Teilhard Series - 4th

If we are to realize the contribution of Teilhard de Chardin to our contemporary perspective, the most fundamental point of departure is: ‘Everything is interconnected’.  From the Bible to St. Francis of Assisi to Albert Einstein, to Pope Francis we’ve been told of the connectedness in different ways, yet it seems to not reach our understanding.  In 1972 scientist James Locklove originated the Gaia Theory that tells us that the entire earth functions as a single living organism; in living organisms injury or damage to any one part affects the entire organism.  He sounded an alarm we have failed to heed.  Einstein’s search for a Unified Field Theory arose from his conviction that all forces of nature answer to a single law—clearly he believes everything is connected.

Through his life-work in geology and paleontology, Teilhard came to realize the key to understanding how ‘everything is interconnected’, lies in understanding evolution and he presents scientific data that discloses the underlying pattern that ties all orders of development together.

Perhaps since the dawn of consciousness the human has been dimly aware of life’s interconnectedness but the demands of survival narrowed his focus to that part most critical to survival in that place at that time—yet stirring within the collective unconscious, has been the desire to know and understand more about ‘the big picture’—the everything.  That impulse led to the development of philosophy, the search for Wisdom—the true, the right and the just.  The search was once of a whole but at the time of the Renaissance the wisdom search split into seemingly opposing camps—Science and Religion.

It was a combination of necessity, circumstances and habit that led us to consideration of life from a narrow focus.  As knowledge advanced, uncountable pieces of information accumulated and it became necessary to compartmentalize it into manageable units.  Now, in the modern era we’ve been conditioned to see our world in separate units and that inhibits our wider vision.  When confronted with a problem we look only at the ‘box’ from which the problem arises.  We have a box for economics, a box for government, a box for technology, a box for psychology, a box for industry, boxes for religion and multiple boxes for science . . . we make our choices from within the box of the problem; we haven’t developed the means for dealing with that bigger picture of ‘everything is connected’.

Einstein said, “We must learn to think in a new way.”  To help us learn that new way Teilhard gives us the study of evolution.  He first brings us back to the beginning, when the earth was being born.  There is a pattern: we see movement from the simple to the complex.

       Geologists have defined the zonal composition of our planet; each layer necessarily            

       preceded the subsequent one and transformed it, and only because they developed

       as they did, was it possible for life to ultimately emerge:

            (the lifeless inorganic layers)

-       barysphere: central and metallic

-       lithosphere: it rocky surrounding crust

(the layers necessary for evolving and sustaining life)

-       hydrosphere: the fluid layers—earth’s waters

-       atmosphere: the air or gaseous surroundings

     to these 4 concentric layers, science identified another layer

            (the living membrane)

-       biosphere: living organisms

    Teilhard recognized and named another layer of transformation

            (the thinking layer)

-       noosphere:  of mind or mental processes

It is this quality of mind, mental processes or reflective awareness that sets the human apart, not a mere changes of biological state but a change of ‘being’.  The awakening of thought “marks the transformation that affects the state of the whole planet” (Teilhard’s words).  The presence of the human species has changed the face of the earth.  That is what we are called to fully recognize; we must expand our vision to see the whole picture because our collective choices set the course we travel.

Teilhard Series - 3rd

            Why Teilhard?  Teilhard’s insights work to reunite Science and Religion.

            In Paleontology, digging through the rocks and debris to uncover evidence of the origins of life on our planet, one of the earliest signs of human habitation (along with the presence of tools) is the evidence of some form of worship . . . of ceremonial burying of their dead, of choosing to revere some objects as sacred, of establishing rituals; in this we see hints of reaching for ‘more’.  This points to an inherent quality in humans: the need to search out a ‘why’ to explain existence.  That quality is so fundamental that to deny it is to fail to understand the creature.

            Darwin was the first to bring evolution to our awareness.  As a botanist/biologist his concern was with the what and how of species development.  Teilhard, as a geologist/paleontologist was convinced of the validity of the scientific facts of evolution.  As a priest/theologian he brought to the theory his concern for purpose and direction—the ‘why’ of it all.  Whereas Darwin and his followers postulate that evolution progressed by random chance—without purpose and direction, Teilhard shows us a pattern and direction that emerges from his study of the phenomenon.  He calls the pattern Complexity-Consciousness and, for rational creatures, he identifies the direction to be perceived as realization of the interacting  wholeness of being.

            Let’s explore evolution with a simple overview of what Science has found to be the stages of our world coming to be.   

            From the earliest phase of evolution (the ‘primordial soup’) when only chemicals and particles were in existence (I will call it micro-evolution) random chance was operational as elements sharing affinities ‘found each other’ to unite and gradually form molecules and cells.  The direction of the movement was always from simple to the more complex. (complexification).

            Jumping ahead, but still in pre-history and looking to how life advanced (macro-evolution), many incipient species came into being.  For a time each developmental line underwent changes in appearance through random interbreeding.  The strongest models survived to finalize identifiable characteristics for a category while the earlier prototypes failed to continue and dropped off the phylum.  As species evolved we can see a continual advancement toward more and more complex neural networks and ultimately creatures with functioning brains appeared on the planet. 

Over eons of time the brain in the hominid species continued to evolve until it birthed thought, with consciousness and reflective awareness.  The human emerged as a rational being able to look back to the past and forward to the future thus having the ability to shape his environment. 

           Consciousness is not a random accident, but rather the axis and goal of the evolutionary process.  The emergence of consciousness changed the course of evolution from an external mechanical process to shape the structure and appearance of creatures, to an internal psychological-spiritual process that gives the power of change to the humans possessing it.  Evolution turned inward.  With reflective awareness we have the ability to shape the course of our world by our choices.  If we look back to discern the pattern life has traveled to get us to NOW, we can foresee and shape the direction ahead.  A central aspect of that direction is to see and realize that our world is one interacting system of which we each are a part. It is unfolding in a rational sequence and at this time it has become necessary for us to realize the part we play.

           Why Teilhard?
           His ideas present a challenge to our thinking.  Some of our knowledge and much of our religious understanding must readjust to fit with the expanding universe of which we are now aware.  Teilhard wrote during the first half of the 20^th Century.  The world, and especially his Church was not yet ready for his forward thinking.  It is now the 21^st Century and, if we are to avoid self-destruction, we must begin to learn the lessons he teaches.    

Brief History of Tielhard de Chardin

                                                                                                                        Series - 2nd

            I have frequently made references to Teilhard de Chardin in entries throughout this blog and as I now begin this series (mentioned here in my last entry two days ago) I will fill in a brief history of his life.

            He was born in France on May 1, 1881.  In 1892 he entered the Jesuit school of Notre Dame at Lyons; at age 20 he took his first vows as a Jesuit.  From 1905 to 1908 he taught physics and chemistry at a Jesuit secondary school in Cairo, Egypt.  In 1911 at age 30 he was ordained a priest, then in 1912 he was assigned to studies in scientific research in paleontology.  World War I interrupted his studies.

            From 1914 to 1919 Teilhard served as a stretcher-bearer on the front lines of the war in North Africa.  Being a priest, he could have served as a Chaplin but instead volunteered to go into the thick of battle to aid the wounded.  Witnessing bloodshed and death had a profound effect upon him, his notebooks from that time contain the seeds of his insights which were to appear later in his formal writings.

            In May 1918 he made his final Jesuit vows and after the War returned to his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris from 1919 to 1922.  Next, Teilhard secured a teaching position in the Sciences at the Institute Catholique and was later promoted to a professorship in Geology.  He also pursued religious and philosophical questions in the private papers he wrote.  He was a popular teacher, a good speaker, and a forward thinker who was an advocate of evolution; it made many traditionalists uneasy.  A colleague asked him to write a brief paper explaining his thoughts on original sin; in it he pointed out difficulties between traditional teachings and scientific discoveries and suggested new ways of understanding the concept.  The paper somehow got to the Vatican—it is not known how.  The Vatican censors and authorities of his order were sever.  In 1927 he was forbidden to teach and was exiled to China where he spent a total of 25 years working with celebrated paleontologists.

            In 1948 he visited Rome to request the lifting of the ban on his teaching and writing, presenting what he saw as his scientific work, The Phenomenon of Man.  All requests were denied.  Soon there was a new exile—to the USA where he lived out his life from 1951 to 1955.  He died on Easter Sunday April 11, 1955.

           Soon after his death in 1955 his books began to be published, first in French, then in English.  His two best known titles are: 'The Phenomenon of Man', (more recently retranslated as 'The Human Phenomenon'), and 'The Divine Milieu'.

            

Challenges of 'New Thinking'

                                                                                                                         Series  -  1st      

            There are times in history when our understanding of the world and how it operates makes a giant leap forward and we are called upon to readjust our thinking.  As when Galileo (under the influence of Copernicus) defined the structure of the cosmos; when Pasture presented his germ theory; when Einstein re-defined time and space—each new concept met with opposition because it became necessary for people to let go of what they had previously believed and embrace new understanding.  Such reordering is arduous, painful and its veracity is vehemently denied.

            In this past century, human knowledge has been presented with another sea-changing concept that alters—not how we see the earth’s structures and functions—but how we see ourselves and our place in this vast universe.  This change began with Charles Darwin’s publication of On Origins of the Species in which he expounded the theory of evolution, postulating that all life developed by chance through random selection.   God was not mentioned.  A Jesuit scientist paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin is the newer face addressing this revolutionizing concept of evolution.  Teilhard in no way disputes Darwin but rather develops what Darwin left out—the purpose and direction of evolution and man’s place in it.

            Originally the pursuit of knowledge was a comprehensive search for both a material understanding of the what and how of things but also a quest for cause and purpose—the why of being.  With the Renaissance there was a sundering, a separation wherein the search for what and how became the domain of Science while the search for cause and purpose was left to Religion.  Each specialty had little concern for the other.  Science increasingly won our attention. 

            As evolution came into public awareness the divide between Science and Religion widened, fueled by the question, ‘Where did humans come from? . . . did we evolve from lower species or were we created by God?’  In 1925 the Scopes ‘Monkey Trial’ became an international sensation when a new Tennessee law prohibited teaching evolution in schools and a teacher was arrested and tried for doing so.  The sensationalism of it had the effect of creating the illusion that Science and Religion are incompatible.

            Science does not oppose Religion—it simply ignores it.  Religion as a whole is not opposed to Science; it holds it in high regard.  It is only the religious fundamentalists, insisting upon literal interpretation of everything in the Bible, who stand in opposition to scientific findings.  A tenet of Fundamentalism is “the word of God is inerrant”.  I would agree that ‘the word of God’ is without error, but we have so few ‘words of God’!  I can think of only three.  In Exodus: the Ten Commandments; also in Exodus, to Moses in answer to his question about his name God said: “I Am who I Am; tell the Israelites ‘I AM has sent me to you’”.  Then in Deuteronomy: “I set before you life and death . . . Choose life.”  There are few other direct quotes from God, mostly the rest is from human attempts to preserve and relay perceived valuable information as it passes through the lens of that time.   

            I agree that the writings in the Bible are inspired and the inspiration comes from God, but the stories and narratives that we have, came through the minds and words of men.  God does not give dictation.  Our present understanding of the world and how it operates is light-years away from what was available to the Bible writers.  We need to respect the Bible’s great value and search out the kernel of its inspired wisdom and coordinate it with our advanced understanding because it is the best guidebook we have for navigating life.

            Throughout time humanity has had to adjust and re-define our knowledge.  Copernicus and Galileo paved the way to expanding our knowledge from a static geocentric world-model to a heliocentric model.  By changing our world-view it opened us out to the future.   Much to the shock and denial of the people of his day, Pasture described an unseen tiny world of microbes—germs too small for eyes to see yet causing diseases.  Initially even doctors couldn’t accept as so powerful, what they could not see, but eventually all had to readjust their thinking and Pasture’s discovery revolutionized the field of medicine.  Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity and radically changed what we knew about space, time and matter; his ideas vastly changed the field of physics.  In later life he invested belief and his efforts into finding a Unified Field Theory which would incorporate all the laws of the Universe—although he died before reaching his goal, it continues to motivate research in theoretical physics . . . such a theory would substantiate the idea that all that is, is part of one whole interacting system.  That concept agrees with Teilhard’s views on evolution.

              * * *

PS  --With this entry I begin what is to be a series explaining aspects of Teilhard de Chardin’s work.  His is one of the 20^th Century’s most brilliant minds—which he focused upon evolution and the human’s place in it.  His writings fill more than 20 volumes, all of which he was forbidden to publish in his lifetime, they were published after his death in 1955.  He is highly regarded in the intellectual community but many people fine his books daunting.  I have made a life-long study of his works, as a teacher I hope to make his ideas easier to understand.              (I recommend that you Google him)                      

Motherhood

       Sunday was Mother’s Day; it sent me back to look over poems I’d written while raising my children.  This one I wrote as they began leaving the nest.  For several days I played with re-writing it, but it kept returning to how it was first written so I let it be –it seems to sum up motherhood.      

SEPARATING

We used to be so connected

that my breathing sustained you.

Then your needs and cries

determined the pulse of my days.                 

Soon our worlds were linked

by held hands and shouts of “Mommy, watch me!”

There were years of gradual letting go

as you wandered farther and farther from me . . .

But shared laughter, permission granting,

car-trip vacations and meals-at-the-table

held the edges of our worlds together

so our lives were still connected.

Now you build a life apart;

It’s as it should be,

I don’t want to hold you --

But this birthing tears my soul

       . . . and nothing fills my arms to erase the pain.