Great New Story

The emergence of human consciousness led to a sharp break with the old animal life. An entirely new story began- humanity living as human in human civilization. The essential features of the new human existence are probably nowhere more clearly expressed than in the teaching of Jesus. I think of Matt. 5 and related passages in Luke that give a composite picture of Jesus??? break with the old payback way of thinking. He stated that we should not hold the faults of others against them, that we should not retaliate, that we should not demand repayment of debt or propitiation of offense before forgiving (if we did this we would be like God for this was what God was like). This undemanding generosity is what true forgiveness meant. It was entirely new and so opposite to conventional payback thinking. Jesus was continuing a theme from the prophets who argued that God did not want sacrifice (payment, propitiation). This theme is found in all the parables of Jesus (Breech, Silence of Jesus)- this scandalous generosity. Treatment of others is not based on payback standards but is absolutely free. What a challenge to the entire Christian system of payback theology.

Denis Edward in his contribution to In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being (A Relational And Evolving Universe) makes some interesting comments. On p. 207 he notes the patient unfolding of things in time and without this nothing could ever happen. Whether basic matter, life or conscious beings and civilization, it all takes immense lengths of time though there is certainly a speeding up in recent centuries, sort of an exponential increase in improvement. What does this mean? He notes the comments of John Barrow on the fact it takes at least 10 billion years to produce carbon and other elements cooked in stars. This directly relates to the size of an expanding universe- the older the bigger. So it has little to do with our so-called insignificance but more to do with our centrality and significance that such a process was instituted to produce us. Such time, care, and patience and immense resources- all for human life, human development, and a better human world. And on death- that change in complex organisms depends upon death. Without death there is no series of generations. Without this there is no ongoing change in organisms. He uses evolution which is now discredited. Better, organisms somehow emerge out of previous ones (maybe Margulis is on to something with her acquired genome theory) and new ones emerge. He says, there is a necessary incompleteness in the way things are. We are not yet what we shall be. This inescapable orientation toward the future or ???a better future??? (my take on this). God enables this becoming. God is the inner power of evolutionary emergence. Creation is the activity of intelligence (organizing new realities like DNA- which is organized information processing capacity), not of natural laws, though those laws are part of it all. And good comment on the nature of true love and freedom- ???God???s almighty power is not to be conceived as the absolute power of an earthly tyrant, but as the divine capacity to love, which involves a divine capacity for self-limitation that makes room for creaturely integrity and human freedom???. The fundamental reason for all this existence of all things. He says, ???God???s creative action cannot be thought of simply as enabling things to exist. It must be seen as enabling things to evolve and become what is new???. I take this thought further - an infinitely Humane Spirit energizes all to move inexorably toward a more humane future (more persuasion here with the maturing of the cosmos, life and consciousness in civilization, not overwhelming coercive force- especially since the incarnation of consciousness in humanity). This is the fundamental impulse behind all we see in the universe, in life, and in consciousness/civilization- this impulse toward a more human/humane future. The fundamental question then becomes, not why something? but what does it mean to be human/humane? And work toward this. This is the foundational impulse we all experience and what drives all that humanity has done in the world- all the endeavor for personal, family and societal betterment.

Defining the new story. Many people have brought up of the insignificance of humanity in the vastness of the cosmos. Others have spoken of the ???overkill??? of the size of the universe. Whatever that might mean (a display of power and grandeur for our wonderment?). One can also turn this thought on its head and argue for the specialness of humanity in light of the vast cosmos. All this created for humanity. What a display of generosity that all this is created for humanity. This thought comes from something that Varghese noted- ???the intelligent network of laws that not only provide the conditions required for life but also appear actively engaged in bringing us into being??? not only is the world rationally ordered but it is also ordered towards the production of rational life???. That all this infinitude is for humanity. We are the reason for it all. Varghese develops this line of thought further in the following chapters to this quote above- in his material on the human self. He says p.297, ???I believe only a re-discovery of our self-conscious rationality will show us exactly how and why we are radically different??? (he has been noting the difference between humans and animal life, including the chimps and apes). We are a special divine creation as Eccles noted. We are not explainable in terms of the physical. We are not in the Darwinian evolution. We have this gift of consciousness, mind, rational thought, thinking in concepts, being aware, and so on. We have this unlimited potential in the human mind. We can understand freedom and love and so much more that animals can???t. We live in two worlds at the same time. The physical and the mental. They are not explainable in terms of one another even though they interact. In a time of devaluation of humanity via materialism it is good to find evidence supporting the wonder of being human. The value of human persons. That this great cosmos is created for humanity and we are not a random accident on some forgotten world in a meaningless cosmos.