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03 Dec 09

Georgetown/On Faith: Darwin, God, and the drama of life - John F. Haught

newsweek.washingtonpost.com/...god_and_the_drama_of_life.html - Preview

science religion evolution philosophy intelligent design

I propose, however, that religious thought can make significant contact with Darwin's science if instead of focusing on design it turns its attention to the drama of life. The typically design-obsessed frame of mind through which so many devout theists, as well as staunch atheists, are looking at the question of God and evolution is a dead end both scientifically and theologically.
the very features of evolution--unpredictable accidents, predictable natural selection, and the long reach of time--that seem to rule out the existence of God, are essential ingredients in a monumental story of life that turns out to be much more interesting theologically than design could ever be
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- The most important issue in the current debate about evolution and faith is not whether design points to deity but whether the drama of life is the carrier of a meaning.
- the apparent absence of perfect order at any present moment is an opening to the future, a signal that the story of life is not yet over.
- Dramatic stories, unlike complex living systems or elaborately structured molecular states, have the potential to carry a truly deep significance. But it is the nature of stories that they have comic twists and tragic turns, and that they take time to unfold.
- A theological reading of evolution, I am suggesting, looks for an alternative to the rigor mortis of perfect design, and this is why Darwin's ragged portrait of life is not so distressing after all.
- According to a biblically inspired theology of nature, beneath life's diversity, descent, and flawed design, stirs an evolutionary drama that has been aroused, though not coercively driven, by a God of infinite love. The cosmos is called continually into being by a Creator who wills, but does not force, truly interesting outcomes to emerge in surprising new ways. God, as scripture suggests, is the one who "makes all things new." The drama of life and its evolution is a response to this invitation.