Does the Religious Faith of a Supreme Court Justice Matter?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 17 November 2016 7 Comments
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Question

I love the column — thank you for the insights. I am a science nerd — I taught and worked in the field of science all my life. I am also working on a degree in theology. I took my first biology classes about 46 years ago. When I learned about Darwin, I had an ah-ha moment. If the human species lives according to the model of the survival of the fittest, we will become extinct. That is part of the model that is often overlooked. Every organism must successfully fill a niche to survive. Only those organisms that learn the "law of cooperation" will ultimately win the day. That is what Jesus was trying to teach us. It is all about relationship — not domination.

Answer

Dear Janet,

Your ah-ha moment was indeed a profound insight. Every living thing, plant and animal is programmed to survive. What is true of all these living things is also true of human life. The only difference is that we human beings are self-conscious, while plants and animals are not. If survival is our highest goal, self-centeredness is inevitable and thus this quality becomes a constant part of the human experience. Traditionally, the church has called this "original sin" and has explained it with the myth of the fall. That was simply wrong. Survival is a quality found in life itself. There was no fall. Self-centered, survival driven, self-conscious creatures is simply who we are. There is thus no such thing as "original sin" from which we need to be rescued by a divine invader. So much of traditional Christianity assumes this false premise.

You are correct, however, in your assessment that survival, as the ultimate goal, will lead finally to extinction. Our hope does not lie in an external rescue. It lies in the process of evolution to carry us beyond the limits of humanity into a sense of being one with the universe. I don't think this happens by denying who we are or even being rescued from it. It comes from transcending who we are and I see that as the role of Christianity from which the church as an institution and most Christian individuals, have simply turned away.

We need to begin to see God and indeed the Christ life, not as that which rescues us from a fall and a sense of depravity (which basically creates in us guilt and a sense of worthlessness that we constantly transfer to the victims of our prejudice), but to see God and the Christ figure as the love that empowers us to grow into new dimensions of what it means to be human. It is a shift from guilt to grace; from the need to victimize to the ability to affirm the divine in all things. Individuality and the process of individuation are both necessary steps in the evolutionary process, but ultimately, as you suggest, they lead to extinction because they are based on competitiveness that leads to one sole remaining dominant survivor. Being one with nature and transcending self-consciousness in order to move into a universal consciousness is the future hope.

Your insights are, as the English say, "Spot on."

~John Shelby Spong

 

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