digested, any more than religious fundamentalist, with all their deceptions, anger, and pick-pocketing, shouldn’t be allowed to cloud religion’s universal truths.
Or, would it help to confront the actual comment: “There are no Evolutionary missing links.” Dear friend, what are you talking about? There are countless examples of transitional and “missing links” that aren’t missing at all. Take the “Tunicates” for example; they are classified as “non-vertebrate chordate,” because they are a telling link between non-backboned animals and those with back bones. There are volumes of catalogued examples clearly showing the steadfast development of life on God’s good earth. But, one must look at it.
Too many condemn Evolution without ever knowing what it’s about. This wouldn’t be a big deal, if these same uninformed doubters weren’t also demanding that our education system subscribe to their tunnel vision. Before condemning evolution, learn about its beauty and depth.
In this quest there’s an excellent teacher in David Attenborough. His documentaries such as “Life on Earth” and “The Living Planet” series do a superb job of describing organisms and how they have evolved and built upon preceding generations. The story is awesome and the creatures are spectacular. Using real world examples he conveys Evolution’s magnificant pageant of cumulative poetry in motion, revealing some of the countless fould within folds of harmonic complexity that resonate throughout creation.
Accept the challenge by viewing some of his many documentaries. Or, if the Internet is where you’re at, look up “The Great Story.” In contrast to Attenborough who’s a naturalist through and through, these folks glory in religion, while conveying a sense of God’s eon of Creation and its compatibility with Faith.
Finally, there’s that: “Where you there?” slap. What is it asking? Was anyone of us there when a few people tussled over how to word Genesis, or the later New Testament? Was anyone of us there during the backroom discussions regarding how best to exploit Jesus’ fantastic new message of love and redemption for empire and profit? Were you there… indeed. I don’t know about then and there, but I do about here and now, and when walking about with my sense and heart receptive, the examples of an ongoing evolution are everywhere to be seen! God’s creation, that is evolution, really is a beautiful, mysterious, overwhelming thing that must be recognized before one can ever hope to know Faith of love God.
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I use god very freely in this essay and that’s offended some. But guess my defense is that this was intended for those wrapped up within religion and it’s the only language they understand. Besides, I don’t have as big a problem with the notion of God as some, so long as folks recognize it’s a personal faith that comes from within them. God as the most intimate relationship anyone human has, exactly because it is a creation of our own brain/body and needs of the moment.
When someone is certain that their little head holds some “True God” that knows all and that all should bow down to, that is the EGO speaking and has nothing to do with any sort of actually “supreme being” who’s personally interested in my life.
God = providence = equals everything that exists flowing down the cascade of time, ever evolving.