Transcript Evolution

The Sacred Cosmos:
Christian Faith and the
Challenge of Naturalism
3. Evolution: The Journey Into God
Sunday, January 24, 2010
10 to 10:50 am, in the Parlor
Presenter: David Monyak
Primary
Reference

The Sacred
Cosmos: Christian
Faith and the
Challenge of
Naturalism,
Terrence L. Nichols,
Brazos Press, 2003.
(Reissued Jan 2009
by Wipf and Stock)
Primary
Reference

The Sacred
Cosmos: Christian
Faith and the
Challenge of
Naturalism,
Terrence L. Nichols,
Brazos Press, 2003.
(Reissued Jan 2009
by Wipf and Stock)
Dr. Terrence Nichols
is Professor of
Theology at the
University of St.
Thomas, St. Paul
Academic History
Ph.D. - Marquette University
B.A. - University of
Minnesota
The Sacred Cosmos
Christian Faith and the Challenge of
Naturalism


Jan 3. God and Nature
Jan 10: Origins: Creation and Big Bang
 Jan
24: Evolution: The Journey
into God


Jan 31: Human Nature: Embodied Self and
Transcendent Soul, Part 1
Feb 7: Human Nature: Embodied Self and
Transcendent Soul, Part 2. Conclusion: A Sacred
Cosmos
We give you thanks, most gracious God,
for the beauty of earth and sky and sea;
for the richness of mountains, plains, and
rivers; for the songs of birds and the
loveliness of flowers. We praise you for
these good gifts, and pray that we may
safeguard them for our posterity. Grant
that we may continue to grow in our
grateful enjoyment of your abundant
creation, to the honor and glory of your
Name, now and for ever..
For the Beauty of the Earth, Book of Common Prayer, p. 840
This Week:
3. Evolution: The
Journey Into God
Introduction
Introduction
The Challenge of Naturalism

“The cosmos is all that ever was, is, or
shall be.”
With these words, Carl Sagan in the popular
Cosmos television series, proclaimed
naturalism: the view that the natural world is
all that exists, echoing the “opposing”
Christian doxology:
“Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, as it was, is, and ever shall be,
world without end ...”
Introduction
The Challenge of Naturalism

Naturalism is the philosophical theory about
reality that declares:
nature is all that exists,
 there is no reality that is greater than and
independent of nature,
 there cannot be any hope of an afterlife, nor any
means to really transcend our natural condition.

Introduction
The Challenge of Naturalism


Nichols believes Naturalism is probably the
most serious challenge facing Western
Christianity.
A recent survey in Scientific American
revealed:

90 percent of the members of the National
Academy of Sciences consider themselves
agnostics or atheists.

Among biologists: 95 percent.
Introduction
Can Naturalism Explain the World?


How well can Naturalism actually explain the world
and humanity?
We have been considering naturalistic versus
Christian explanations for:

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the origin of the universe (Jan 10)
evolution (today)
human nature (next week, Jan 31).
Religion and
Evolution: Challenges
Religion and Evolution
Challenges
God created man pretty
much in his present form
within the last 10,000 years
Man has developed over
millions of years from less
advanced forms of life, but
God guided this process,
including man’s creation
Man has developed over
millions of years from less
advanced forms of life. God
had no part in this process
Religion and Evolution
Challenges

The five main reasons people cited who did not
believe in evolution:
Their belief in Jesus Christ
 Their belief in God
 Their religion or faith
 Insufficient evidence
 Their belief in the Bible


Why is there such a perceived conflict between
religion and the theory of evolution?
Religion and Evolution
Challenges



Reasons are complex.
Both our culture and biologists can be faulted.
One challenge: it is a fundamental Christian belief that
there is a purpose, a goal, a “final cause” to creation:

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The cosmos and its creatures come from God in creation,
And are being called back to God, to a final reconciliation of
humanity and the cosmos with their Creator in a New
Heaven and New Earth.
The method of science however is to focus only on
efficient and material causes.

Science does not look for “final causes,” purposes or goals.
Religion and Evolution
Challenges

This methodology of science however has frequently
been extended to a metaphysics in dogmatic
proclamations by some biologists:


Futuyma, Evolution, Chapter 10 “Genetic Drift: Evolution at
Random, p. 225, 2005:
“… In fact, scientists consider purposes or goals
to be unique to human thought, and they do not
view any natural phenomena as purposeful.”
Richard Dawkins:
“The universe we observe has precisely the
properties we should expect if there is, at bottom,
no design, no purpose, no evil and no good,
nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”
Religion and Evolution
Challenges

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
A second challenge: while the fact of evolution
is almost universally accepted by biologists, the
mechanism of evolution — what causes
evolution to occur — is disputed.
The full theory of evolution is thus immature,
likely to change in the future
This has made it risky for theology to respond
to issues arising from the theories of evolution
– especially issues related to the mechanism of
evolution
Religion and Evolution
Outline

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Define “evolution”
Looks at the various proposed mechanisms for
evolution (mechanisms through which God might act
seen or unseen)
Briefly look at theories of “Directed Evolution”
Make the case that the modern Christian can view
evolution as a journey into God:


A journey in which nature has been granted a degree of
freedom to evolve and “make itself” by its Creator, but
A journey still guided and sustained by the Creator.
What is Evolution?
What is Evolution?
Definition

Charles Darwin in his
Origin of Species (1859):
“descent with
modification.”

Charles Darwin,
1809-1882
Living species had
developed from a few
simple ancestral species
over vast stretches of time,
by a variety of mechanisms,
the main one being natural
selection.
What is Evolution?
Darwin’s Observations
 Darwin observed:

1. In any species of
plants or animals
there was
considerable
variation.

Drawing by Charles Darwin of the variety of
domesticated pigeons produced by “artificial selection”
Plant and animal
breeders exploit this
variation for their
own purposes
(“artificial
selection”)
What is Evolution?
Darwin’s Observations

Darwin observed:

2. Every species of plant or animal
leaves vastly more progeny than can
possibly survive in the environment.


Thomas Malthus
1766-1834

Thomas Malthus, in his An Essay on
Population had earlier noted that food
production increases arithmetically,
whereas population increases
exponentially
Result: the human population will
always outstrip its resources, and
poverty and famine will be inevitable
The only way to avoid this is to limit
births
What is Evolution?
Natural Selection


There is therefore Darwin
wrote, “a struggle for
existence.”
Those individuals best
adapted to the environment
will be more likely to
survive and leave progeny,
while those individuals less
well adapted, or less “fit,”
will not survive and leave
progeny.


This Darwin called “natural
selection.”
Gradual adaptation over
long periods of time causes
the evolution of life.
What is Evolution?
Natural Selection


The idea of “natural
selection” is simple and easy
to understand
Too simple, according to
some critics.
What is Evolution?
Modern Definition


Modern biologists would usually refine Darwin’s
definition by saying evolution involves the emergence of
more complex forms from simpler forms.
Life develops:

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from single-celled organisms without nuclei (prokaryotes),
to single-celled organisms with nuclei (eukaryotes),
to multi-celled organisms,
to creatures that can fly, swim, burrow, and run,
to intelligent creatures like primates and human beings.
Each of these transitions involves an increase in the order
of complexity
What is Evolution?
Modern Definition: Complexity

Complexity:

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A “complex” system is one in which many diverse parts are
interrelated into a functioning whole.
Measures of “complexity” might include:



measure of the number of significant interconnections between the parts
of a system.
amount of “information” necessary to describe that system (how long
would a computer program be to describe the system?)
Example: a functioning watch versus an undifferentiated lump
of molten metal and glass (a melted watch)


Melted watch: simple to describe (51 percent iron, 5 percent chromium, 5
percent silicon dioxide …)
Functioning watch: much longer description required
What is Evolution?
Evolution and Modern Genetics



Darwin wrote his theory before the discovery of modern
genetics.
He did not know the source of variations in a population,
or how the variations were passed on.
Darwin’s critics claimed any advantageous variation
would soon be “washed out” by interbreeding:
What is Evolution?
Evolution and Modern Genetics

We now know heritable variations are passed on by
genes, discrete units which retain their distinctiveness
even if they are not expressed
Human
Chromosomes,
containing the
genetic
information of a
cell encoded as
“genes” in a
double stranded
DNA molecule
What is Evolution?
Evolution and Modern Genetics

The source of variations are changes that can occur (from
multiple causes) in the DNA molecule which encodes the
genetic information.
Errors may
occur in the
copying of
DNA, or
damage done
to DNA by
ionizing
radiation like
x-rays or
cosmic rays
What is Evolution?
Neo-Darwinism
Darwin’s original theory of evolution
+
modern genetics
=
Neo-Darwinism
The Mechanism of
Evolution
The Mechanism of Evolution
Possible Mechanisms



The fact of evolution is almost universally accepted by biologists,
but the primary mechanisms of evolution — what factors cause
evolution to occur — are still under debate.
Some options currently in play:


Random Mutations (random permanent changes in DNA of germ cells)
Natural Selection (survival of the fitness in the natural environment)




At the level of the gene versus at multiple levels
Chance (meteor strikes, global and local natural disasters)
Life’s ability to change its environment (rather than simply adapting to its
environment)
Processes and “laws” of “self-organization” in complex systems that may
channel the trajectories of evolving organisms.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism

Orthodox Neo-Darwinism: primary mechanism
is:

random mutation (random permanent change in
DNA of the germ cells) coupled with natural selection
the majority of mutations are harmful, some lethal
 A few mutations are beneficial, helping an organism adapt to
the environment, survive, and leave more progeny (natural
selection)


Mutations can only change organisms by tiny
degrees, never by saltation (= jumps or leaps)
The Mechanism of Evolution
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism

Richard Dawkins 1941-
A compelling and
triumphalist account of
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism
can be found in the writings
of Richard Dawkins, British
biologist and widely
publicized atheists (author
of The God Delusion)
The Mechanism of Evolution
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism

Dawkins writes:
Natural selection, the blind, unconscious,
automatic process which Darwin discovered,
and which we now know is the explanation for
the existence and apparently purposeful form
of life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind
and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the
future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight
at all.
 We are survival machines, robot vehicles
blindly programmed to preserve the selfish
molecules known as genes.

The Mechanism of Evolution
Stephen Gould and Punctuated Equilibrium


1941 to 2002
The Harvard University
paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould
(along with Niles Eldredge)
developed a rival theory of
evolution known as “Punctuated
Equilibrium”
The fossil record reveals less often
the gradual development expected
in Orthodox Neo-Darwinism, and
more often long periods of stasis
(equilibrium), punctuated by
sudden extinctions, or the
apparently sudden emergence of
new species.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Stephen Gould and Punctuated Equilibrium

For example, around the beginning of the
Cambrian epoch (about 600 million years
ago), all the basic animal phyla, each
exhibiting a different body plan, suddenly
appear in the fossil record.



Biological
Classification of Life
Gould called this the “Cambrian explosion.”
It was followed by massive extinctions of many
of the phyla,
followed still later by diversification within the
remaining phyla.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Stephen Jay Gould

Gould also disagreed with
Orthodox Neo-Darwinism
by:


Stephen Jay Gould
1941-2002
Insisting that organisms shape
their own environments, and are
not simply passively shaped by
natural selection
Natural selection, Gould writes,
is “a necessary but by no
means sufficient, principle
for explaining the full
history of life.”
The Mechanism of Evolution
Stephen Jay Gould


Gould also emphasized the role of chance in
evolution
He argued that massive extinctions play a major
role in shaping the direction of evolution, and that
the survival of species through these events is truly
random, not the result of natural selection:

“The history of life is a story of massive
removal followed by differentiation within a
few surviving stocks, not the conventional tale
of steadily increasing excellence, complexity,
and diversity.”
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory

Complexity Theory is a relatively new science that
studies:



how relationships between parts give rise to collective behaviors
of a complex system (so called “emergent” phenomena or
behaviors, including self-organizing behaviors)
how such emergent phenomena interact and form relationships
with its environment.
The older Chaos theory (the “butterfly effect”, the study
of systems with extreme sensitivity to initial conditions)
can be considered a subset of Complexity Theory.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory

Complex systems, from
computer-modeled
networks to biological
systems, exhibit a
surprising degree of
spontaneously generated,
“emergent” order.

Lorentz Strange Attractor
Examples: cellular
automata, the strange
attractors of Chaos
Theory
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory

Some have suggested that there are emergent
phenomenon of complex systems that are truly novel
entities, governed by their own natural laws:

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

“more is different”
Such novel entities may have the power to influence or change
the parts that compose them.
Such top-down causality is a radical reversal of the bottom-up
causality of most of science.
The application of Complexity Theory to evolution is
just beginning to be explored, and is potentially
enormously relevant.
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory


A sampling of some early explorations:
Stuart Kauffman* of the Santa Fe Institute:

I propose that much of the order in organisms
may not be the result of selection at all, but of
the spontaneous order of self-organized
systems. . . . The order of organisms is
natural, not merely the unexpected triumph of
natural selection. …
* In January 2009 Kauffman became a Finland Distinguished Professor (FiDiPro) at
Tampere University of Technology, Finland
The Mechanism of Evolution
Evolution and Complexity Theory


British biologist Steven Rose, an acerbic critic of
Dawkins and of genetic reductionism, emphasizes the
importance of considering organisms in evolution as
novel complex systems (“more is different”):
So at each level different organizing relations
appear, and different types of description and
explanation are required. Hence each level
appears as a holon—integrating levels below it,
but merely a subset of the levels above. In this
sense, levels are fundamentally irreducible;
ecology cannot be reduced to genetics, nor
biochemistry to chemistry
Directed Evolution
Directed Evolution
Definition



“Directed Evolution:” the scientific evidence is
best explained by concluding evolution is directed
by a super-intelligent being.
Such theories “by definition” are outside the realm
of mainstream science, whose method is to look
only for natural causes and explanations.
They often identify a problem or inconsistency (a
“gap” in knowledge) not easily explained by
standard theory, and then explain the gap or
problem by evoking God.
Directed Evolution
Intelligent Design

The most famous of
these is “Intelligent
Design,” which claims:


Flagellum of a bacterium
Some features of the
natural world exhibit
features of design.
In particular, there are
designs which are
irreducibly complex
such as the cilium of a
swimming cell or the
flagellum of a
bacterium.
Directed Evolution
Intelligent Design



Flagellum of a bacterium
Like a mousetrap or a watch,
such structures only work if
all the parts are present and
arranged in a specific order.
Move or remove one part,
and the trap or the watch
does not work.
How could such a structure
been gradually built up in a
stepwise fashion through
random mutations and natural
selection?
Conclusion: God must have
reached into the
evolutionary process at
some point and inserted a
designed organism or
biological structure.
Directed Evolution
Problem of Gene Pleiotropy


Other problems or gaps that have been used to support a theory of
Directed Evolution (= evolution is directed by a super-intelligent
being):
The Problem of Gene Pleiotropy


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Most genes are pleiotropic: they effect not just one structure, but many.
Thus, if one gene changes, many different systems, each already well
adapted, change.
Even if the change is beneficial for one system, it will almost certainly not be
beneficial for the other systems.
Result: poorer adaptation and fitness overall.
To significantly change an organism, it would be necessary to change many
genes simultaneously in very specific ways.
But the chances of this, in an undirected, random process would be simply
astronomical.
Directed Evolution
Problem of Gene Redundancy


Other problems or gaps that have been used to support a
theory of Directed Evolution (= evolution is directed by a
super-intelligent being):
The Problem of Gene Redundancy



many structures are controlled by two separate genetic
programs, either one of which would be sufficient to produce
the structure or process by itself
For an advantageous genetic change to occur in such a structure,
it would require simultaneous changes in both blueprints, a
change in many genes at the same time, a holistic change.
the chances of this, in an undirected, random process, to achieve
a better fit to the environment, would be again be astronomical
Directed Evolution
The Problem of “Directed Mutation”


Other problems or gaps that have been used to support a
theory of Directed Evolution (= evolution is directed by a
super-intelligent being):
The Problem of “Directed Mutations”


Some experiments suggest that under starvation conditions (i.e.,
selective conditions) bacteria seem to be able, in some sense, to
“choose” or “direct” their mutations so as to be able to survive.
This violates one of the basic tenets of neo-Darwinism:


that mutations are undirected and random,
that is, they have no relation to the welfare of the organism.
Directed Evolution
The Problems of Information Buildup


Other problems or gaps that have been used to support a
theory of Directed Evolution (= evolution is directed by a
super-intelligent being):
The Problems of Information Buildup

There has been a continual increase in information and
complexity over the span of evolution.

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Why should this be the case?
Why should evolution produce more and more complex beings over
time?
The Jewish physicist Lee Spetner has used Information Theory
to question whether random mutation and natural selection by
themselves can account for the buildup of information necessary
for complex systems such as cells.
Directed Evolution
Signs of God, or Signs of God of the Gaps?


Such problems or inconsistencies may be signs of
places where God is acting in the history of
evolution.
Or they may be gaps in knowledge that science
will later fill as the still young theory of evolution
matures.
Evolution as a Journey
Into God
Journey Into God
The Goal and Purpose of Creation

It is a fundamental Christian belief that there is a
purpose, a goal, a “final cause” to creation:
The cosmos and its creatures come from God in
creation,
 And are being called back to God, to a final
reconciliation of humanity and the cosmos with their
Creator in a New Heaven and New Earth.

Journey Into God
The Goal and Purpose of Creation

Evolutionary biology cannot find such goals or
purpose because:

1. Science focuses on efficient and material causes and
does not consider “final causes” or purposes.


Jacques Monod: the rejection of final cause is constitutive of
modern science.
2. We cannot really know the whole of a process,
including its aim or purpose (if there is any), until the
process is complete (Wolfhart Pannenberg)
Journey Into God
The Goal and Purpose of Creation

Christianity however knows what the end of the
process of evolution will be, via revelation:

Ephesians 1:9-10:
[God] has made known to us the mystery of
his will, according to his good pleasure that
he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness
of time, to gather up all things in him, things in
heaven and things on earth
Journey Into God
The Goal and Purpose of Creation

The author of the whole universe and all life is God:
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John 1:1,3:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God … Through him all things
were made, without him nothing was made that has
been made.
The direction of evolution towards


increasing complexity,
the emergence of conscious, intelligent, moral beings
is not happenstance, but providentially ordered by God.
Journey Into God
Reality Structured as Journey

Christianity sees reality structured as a journey:
The cosmos and its creatures come from God in
creation,
 and are called back to fellowship with God in the
eschaton, the end times.


In the Gospel of John:
the Logos or Word descends into the world in the
incarnation,
 and returns to God in the resurrection.

Journey Into God
Reality Structured as Journey

It would thus be natural for Christianity to view
evolution also as a journey, in which:
The culmination of human history is the gathering of
all the blessed into fellowship with God.
 The culmination of the whole cosmos is being set free
“from its bondage to decay … [to] obtain the
freedom of the glory of the children of God”
(Romans 8:21).

Journey Into God
Reality Structured as Journey
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This view of Evolution as a Journey Into God does not
mean the sole aim of evolution is to produce human
beings or intelligent life.
Genesis 1 affirms all of creation is good.
Thomas Aquinas argued that God created so many and
diverse kinds of creatures because only the whole panoply
of creation would adequately express God’s goodness.
Traditional Christian doctrine affirms that in the eschaton
(the end time), nothing that is good will be lost.
Journey Into God
A Journey Fraught with Tragedy


How do we deal with the fact that the evolutionary
journey is one fraught with tragedy?
In nature, the price of life is the death of another,
both to make room for new life and to provide
resources for new life.
True not only for individuals, but for species.
 Most species in the course of evolution have become
extinct, their death opening up econiches filled by new,
creative forms of life.

Journey Into God
A Journey Fraught with Tragedy

Nichols suggests the tragedy, death, and subsequent
creative transcendence of evolutionary history:
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The cross and death seem to be the necessary prelude to
the transcendence of the resurrection,
Similarly, in Christian spirituality:


is the same pattern manifested in the life and death of Jesus: The
cross, death, and resurrection.
one cannot ascend spiritually without first undergoing a dying to
self.
So too in organic evolution, we can see this pattern of
cross, death, and subsequent transcendence.
Journey Into God
How Does God Act in Evolution?


So how does God act providentially in the process of
evolution?
Christianity rejects the “Deist” view that God designed
the universe to produce life, wound it up like a watch and
has simply let it run on its own.


God’s Spirit remains active as a creative principle in creation.
As the psalmist declares in Psalm 104:24, 30:
How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you
made them all; the earth is full of your creatures …
When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you
renew the face of the earth. (NIV)
Journey Into God
How Does God Act in Evolution?

We can speculate that God acts providentially and
unseen in evolution through some of the
mechanisms of evolution. God might:
Act on the quantum level to affect some of the genetic
mutations that in turn affect the development of species
and the course of evolution,
 Act through emergent complex systems (“more is
different”) to influence their self-organizing behaviors
and their effects on their parts (top-down causality)

Journey Into God
A Creation with Freedom to “Make Itself”



While we believe God does guide evolution, God has also
allowed the Creation a great deal of freedom to “make
itself”
God’s ultimate purpose is to bring forth free creatures
who can know him and return to him in love, not
“puppets” programmed to do what he wants.
Analogy with parent and child:


The parent brings the child into being.
A parent does not coerce the child as it grows, but out of love
lets the child develop on its own, providing guidance and
direction.
Next Time (Jan 31):
4. Human Nature:
Embodied Self and
Transcendent Soul,
Part 1
Sources of Graphics Used in
This Series
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Dark Energy Dark Matter: The Dark Side of the Universe, Sean Carroll, The
Teaching Company
Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe, Mark Whittle, The Teaching
Company
Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition, Alex
Filippenko, The Teaching Company
Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations, Brian M. Fagan, The Teaching
Company
Biology: The Science of Life, Stephen Nowicki, The Teaching Company
Understanding Genetics: DNA, Genes, and Their Real-World Applications, David
Sadava, The Teaching Company
Evolution, Douglas J Futuyma, Sinauer Associates
History of Christian Theology, Phillip Cary, The Teaching Company
Wikipedia
Astronomy Picture of the Day
HubbleSite
Millennium Simulation Project
The Equations, Icons of Knowledge, Sander Bais, Harvard University Press, 2005