Atoms and Atheists

The other day in Nick’s office we were talking to a physics student and our conversation wandered over to the quest for the Higgs boson or the God particle. Scientists are intrigued by the possibility of smashing into it, especially now that we have the large (LHC) at CERN . “Where do we come from?” It’s fun to think a very long way back and ponder the nanoseconds surrounding the Big Bang. Evolutionary biologists love to go back to the beginning of life on earth and to the processes of evolution. These are gripping investigations.

Theologians interrogate the scriptures to ask a related, but different set of questions. One is, “Was it always in the mind and heart of God to be in relationship with creation, and for that relationship to be focused by entering creation as a co-participant at some stage in the story?”

That’s not a question science can answer, but it’s hard to deny it’s an exhilarating question to set alongside the others. Just imagine the attentiveness and absorption of God in beholding the evolution of creation, and awaiting the right time to enter it in order to be a co-participant with that part of it that could show some conscience and awareness in return. That’s not a manipulative picture. That’s a picture of astounding, patient, devoted, indescribable love.

Here’s a parallel question. It’s fascinating to ask, “Where do we come from?” – but isn’t it at least as interesting, to ask, “Where are we going?” Theologians at this point hold no naïve optimism that as a species or as a universe we’re intrinsically heading for candyland. We’re sinners, as much as we’ve ever been, and we’re no better or worse than our forebears or descendants.

But Christian theology is committed to the notion of sudden, final intervention of God in history that brings time to an end and inaugurates an era of glory and fulfillment. Most scientists keep a respectful silence on the question of where we’re all going. But some of the New Atheists fuse the theory of evolution with a notion of progress that suggests humans are heading for a happy place all on our own. That’s why the New Atheists are so ticked off with faith, because it’s inhibiting our species’ free ride to happiness.

It’s hard to fathom how you could look at history with eyes wide open and still believe in such an inevitable notion that by our own resources we will get better and better. But that just shows how important the question of where we’re going is. Scientists may disagree with the answers some theologians give, but the point is, you can’t avoid the question, and any answer to the question is going to depend on information science alone can’t provide.

Once you put these two questions together, where are we coming from, and where are we going, you’re into territory where science and theology can have a really interesting conversation. Now the question is, “What, if anything, is the logic at the heart of the universe?” The Big Bang and evolution are huge contributions to science and philosophy. But here’s the danger. Once you turn them uncritically into theology, as the New Atheists tend to do, you get a single-word answer: survival.
Survival of each creature, because death is the end, and survival of each species, because extinction is forever. The whole dynamic of history mutates into survival, and adaptation that enables survival is what’s known as progress. Conflict is the dynamic at the heart of every encounter, and survival is the reward for those who win the battle.

But theology has a very different answer. Christians believe the logic, the logos, or word, at the heart of the universe, is not about survival. It’s about death and resurrection. The ultimate future doesn’t belong to those who have fought and prevailed; it belongs to those who’ve laid down their lives for others. This timeless logic is exemplified not in the species that survives, but in the single human being who accepted brutal execution and yet was raised to new life. The real big bang that dominates the Christian imagination is not the detonation that inaugurated the universe, but the rolling-away of the stone that signaled the death of death.

The real evolutionary pattern that baffles and amazes the Christian imagination is the history of humanity’s extraordinarily elaborate hide-and-seek, and somersaulting attempts, to escape the logic of God’s relentless, humble, sacrificial and limitless love, and the constant adaptation God makes to be present to us and in relationship with us anyway.

Constant adaptation. That’s a fascinating theme in evolutionary biology. That’s a fascinating theme in ecology. That’s a fascinating theme in climate studies. That’s a fascinating theme in civil engineering. Constant adaptation. That’s also a fascinating theme in the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah portrays God as a figure making constant adaptations.
The vessel, observes Jeremiah in chapter 18:1-11 was spoiled in the potter’s hands; and he reworked it into another vessel. This is the story of Israel: the vessel was broken, the covenant was spoiled, and God made something beautiful by fashioning it into a pot shaped around the Jew named Jesus. This is the story of the church over and over; our common life is spoiled and broken, and God refashions it into something old but new. This is your story. Your life was spoiled, your pot was cracked, your hopes were broken, your plans were ruined; and God the potter made something that could never have been out of something that should never have been.
Constant adaptation. That’s not a disputed scientific theory. That’s what Christians call the Holy Spirit. What do you think? jim