The God of Evolution is much more mysterious than the traditional anthropomorphically-conceived god.

 

Currently, I'm watching a PBS series on Darwin and Evolution, and am finding it quite fascinating. One of the things that strikes me is the fact that the idea of God which so many people either juxtapose with the science of evolution, or that evolutionary scientists end up critiquing is so INCREDIBLY primitive. It seems to center around an anthropomorphic god who simply "decides" to create each species of microorganism, plant and animal. Having studied and practiced contemplative traditions for over three decades, I've developed a view of God much more related to images gleaned from Nature. For example, I understand God to be a personal presence - rather than an individual person - who empties himself out in ecstatic delight into a vast, sky-like lake or ocean of awareness. Then, out of that vastness, all creatures spring forth through the evolutionary process as though out of nowhere, like sunlight diamonds magically appearing and shimmering on the lake of awareness, and then disappearing back into it once again, only to reappear in yet another form. The practice of meditation allows us to identify ourselves with this vastness, and then to watch spellbound as all things arise and evolve out of it, like echoes of a divine love-word that never had a chance to be spoken on account of God's ecstatic self-emptying. How amazing! Divine Love is at the root of the process, yet doesn't involve any sort of anthropomorphically-conceived "planning." Rather, all things somehow spring out of that love in a spontaneous and completely surprising way, leaving us suspended in awe and wonder!

Photo: Blue Lake, North Cascades Range, WA; July 21, 2013

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