The Heart of Matter: Science of Evolution
Tuesday, July 26th
‘Despite the remarkable achievements in research science in the twentieth century, the majority of Americans do not know much about the science of evolution, nor do they know the difference between evolution, intelligent design and creationism.”
—Ilia Delio, “The Emergent Christ”
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“A pesar de los avances extraordinarios de la investigación científica en el siglo XX, la mayoría de los estadounidenses no saben mucho sobre la ciencia de la evolución ni reconocen tampoco la diferencia que hay entre evolución, diseño inteligente y creacionismo.”
—Ilia Delio, “The Emergent Christ”
What is being revealed? What is being moved?
Read more in Ilia’s book The Emergent Christ.
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Love your reflection. So true… the duality I’d the sacred and secular has always made me sad…now the integration of science and religion is emerging.. I am uplifted beyond words. Thank you for all of the posts here. ❤️?
The “Age of Stars” is now.
Eons from this time,
as the last star is fading,
there will be another Light.
tjy July 26, 2022
I’ve been reading “Why Evolution is True” by Jerry A. Coyne, enjoying and learning a lot. Interestingly, he criticizes Intelligent Design (ID) throughout his work, attributing Natural Selection as sufficient for the abundance of life, etc., generalizing that selection “explains apparent design in nature by purely materialistic process that doesn’t require creation or guidance by supernatural forces” (11).
Furthermore, “[natural] selection is not a master engineer but a tinkerer. It doesn’t produce the absolute perfection achievable by a designer starting from scratch, but merely the best it can do with what it has to work with” (12). Throughout, Coyne is at odds with “a conscientious designer,” seemingly unable to get it right the first time around (numberous example provided, scientifically sound).
What’s interesting is that his critique seems to ultimately be about how he perceives an intelligent designer would go about Its business, requiring “absolute perfection,” whatever that is, “achievable by a designer starting from scratch.” How could one speak to, after all, creating vs. forming? What goes in to artistry, for example, with (conjecturally) God as “Poet of the World”?
Truth-making at the conceptual or scientific theory level relies on “instrumentalism” to resolve problems to account for the evidence. Coyne’s critique seems, at least presuppositionally, overly dependent upon his notions about the Designer he has issues with. In this sense, it’s a strawman fallacy.
Perhaps the challenge is to stop. Stop thinking. Breath. Be silent, come home. Hear the roar between the whisper. Put down all the swords of both science and religion. Be still and beyond your busy thought you will find Presence. You will know nothing and that you are everything. One. Hard for the smart ones!
I enjoyed reflecting on this quote. It makes me think of the deep divide between science and religion that I experienced growing up as a young Christian. Science and religion were on opposing teams. Once I started to realize that our whole lives are deeply connected to materiality, and ergo in constant evolution, I realized that science and religion aren’t on separate teams at all! My whole world was transformed, and what I once considered “secular” and “sacred” mixed into the most mesmerizing watercolor painting in front of eyes, and in my life.
The majority of Americans don’t give a hoot about such things. They don’t have a vocabulary for them.That’s why the new synthesis story must be tapered down, using images, icons and language that stoops to their level, as Jesus did with parables. Why do you think political campaign commercials are as inanely infantile as they are? Because politicians know the mentality of the electorate, and appeal to it. Trump, who I abhor, knew the man on the street enough to not only become president, but to nearly incite a coup, evil genius that he is. The same must be done to convey the good. The average person doesn’t care whether someone is smart, writes books, has pedigrees, or has a sophisticated integral paradigm that graduate students barely understand. They can’t relate. Most are spiritually and scientifically indifferent and uninformed. But they do remember how you made them feel in a way that indelibly impresses upon their mind in a simple way, and above all stirs their heart. Entertainers, artists and creative people have that kind of universal appeal, and for that very reason. So Ilia, can u sing, play a musicalinstrument or tap dance the christogenic message? (just kidding, but u get my drift)
Who is to blame for such ignorance? Is a well rounded education considered an important goal of our society? In observing our societal values in the United States, much education is spent on how to make money and use it for hedonistic goals over altruism. Our education system also reflects the divide in our society that one observes in our US government. I was reading an article this morning about a 55 year old man who was newly elected to US Congress as a republican from Western New York. After the murders of innocent people by a young person firing an assault weapon in a Tops supermarket in New York and one killing innocent children in Texas, he announced that he was for a ban of assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines. That announcement led to his alienation from the Republican party and he just announced that he wouldn’t be running for re-election. I remember my son’s first year convocation ceremony when he entered Georgetown University ten years ago. The students were given a card with a color on it as they marched into the large convocation hall. Then toward the end of the ceremony, President DeGioia would ask for the students with a certain color to stand up. He announced one color and about 3 students stood up out of the hundreds present. He stated that the ratio of those standing to those sitting reflected the ratio of people in the world who had a college education as opposed to those who did not. If this was accurate, the majority of the people in the world do not have a college education and a college education does not guarantee intelligence. Therefore, it is not surprising that most of the people in the US do not know much about the science of evolution, nor do they know the difference between evolution, intelligent design and creationism.
What is being revealed here is the importance of national education systems? Sadly the poor seem to have been left behind in the American system, leaving them vulnerable to manipulation and deception by those religious figures who should know better, but are slaves to ego and power.
Living in silos, makes knowledge and wisdom very limited.
Everyone and everything is in the movement of completion, fulfillment.