Evolution is our fundamental reality

(Dreamstime / Agsandrew)

Editor's note: This is a companion piece to the column by Ilia Delio that was posted on July 1.




How often I have heard statements like "Evolution is not a proven theory" or "There are different theories of evolution" or "Quantum physics is an incomplete theory." If science actually followed these narrow ideas, we would not have electricity, running water, and certainly not computers and cellphones. We would live agrarian lives, travel by horse and buggy, and die at young ages.

Albert Einstein was a young unknown Swiss patent officer who dared to think differently about space and time and challenged Isaac Newton's ideas, eventually overthrowing the Newtonian framework. Did he have all the answers before he published his paper? Absolutely not. His theories opened up new windows and new conflicts.

Scientists continue to battle back and forth about quantum physics and a dynamic expanding universe but as the evidence continues to mount, Einstein's theory of relativity is seen to be correct. There is no such thing as absolute space and time, and matter is a form of energy.






We are living at the dawn of a new axial age, what Ewert Cousins called "second axial consciousness." This new level of consciousness differs from the first axial period in that it is no longer a consciousness of the individual but of the collective whole. Second axial consciousness is cosmic, collective, communal and ecological and it is the consciousness of younger generations.

Teilhard defined evolution as the rise of consciousness and saw the problem of Christianity in the 20th century (prior to the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council) as one of increasing irrelevance: Christianity "isolates [its followers] instead of merging them with the mass. Instead of harnessing them to the common task, it causes them to lose interest in it." In The Divine Milieu, he lamented that "far too many Christians are insufficiently conscious of the 'divine' responsibilities of their lives ... never experiencing the spur or the intoxication of advancing God's kingdom in every domain of humankind."




The only solution he indicated is not "an improvement of living conditions," as desirable as that might be; rather evolution must be toward more being, that is, not only an evolution of consciousness but a new phase of life in the universe toward unification of mind by which the whole cosmic evolution progresses toward greater unity.



The kind of religion we seek today, he thought, cannot be found in the religious traditions of the past linked to static categories. "God has become too small to nourish in us the desire to go on living and to live on a higher plane," Teilhard lamented. Science now tells us that the cosmos has become a cosmogenesis and this fact alone "must lead to the profound modification of the whole structure not only of our thought but of our beliefs."

What is needed, he thought, is a new religion that can utilize all the "free energy" of the earth to build humankind into greater unity. He suggested that the different religions must come together and find an axis of convergence through respect, dialogue and encounter, meeting on the level of mysticism and action. Without religious convergence, we are left with "unsatisfied theism."

Teilhard did not see Christianity as normative of religion but normative of evolution and the direction of evolution toward cosmic personalization, which is the building up of the body of Christ in the universe. The further evolution of humanity toward greater unity, he said, "will never materialize unless we fully develop within ourselves the exceptionally strong unifying powers exerted by inter-human sympathy and religious forces."


Teilhard felt that any religion that remains detached from the earth and from the movement of evolution leads to "unsatisfied theism" or "a–theism," not a rejection of God but a rejection of religion disconnected from the impulses of cosmic life. Because religion is a vital dimension of evolution, he thought that religion is the necessary energy to vitalize the earth into a new unity, a new planetization that is now taking place on the level of the internet and global community.


If the church truly desires to make a difference in the world through a living Gospel, then it is time to bring theology into dialogue with the sciences. More so, we must accept evolution as our deepest reality and understand God's work in a world of change and complexity. Every theology student and seminarian should enroll in science classes for at least the first year of study, and every trained theologian should do theology with evolution as a starting point. Words like "being" and "nature" belong to the first axial period. Second axial language includes complexity, cybernetics, information and systems.


Despite the mess we are in, God is still the power of the future and this power is truly known when we begin with a science charged with faith. Or as Alfred North Whitehead said, "religion will not regain its power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science"

[Ilia Delio, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Washington, D.C., is the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University. She is the author of 16 books, including Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology, Consciousness (Orbis Books 2015), and the general editor of the series Catholicity in an Evolving Universe.]