When people hear the term “evolution”, they think of biological evolution, the theory made famous by Charles Darwin. Cosmic evolution includes biological evolution, but it is so much more. I, and others, contend that evolution has been an ongoing process ever since the birth of our universe with the “big bang”. It is cosmic evolution that my recently published book Beyond Religion: Finding Meaning in Evolution is about.
One of the earliest proponents of the concept of cosmic evolution was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit priest, paleontologist and geologist. Teilhard theorized that the universe since its beginning has been evolving toward an eventual convergence of everything into a final unity that he called the Omega Point.
Harvard astrophysicist, Eric Chaisson, also has written extensively about cosmic evolution. “Scientists are now beginning to decipher how all known objects- from atoms to galaxies, from cells to brains, from people to society- are interrelated.” Like Teilhard, he theorizes that the big story of the history of the universe is constant evolution and increasing complexity.
Usually when we study history, there is a focus on a particular place or timeframe, such as American history or the Renaissance. But recently there has been growing interest in studying what has come to be known as “big history”. It is about looking at the history of the universe in its entirety to determine movements and patterns. When we look at big history, we see the “big picture”, including the realization that the universe is not made up of separate things but that everything is related. I think we also see that there is evolution in terms of ever-growing complexity, and in the course of this evolution “emergent” events occur that are completely unexpected and which completely revolutionize reality.
Let me take you on a brief tour of the history of the universe to show you what I mean. The first “emergent event” was the “big bang”. Out of nothing came everything. All of the energy that would ever exist in the universe came into being in a microsecond 13.8-billion-years ago. It was the birth of energy. Amazing!
Shortly thereafter subatomic particles formed from energy, and then somewhere between thousands and a million years later subatomic particles clustered into atoms by electromagnetic forces. This is the beginning of another emergent event: the beginning of matter- the beginning of material things. Wow! From pure energy came stuff!
Then a mysterious new force appeared in the universe now known as gravity. This force was responsible for hydrogen and helium clumping together. So, gravity is responsible for yet another emergent event: the formation of galaxies and stars. From microscopic particles to stars and galaxies!
Stars have lifespans. They all eventually die. Some stars burn out only after a few million years, and some stars can live for billions of years. It is through the destruction of stars that the other atomic elements were created. The deaths of stars brought in the era of chemistry, and as a result the universe became much more interesting. This is another emergent event. Just about everything, including us, are made up of atoms that were created in exploding stars. Wherever you happen to be while reading this, look around at your surroundings. Everything you see is the result of matter that was created by exploding stars. Who could have imagined that pure energy evolved into all this!
Not only at this time did the atomic elements come into existence, but then various elements combined to create compounds. The results were unexpected and remarkable! Who could have imagined that by combining oxygen (a gas) and hydrogen (a gas) that we would come up with this new substance now known as water, that has this new unusual property of wetness? Who could have dreamt that by combining sodium which is an alkaline metal with chlorine, a poisonous gas, that we would end up with salt?!
Then another great emergent event occurred: Life. Most of us intuitively perceive a qualitative difference between that which is living and that which is nonliving. There is now very strong evidence, particularly due to modern genetic research, that all life evolved from a single source, known as LUCA which stands for “last universal common ancestor.” So, we now know that not only are humans and apes related, but we are also related to the potato. The evolution of life here on the earth again radically and fundamentally changed the planet.
Perhaps the most incredible emergent event of all then evolved: consciousness. Homo sapiens developed the ability to think, to be an experiencer of life including the ability to appreciate beauty, and to have a sense of a me that is able to do all this. Human beings developed the ability to know and experience God.
Many philosophers and theologians of history (e.g. Plato, Augustine, Aquinas) conceptualized basic properties of being or of God as being truth, beauty and goodness, known as the transcendentals. It is through the process of ongoing striving for these ideals (truth, beauty and goodness) that consciousness evolves and that we grow closer to God. It has been very upsetting to me that in my own religious tradition of Christianity, the “evangelical” sector has eschewed these ideals.
The universe continues to grow and evolve, and so in all likelihood there will be more emergent events in the future that we cannot possibly imagine!
It seems evident to me that there has been cosmic evolution. There are parts of the universe that have become more and more complex and evolved. Why would this be? This would not be expected according to the laws of thermodynamics. I won’t get into the details of this here, but I do discuss it in my recent book.
So, what is the explanation for this movement of cosmic evolution in the direction of increased complexity? This process of cosmic evolution is the best evidence to me for the existence of God, although a much different god than the anthropomorphic god I grew up with as a child. The term “anthropomorphism” means attributing human characteristics to another type of being, such as God. I no longer think of God as a being but agree with theologian Paul Tillich that a better description of God is the “ground of being”, the ground of all beings.
To quote the late author Paul R. Smith, “God is in everything, and everything is in God. God is more than us and yet also very close to us. God is within us and we are within God.”
Physics tells us that the universe is not a collection of individual things but rather is a single entity. All of the energy/matter that has ever existed came into being with the “big bang”. Since then that energy/matter has never died but has continually reconstituted itself into various forms.
Similarly, we have recently learned that all of life on planet Earth has likely originated from a single source. Instead of thinking of life has having beginnings and endings, we might reconceptualize life as being a single entity (perhaps something like a virus) that moves from beings to beings. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins authored a book titled The Selfish Gene in which he makes the point that it is genes that are close to being immortal, and that our bodies are merely temporary vehicles for the genes to propagate and evolve. If some catastrophes were to occur on earth in which all of life was wiped out, it would require specific conditions to occur on the planet to create the chemical conditions necessary for life to emerge once again.
There are some who hypothesize that consciousness evolves similarly, i.e. that consciousness has emerged in stages and that there now has evolved what Russian geologist Vladimir Vernadsky called a noosphere, a shared realm of mind and information that continues to evolve. Teilhard also famously wrote about the noosphere.
The force responsible for cosmic evolution perhaps is similar to the idea of a divine “logos”- a divine blueprint or creative spirit, as was conceptualized by Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, Philo, who later influenced the writer(s) of the Gospel of John.
Scholar of ancient philosophy and Philo, David Runia, wrote “The Logos is…presented as God’s instrument both during creation and in the cosmos’ providential administration. In the most general terms, it can be said that the Logos represents the face of God turned towards reality. Sometimes the Logos is talked about in terms of an independently existing entity (a ‘hypostasis’), sometimes he is more like an aspect of God.”
I rather like the term “logos” for the force responsible for cosmic evolution. I believe it is the will of God that the universe evolves, and further, I believe it is the primary responsibility of Christians to participate in the universe’s evolution. I will discuss this in a follow-up article titled Conscious Evolution: The Christian’s Purpose.
Dr. Craig Vander Maas is a neuropsychologist whose research and writing interests are the intersection of religion, science and politics. He is the author of the recently published book Beyond Religion: Finding Meaning in Evolution.
I recently have noticed this slogan on bumper stickers and t-shirts, and I very much appreciate the sentiment. Our society seems to be devolving; lying and its cousin, cheating, seem to be okay, unless one is under oath and subject to punishments for perjury. What’s more, lying and cheating have become particularly prevalent in politics, where truth and justice are most paramount.