Faith & Evolution
I’m frequently asked about my spirituality and what I believe. Simply put, I choose to take the path of understanding God’s creation through observing my environment and the self. I personally don’t see spirituality through the eyes of the ancestors.
I remember that as a 3-year-old, I questioned things even then. I also remember, at some point, that I was fearful asking certain questions, even though I was only asking them within myself.
Spirituality is a difficult thing to define without creating some form of doctrine around it. In the way I describe my work, most people would perceive I am not speaking of God, or that I am not on a spiritual path because I might use quantum mechanics as a philosophy. I believe the same Being who created the Universe also created the single strand of DNA, which led to the development of the human species – a creature who stands upright and has a massive brain.
My spirituality deals with observing and recognizing the creation, but without drawing conclusion to the creation.
I observe because the Creator designed my brain to do so; our cerebral cortex was given the great capacity to observe and to analyze and to ponder. When I go to a temple, pick up an ancient book and repeat it verse by verse, it does not bring me any closer to experiencing the infinite. It keeps me in the same place as my ancestors, and it negates evolution. For me, spirituality is the embrace of the ever-expanding universe, and all things within it is the primary.
I will honor all of Creation by working toward expansion of my consciousness, which is giving me greater clarity into the astonishing miracle that is evolution; not by asking ancient men what I should do or what I should ask, but by practicing observing the feelings within myself, and questioning those feelings in the now.
And I’ve moved to the point where everything I look at, I need to question again.
I can see that in ancient days the people who created these religions were the learned men of the day: they were the philosophers, the scientists, and the mathematicians. Even among those who had great visions, they could only articulate through the language and customs of the day, which was the Bronze Age. If those same people existed today, they would be the quantum mechanics, the chemists, the scientists; they would be the philosophers, the poets and the novelists.
Today, in addition to language that can describe the infinite, we also have the accumulated knowledge of mankind at our fingertips.
To me, faith is to take all of that – to include the biological, which I am – and understand that within me I possess the capability of deciphering my existence, and that of my brothers and sisters. Am I there? No, but I’m following my heart.
As far as I can remember I’ve had a desire to understand why things happen – if God is love, why is there so much pain? Why is there so much inequity? In my opinion, if I want those questions answered, I’m not going to find the answers because I have faith in a book or a temple; instead, I am more than likely going to find them by having faith that my consciousness is infinite – the same consciousness created through evolution by the Creator of this universe.
This is where my faith comes from: through the observation of standing in awe with the creation itself.
Be at peace.