Lecture 1
Hansie Wolmarans
When we stand on a mountain, the earth looks like a flat disk which ends somewhere. At night, the stars above seem to be from another world, which appears when the sun goes down. Therefore, we call it heaven and ancients imagined it to be populated by divine beings. Dead bodies, be it that of humans, animals, or plants, go back into the earth. So our ancestors imagined a realm below which has invariably been called Hades or hell—a dark world where the shadows of the dead have an eerie existence.
From this view of a three tier universe, stories developed to explain how things are, where we come from and where we are going. According to the Christian Bible, God created the cosmos about ten thousand years ago. To rule this world, God created human beings. Inherently, there was a hierarchical order: God, man, woman, children, slaves, and nature. God is in charge, pulling the strings of history. God put the male (created in God’s image) in charge of the female, and, as humans, they rule over the rest of creation. The social system of patriarchy (where male patriarchs were put at the top of social pyramids), was enshrined as the divine ideal.
Women were part of the commodities traded by men in arranged marriages to maintain this social order. The underworld contained characters like demons, which would cause hardship and disease. Luckily, through certain rituals, these demons could be exorcised. When it did not work, it was explained as God’s punishment for sins committed. Suffering was caused by sin and evil and was deserved. Tradition, the memory of the past, became a huge virtue. It had to be accepted uncritically. To doubt was a sin. To believe like a child was virtue. Nature could be exploited.
Everyone was happy: it was a world which was static, with no change. People believed that, as things had been in the past, they would be in the future as well.
The challenge from science
Scientific research supplied an alternative story of the origins of all. It was realised that the earth is not flat, but a sphere. It revolves around the sun which is the centre of our galaxy.
As a result of careful measurement, it is accepted that the cosmos is expanding; the distances between galaxies are increasing. Looking at the process in reverse, and doing retro calculations, a new theory was developed. About 13.8 billion years ago, there was a Big bang, which was the defining moment of the origins of our universe. The earth itself came into being about 4.54 billion years ago. The first signs of life appeared 3.5 billion years ago.
There were five major extinctions, that of the Dinosaurs being one. Simpler life forms evolved and are still evolving into more complex life forms. Death is an integral part of the universe’s creativity. From death and suffering new life forms evolve. After the extinction of the dinosaurs, small mammals evolved, flowers, and pollinators like bees. There were more beauty, complexity, and diversity.
Evolution is not only of cells and life forms. Our psyches, the way we live together with each other and with nature, our culture, and even the way we talk about God, are all evolving. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, we have put male and female on equal footing, as well as black and white. Currently we are also doing the same with gays and lesbians. Our individual consciousnesses are evolving towards the creation of more beauty, truth and goodness.
The idea of design is also challenged by science. It is through random genetic changes that species evolve. These may assist them to have a better chance of survival in a changing environment. This fact questions the idea of God as determining things in advance or intervening in natural processes.
Disease and psychological illnesses are also explained in terms of bacteria, viruses, and chemical imbalances, rather than by referring to evil spirits. Scientists promote doubt and scepticism as virtues, that is, evidenced-based belief, rather than uncritical acceptance of dogmas. For scientists, the belief in miracles is nothing but superstition. The new atheists, like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, declare that religion is dangerous and should be abolished. In the past, Christianity has persecuted scientists.
In the area of Biblical scholarship, a new research tool has been developed. It is called the ‘Historical Critical Method’—clearly related to Darwin’s historical research into fossils. It showed how the Bible itself is the product of historical processes. It was revised, edited and adapted throughout history. The notion of the Bible as a book faxed from heaven is not accepted any more by modern biblical scholars.
Is it possible for science and religion to co-exist fruitfully?
What Christians can learn from science:
Christians have to accept that the Bible is not a scientific textbook. Science can inform us of how creation came about and how reality works. Science supplies us with the Big Story of where we come from.
We are involved in a never-ending process of transformation. We are works in process. Our psyches, our consciousness, our emotional world, the way we relate to others and nature, are evolving.
Creation is ongoing and not completed. We are connected with stardust and the chlorophyll in plants. We are just a small part of a huge ecosystem of life. Evidence-based beliefs are important. We have to accept that we can make sense of life bottom-up. All hierarchies are fraught with the trappings of power, oppression and anti-intellectualism. (It threatens power if people are allowed to think for themselves). In fact, we can see the scientific method as the new reformation sweeping the church.
What science can learn from religion
Science is descriptive of the how of things. Theology goes into the why of things and is therefore prescriptive. A new idea of God is developing as the Ground of All Being. God is more and more seen as an enticing principle, inviting us to be co-creators of new and exciting futures.
Indeed, Jesus was a change agent. He was focused on the future with his principle of the Kingdom of God. It comes very close to evolution to state that we, as God’s people, are drawn progressively into this new future. We read in John 10:10, ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’ Life is what all the processes are about. We are here to promote life in all its forms. We are the universe reaching consciousness. We can live more Christ-like lives of greater compassion, integrity, justice, and generosity.
We can say something about the purpose and the beauty in the universe. It seems that God is a divine, loving, energizing presence, co-operating with us, working through us, for the promotion of all life. Science can learn from us, that life was always anticipated—not in the way that God predesigned everything, but allowing for freedom, randomness and creativity. God is like a composer who invites us to jam with God in a jazz event. In us the universe is reaching personhood: freedom, love, appreciation of beauty, and agency.
Conclusion
Science supplies us with a new vision of the world, and therefore also with an alternative story of where we come from and where we are going. We are products of the Big Bang and evolution. Religion helps us to understand that our tasks as human beings are to promote life in all its forms. God is the Ground of Being, enticing us as co-creators, to new and exciting futures.
