EVOLUTION AND THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
UUFH Service April 7, 2013
In the home where I grew up, the theory of natural selection, Darwin’s theory of evolution, was
as close as we got to religion, The Origin of Species was our bible … forests, meadows and
marshes where birds gathered were our places of worship. My father, a biologist, a devout bird
watcher and an educator, loved the beautiful logic of natural selection and pointing out
examples of the laws of nature at work.
Living with an understanding of Evolution changes everything about how we humans view
existence, or at least it should. Awareness that all the living things we share this Earth with are
part of an arc of change, an incredibly slow and infinite arc of change can help us find meaning
in life. That knowledge can also leave us struggling to find the “Now” in our existence... what is
this moment in time and how do I fit in? Coming to peace with your place on this arc is a
rewarding adventure and I believe that the concept of life as we know it having evolved from its
earliest protoplasmic forms to the incredible array of species we know of today informs
Unitarian Universalism and especially guides us in achieving our 7th principle, “Respect for the
interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
I come before you a humble student of today’s subject. In no way am I an expert or a scholar
regarding the theories of evolution or for that matter, my chosen religion, Unitarian
Universalism. But my story, my journey involves both. For about a year, I would suggest a lay led
service on the subject and the Sunday Program Committee finally held me to my promise. And
that’s where I want to begin. The truth is I feel way out on a limb standing up here, but lay led
services, where people like me share what deeply influences our spiritual path are such an
important part of our UUFH experience and I value that.
I am so greateful that we UUs don’t have to resist what science brings to our understanding of
life and our universe. We can embrace discoveries and technology and use them to inform our
spiritual journeys. How sad it is that in the name of religion and throughout history millions of
people have been taught to resist or worse, fear what science can teach us, finding it to be
threatening rather than liberating.
The science of evolution put forth most famously by Charles Darwin in 1859 offered people the
opportunity to view nature in completely different ways.
Many believe that God created the earth in life as we know it in 7 days. That he had the wisdom
and remarkably good sense of design to create, say, the first 2 monarch butterflies: Eve Butterfly
and Adam Butterfly. You can be in awe of a God who not only created these beautiful creatures
but gave them the ability to navigate an annual migration that takes them thousands of miles
and several generations to accomplish.
Or you can be in awe of the process of natural selection by which the monarch butterfly, and
thousands of other creatures currently living in this “interdependent web of all existence”,
having adapted over the millennia to a constantly changing planet with its ice ages, rising and
falling sea levels, bombarded by meteors and cosmic rays. Once you begin to fathom how vast
and remarkable that web is, you cannot help but be awed, inspired and spiritually uplifted by it.
That was the house I grew up in. That was my father’s religion.
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EVOLUTION AND THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
UUFH Service April 7, 2013
In Lisa Westberg Peters’ Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story, our connection to all living things
is explained beautifully. In James Moore’s biography DARWIN: THE LIFE OF A TORMENTED
EVOLUTIONIST he writes:
“...Darwin saw creation as an unfolding reality. Once set in motion, as he saw it, the laws
of nature sustained a self-organizing progression driven by the needs and struggles of
every aspect of creation itself. The word "reverence" would not be too strong for the
attitude with which Darwin approached all he saw in the natural world. There is a great
intellectual and spiritual passion and a touching sense of wonder evident in the
writings...”
The idea that the laws of nature, the law of natural selection whereby individuals more capable
of adapting and surviving will thrive, have children who inherit those traits and move a species
forward along a path of evolution is something I find to be an uplifting affirmation of the power
of the spirit of life, not something to fear or reject. The process goes so slowly, so gently, that
no individual creature or plant need be left behind. You cannot see evolution taking place, but
knowing that it is invisibly happening all the time can lead the way to understanding more
deeply how we are all joined together.
When Darwin introduced his theories of evolution, a lot of people were uncomfortable with his
observations of how in many cases, the process of natural selection in the animal kingdom takes
place through violence. Survival of the fittest is a lot about which individuals fight better, defend
better, frighten more – it is often a disturbing and vicious process through which the stronger,
more capable members of a species manage to keep on living and in so doing, propel their
species forward along the evolutionary path. Violence is in our genes. We may marvel at the
beauty of the predator’s methods. A hawk hovering over a meadow suddently plunging
hundreds of feet to grab a vole with its claws, a tiger taking down a gazelle in the savanna or
even your pet cat catching a mouse. We are fascinated by this process, we feel a connection and
we accept it as nature’s course. I don’t know if you’ve sensed this, but to my eye, there seems to
be an awareness on the part of the predator’s victims that this was inevitable – that some of
them have evolved to be prey for the predators. Species that are food to predators have
adapted by reproducing in great enough numbers so that even after a certain number are lost,
the species thrives. It’s hard to accept but it is the way nature works. And we share a lot of our
DNA with the predators and we share a lot of our DNA with the prey.
As UUs, we strive to end violence amongst fellow human beings, but as we do so, we need to
remember that we are confronting behaviors that are, to a large extent informed by our
evolution, our need to survive. In this case it is our culture that has evolved faster than our DNA,
and we are at conflict.
Rev. Jude Geiger in his sermon entitled ISOLATIONS OF THE SPIRIT says
“With the evolution of technology we have gained so much. But in some ways, we’re
losing our ability to interact responsibly with our neighbors.”
There will be another great book of evolution perhaps as game changing as Darwin’s … This
book will address the merger between technological evolution and natural evolution – a topic
that challenges many of our fundamental beliefs.
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EVOLUTION AND THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
UUFH Service April 7, 2013
At General Assembly last June, speeches were made proposing that Unitarian Universalism be
THE religion of the 21st Century.
Peter Morales, in the Winter edition of UUWorld, wrote of:
“…a tectonic shift in our culture. The implications for Unitarian Universalism are
profound. How we respond to this cultural change will shape our movement for a
generation and beyond.”
I am feeling that UU is the perfect religion by which people can face, in a spiritual way, the very
modern challenges presented by the merging of technology, biological engineering and the laws
of nature as they become more and more of a reality in our world.
From THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT by John Stewart, a
Core Member of the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition Research Group, The Free University
of Brussels. He writes:
“Humans are the most adaptable organism to
live on this planet.We use our rapidly improving science and technology to
survive and satisfy our adaptive goals in a wide range of environments. Whatever
adaptive problem we put our minds to, we can generally find a solution.
We have proven far more adaptable than organisms that evolve by gene-based evolution. It took millions of years for genetic evolution to discover
how to produce reptiles that fly, while humans developed the technology
to achieve this in a few thousand years.”
How do we adapt to a world in which technological evolution may merge with natural
evolution? The devices and systems we invent become so integrated into our lives that they
become extensions of ourselves. At this point they are not controlled directly by our DNA, but
they can be integrated into our bodies to the point where they operate without our being aware
of them, like pacemakers that prevent arrhythmia or automatic insulin injectors.
In recent small group discussions, the question was asked “What do you want the UUFH to be in
2018?”
Technology will only advance further and we have to accept that we are what we are. We are
what we’ve evolved to be at this moment, in this moment. Evolution has brought human beings
to the point where we are capable of actually altering evolution.
The ethical and spiritual questions are very real. Why not make our chosen faith be a place
where more and more people can turn for answers to these challenges. Instead of resisting
science as past religions have done, let’s be a force in ensuring that we embrace our future in a
spiritual way.
Andrew Feigin
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