2/3 Evolution of Religion
a follow up from the august 6 post called "the texture"
The sheer spectrum of possibilities within the Texture problematizes the Hebrew’s declaration of goodness in Genesis 1. We are all exposed to the possibility of good and evil interwoven into the Texture. We are the Texture. It’s a mess, a mix, a mashup. It defies binaries and absolutes just as we defy binaries and absolutes.
It seems we are influenced by both good and bad; we are both good and bad, bringing to mind Solzhenitsyn’s insight: “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being” as well as Kendrick Lamar’s insight: “I got power, poison, pain, and joy inside my DNA.” And yet love is with us. The goodness might reside in the reality that love is present no matter what. Yes, our sacred text tells us that the “the heart is deceitful,” but it also tells us that God has “placed eternity in our hearts,” giving us the hope that everything can be “made beautiful.”
The antagonizing Texture may overwhelm us, never more so than at the crucifixion, but even then, love helps us move forward, gives us something new. Or maybe it gives us something ancient, but either way, when Jesus appeared risen after the crucifixion, motivated by forgiveness, he gave us something more than entropy and survival of the fittest; he gave us innovability and the arrival of the fittest.
“Christianity,” as Ilia Delio said, “is a religion of evolution, a consciousness of divine love-empowered.” If love is the answer, I find its answer arrives in the form of a question: the question of possibility, the possibility itself hinting at Someone desiring something better for us. I speculate that love is inviting all things, including Omnipotent-religion, to evolve.
As challenging as it has been to counter the tradition of the non-theists—to suggest that the questions surrounding evolution might point to something inexplicable, something beyond our senses that invites us to lay down defensive thinking and move forward—it might even be more challenging to counter the theists: to point out that questions around evolution just might point to a God inviting us to lay down defensive thinking and move forward in co-creation.
Yes, evolutionary religion may be more a difficult hill for us to climb than evolutionary biology for biology doesn’t fabricate meaning out of sacrifice.
A blood cell, right before division, feeling the insecurity of the impending loss, doesn’t initiate a sequence of desire, imitation, conflict, and scapegoating. The cell might experience something we could loosely categorize as loss, but there are no cells being scapegoated by other cells.
And when water particulates condense together a few miles above the ground, cumulus and nimbus do not huddle with sunlight and gravity to identify those responsible for atmospheric changes. They don’t follow that with a collective transference of all their problems onto the guilty party, a move that justifies the actions of “the church of the firmament” in expelling microdroplets from the sky.
Neither microscopic cells nor storm cells form in the way that human cells (groups, tribes, nations, etc.) form and reform around existential angst. Humans are different. Our consciousness—compressed as it is by insecurity and anxiety, coalescing as it does around risk and joy, activated as it is through love and fear, in iteration and reiteration—has evolved into something extraordinary over time.
The vulnerability (to land on one word) present within this extraordinary consciousness has a massive gravitational pull on the rest of the world, if not the entire cosmos. Girardian insight might point to something akin to a dark hole within the open and relational universe, an extraordinarily large concentration of tohu wa bohu threatening to engulf us.
To mitigate such existential terror, we created religion, particularly Omnipotent-religion. We did this for various reasons, both good and bad, but Girard has given me permission to see that ultimately, the dysfunctional and selfish became sacralized. The “bad” won out over against the “good.” Religion might be “the last refuge of human savagery” for Alfred North Whitehead, but for Girard religion is the direct result of human savagery; a way to “contain” our violence.
We fabricated, sacralized, and institutionalized Omnipotent-religion neither to tap into Whiteheadian-world-loyalty, nor to add value. No, we had much more pressing problems on our minds: escaping the terror of our own lack, vulnerability, and inability to control. Then we made controlling religions to help with the reality of being out of control. In other words, Omnipotent-religion is used to mitigate the effects of Omnipotent-religion. 😳
I channel my inner MLK Jr to say that the ultimate weakness of this kind of religion is that it is a descending spiral, creating the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through Omnipotent-religion, you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor can you establish the truth of Omnipotent-religion. Through Omnipotent-religion, you may get rid of your guilty, but you cannot get rid of the guilt of your religion. Hierarchical-religion only stirs up more hierarchy. So it goes.
Turning to this again and again only increases the chance that we turn to this again and again, adding thicker fog to a sunless sky. We must have an end of this kind of religion or this kind of religion will be our end. The worshipping of “the god on our side” is an arrogant, pagan, barbaric (but thoroughly contemporary) endeavor. I suppose, along with Whitehead, “that even the world itself could not contain the bones of those slaughtered because of men intoxicated by its attraction.” Omnipotent-obsessed religion cannot drive out Omnipotent-obsessed religion. Only an evolution of religion can do such a thing.
(The image is an abstract painting by Joel Filipe on Unsplash)
-Today’s post (along with all the citations) is lifted from my section in Theology of Consent appropriately entitled “Evolution of Religion.”
📺-Hey, wanna join me and Mason Mennenga as we talk about atonement theories and what Rene Girard brings to the picture? Well, then check out A People’s Theology.
📺-Oh, what about a nice conversation around open and relational theology with two pastor-types? Yeah, then tune into Spirituality Adventures with Fred Herron.
🎟-And while I’m asking questions, do you wanna save $50 when you register for Theology Beer Camp? Yes, then, use the promo code: FOSTERFRODO. And when you get there, make sure to find me and say hi!