How Evolution Teaches Us to Change
If you’ve been around enough churches, you know that many Christians don’t exactly know what to do with the theory of evolution. Let’s be honest: many Christians don’t know what to do with much of our modern scientific knowledge. Some believe that if they put their fingers in their ears and close their eyes while yelling “La la la la la la,” they won’t have to acknowledge that scientific knowledge is here to stay.
There are others who are faithfully open to science, yet have been judged in their communities for embracing science and have thus not had many opportunities to reflect on science’s relation to their faith. These people have the desire to incorporate scientific knowledge, like evolution, into their faith and worldview, but are unable simply because they don’t have the language for it yet.
Then there are even others who have been on the forefront of advocating for science and faith to walk hand in hand. These visionaries are people whose faith is strengthened with scientific wonder and who are seeking to help others incorporate science into their faith journeys.
Of course, there are people in between. There are those who claim no interest in faith, but find truth, hope, and life when they look at the night sky. There are those who find salvation in hiking and canoeing. There are Creek Orthodox who see more guidance in grace under the stream than in the church. And that too is good.
If we are going to live in this 21st century world, it is time to begin asking the question, “What can we learn from nature?” Our world is deteriorating as a faster pace than anyone initially expected and this is due to our religious worldview telling us that the earth was inconsequential to our faith. We’ve been told that faith and science can’t coexist. Or we’ve been discouraged from seeking out their relationship. We must spend more time beholding the beauty and truth we find in the natural world because when we begin beholding it, we will begin protecting it.
The natural world has many lessons for us. We could spend years discovering the lessons the theory of evolution has for us. Here, we want to focus on two key lessons and how to integrate them into your worldview.
1. Those who do not change will become extinct.
Change is a part of our DNA. Our bodies’ cells recreate themselves over and over again throughout our life. Trees have a cycle of life where they experience change that sustains them (no, they can’t stay colorful in the fall). Change is good. It is an expression of growth and sustenance.
Crafters who are in religious communities or have been in one previously know that religious communities largely resist change. It took years and years (some hundreds of years) for churches to repent of their racism during the Civil War and reconstruction (looking at you Southern Baptists). There’s the old joke about the church calling a committee meeting to decide on the color of the carpet. Religious institutions resist change and discourage change within people of faith.
The resistance to change plays out on the individual level as well. Some communities will not support their own who go through life-altering transformations simply because they are resistant to change.
As we are crafting our own faith, we are called to learn from nature that change is engrained in who we are as humans. We must change to grow. We must change to survive. Even when it isn’t comfortable or convenient, change is typically a good thing in our lives. Whether we are changing our minds, our address, our political party, our religion, our gender identity, the change we take on is good.
Of course, we don’t change just for the sake of change. We change to survive. Maybe you feel deep within you that to survive, you must change your appearance so that it matches how you feel—change for survival. Maybe you feel that you need to change your religious affiliation because all you get when you walk in the doors of that church is shame, shame, shame—-change for survival. Maybe you feel that you need to change your tribe because you feel like in your current tribe, you are all alone—change for survival.
2. Adaptation only happens in community.
The only way we can change is in community. The only way we realize the need to change is in relationship with others. “Evolution is a relational process,” says theologian Elizabeth Johnson in Ask the Beasts. Darwin noticed that variations among species arise in the context of community. That is community of diverse species.
You see, when diverse species are present, it requires different skills of certain species. The presence of predators require the prey to acquire the ability to camouflage or hide. The limitations a community of species put on a water source requires the certain species to be able to go longer time between water intake. Adaptation requires community.
For some reason, there has been a growing movement of lone-wolf spirituality. By that we mean that people have been encouraged that they can sustain a meaningful spiritual life without any other person. At the heart of the spiritual life is change — the change of a person, habits, fears, hopes, etc. Spirituality is a very personal experience but it is best practiced and encouraged in community because the heart of spirituality is change.
On a practical level, we at The Holy Craft, hope you are in a community that calls you to change We hope that you have a community that makes you think and makes you reflect on who you are. We hope that community is prompting change in the best way in your life.
If change is a fact of life and change can only happen in community, then community is also a fact of life. Community must be written into our DNA. We need each other.