Evolution of God Concept

(Below is my lecture at the Englewood Public Library last Jan 11, 2012, on The Evolution of God Concept.)

Evolution of God Concept

by Adolfo Borromeo

Millions of years ago, when man first looked at the heavens and wondered at the majesty of the earth, the moon and stars --- he thought there must be unseen powers responsible for all these. In his superstition and ignorance, he thought of gods and spirits who could do him harm or as equally do him good.

Today in the 21st century, most of us still believe in a god or gods, disembodied spirits, or supernatural forces.

Why is it that through the centuries, despite the debates among thinkers, philosophers, and scientists, yes, even among scientists --- we still continue to argue about the god question?

When primitive man was shivering inside his cave, huddled with his family around the fire while outside the storm was raging and streaks of lightning ripped the sky --- he implored the gods to spare him and his family.

And the storm passed and the sun brought in a bright new day, and the seasons changed with clockwork regularity --- so did man’s concept of god change and evolve.

God Is a Human Construct

Now this lecture with a topic as big as god will fill volumes but I have only one evening to discuss it so I will try to touch on the main issues.

I propose that the god concept is a human construct --- it begins in the mind and ends in the mind. It does not exist outside the mind. This is not a new or unique idea, but has come about from early man’s deep seated need to explain what in his primitive mind were “deep mysteries” of nature.

Forrest Church of the Unitarian Universalist Church says that theology is a human construct. It begins with the miracle of our own existence… “The principal challenge of theology [therefore] is to provide symbols and metaphors that will bring us, in all our glorious diversity, into closer and more celebratory kinship with one another as sons and daughters of life and death.”

Childish Projection

This human need to explain life’s mysteries is so compelling that Voltaire said, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” And Sigmund Freud said, “the whole concept is nothing but a projection of a childish wish for parental protection from the vicissitudes and sufferings of human existence.”

Krista Tippitt, author and journalist, enlarges on this concept as the parents’ raising of their children. “I know of no richer source of theological enlightenment than parenting,” she said. “This is the body of raw experience with which I constantly revise and fill my image of God --- as mother, as parent --- with complex meaning.”

The writer Philip Pullman believes “the true end of human life is not redemption

by a nonexistent son of god but the giving and transmission of wisdom.”

Reduced to its basics, theology is philosophy. To argue your kind of philosophy, for example, you have to prove it by logical reasoning. And you base your reasoning by assumptions which may or may not be based on reality. Like when one argues how many angels can dance on the head of a needle.

Now of all species, man is the only one who can think, analyze, discern, remember and transfer acquired knowledge through generations, and to improve on this knowledge from generation to generation.

Childish Things

The child, as she comes into this world, begins to respond to stimuli around her --- the blinking light, the moving object, the ringing bell. As the years go by, she becomes aware of herself and conscious of her existence and the existence of those around her.

In her childish mind, her imaginary friend, for example, is as real as she herself is real. As real as her parents respond to her cries when she is hungry or tired, and later when she wants something. Her parents understand this, and they tell her that she should not be naughty but nice if she wants Santa Claus, for example, to bring her holiday gifts. That she should pray to her guardian angel to keep her from harm and from “bad person.” She believes without question in the fairy godmother, the tooth fairy and Easter bunny.

Now as she grows up to adulthood, she throws away these childish beliefs, although she may not object to telling the same things to her future children.

Now as an adult, she begins to question her religious teachers not because what they teach her is morally wrong but because they are intrinsically inadequate. Why accept for example a minister’s reasoning that the 9/11 tragedy was God’s punishment to homosexuals, lesbians and transgenders. What about those thousands who died who were not gays, lesbians or transgenders?

Now as an adult, as she goes through life, she knows she must rely on herself to think things through. That her mind is adequate, capable of explaining and understanding the so-called mysteries of life. That even if she is religious and believes in a supernatural being, ultimately it depends on her will and personal power to get through life.

Baruch Spinoza says that “there is nothing unknown that cannot be known… no unfathomable mystery in the world; no other-world accessible only through revelation or epiphany; no hidden power capable of judging or affirming us; no secret truth about everything.” In other words, Spinoza is saying, My mind is enough. There is no mystery. I don’t need no revelation, epiphany or miracle. By extension, it means, Even if God exists, I can question His wisdom, as when Job asked why he is being punished so much. As when Abraham pleaded with God not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if he (Abraham) could find at least 10 honest men in the two cities.

According to Ibn al-Rawandi, a 9th century Muslim philosopher, “we figured all the wonders of science and astronomy through natural intellect, study, observation, and trial and error. We can know the world on our own.

Our founding father Thomas Jefferson, said it in no uncertain terms, “My own mind is my own church… I do not believe in the creed professed by… any church.” I am a religion unto myself.

The Ever Changing God

From recorded history, gods have been conceived in hundreds of different forms in myriads of ways. They have been given human- or animal-like qualities, only more powerful and immortal. Those that went out of favor became myths and legends. Those that still attract believers modify their core beliefs in order to remain relevant to the growing acculturation of a global society.

Consider the following:

Evolutionary Pope

In 1996, Pope John Paul II said there was no conflict between evolution and creation, that evolution was a process in God’s creation. The pope also said that hell is not a place but a state of those who separate themselves from God, implying heaven is not a place either but a state (state of the mind?). And the pope had also debunked purgatory as a half-way house to heaven. And limbo, the heaven for infants who died before being baptized, did not exist. Putting to question, among believers, if there ever was a soul. Because if unbaptized babies had souls, where did they go? The pope having said this, the Church does not anymore mention or emphasize these discredited beliefs in the priests’ sermons and church teachings.

Reminds me of the poem Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:

Men talk of heaven --- there is no heaven but here

Men talk of hell --- there is no hell but here

Men talk of hereafters and other lives

There is no other life --- but here.

The Pragmatic Dalai Lama

In an interview sometime ago, the Dalai Lama said he would remain as the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people as long as they believe in him as the reincarnated Dalai Lama, meaning that he would renounce his divinity the moment they ceased to believe in it.

To the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, Tibetan Buddhism is nontheistic, unlike Hinduism, Sikkhism, Zoroastrianism, among others.

Buddhism is not concerned directly whether there is a god or gods. To the Buddha the question is irrelevant. The goal of life is to free oneself from suffering and to attain nirvana by following an enlightenment program based on reality.

State Shintoism

After the Second World War, the Japanese emperor, as part of unconditional surrender, renounced his divinity. But Gen. Douglas MacArthur insisted that Hirohito remained on the throne as symbol of national reconciliation. The only reason I mentioned this is because a pastor said recently that Japan is cursed with earthquakes and tsunamis because the emperor had sex with the sun goddess Amaterasu.

Hinduism

In the case of Hinduism, professor Rodney Stark says the new Hinduism conceive of the gods in purely subjective terms --- “All the gods are in me.” Meaning, “The gods manifest themselves in me.”

The Atheist Jew

In some Jewish sects, they accept professed atheists as members. As one rabbi said, “I told the rich atheist, “God does not care if you don’t believe in him as long as you do good work. Faith is action. So you are welcome to finance our charitable projects.”

Secular Muslims

The Arab Spring showed that tyranny, under any form of government and regardless of religion --- an oppressed people will burst into spontaneous uprising. As witnessed the events in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. These countries are predominantly Islamic and are governed by sharia law. These countries do not follow separation of church and state. In Libya for example, the transition governing council lifted the restrictions on men having multiple wives. All men can have as many as four wives without restriction.

Stages of Faith

The psychologist James Fowler defines the stages of faith as follows:

1. Intuitive-Projective Faith--- fantasy filled, imitative phase; ages three to seven, when self-awareness is first attained.

2. Mythical-Literal Faith --- anthropomorphic god; stories and symbols are taken literally.

3. Synthetic-Conventional Faith --- governed by unexamined ideology and precepts are received from authority figures.

4. Individualistic-Reflective Faith --- assumes responsibility for her own commitments, lifestyle, beliefs and attitudes.

5. Conjuctive Faith --- integrative; freed from the confines of tribe, class, religious community or nation.

6. Universalizing Faith --- acquires a taste and feel for transcendent moral and religious actuality; universalizing compassion; enlarged visions of universal community.

Evolution of Jewish God

According to professor Robert Bella, author of Religion in Human Evolution, the original god of early Israel was not Yahweh but a clan god called El. The word Esra-el means “El rules.” So “Yahweh rules” means Esra-yahu.

And devotion to Yahweh did not mean the denial of other gods, only the obligation to worship them. In the Tanakh, Psalm 89.7-8:

For who in the skies can equal to the Lord,

Can compare with the Lord among divine beings,

A God greatly dreaded in the council of holy beings,

Held in awe by all around Him?

And as Yahweh was exalted by early Israel through the centuries, “the existence of other gods is denied, their cults are denounced as the stupid worship of inanimate, man-made objects.” In the Tanakh, Second Isaiah 45.5-6:

I am the Lord and there is none else;

Beside Me, there is no god…

… there is none but Me.

I am the Lord and there is none else.

Later, Yahweh, the national God of the Jewish people, has become the universal God of all peoples.

To Me, O Israelites, you are just like the Ethiopians ---

declares the Lord. (Amos 9.7)

The God of Israel has become the God to the nations.

So you shall summon a nation you did not know,

And a nation that did not know you

Shall come running to you ---

For the sake of the Lord your God. (Isaiah 55.5)

Then the first Christians broke off from Judaism, forming the Catholic Church which believe in the Trinity --- three persons in one God.

Then Muhammed founded Islam, which believe, There is but one God, and he did not beget a son or a holy ghost.

All along this time, through the centuries, various sects sprang from these three major religions, each differing in their beliefs for salvation and redemption.

Future of Religion

In light of global developments where the ordinary citizen demands his share of his country’s wealth and resources --- we shall see the rise of a more humanistic religion.

Traditional faiths will de-emphasize if not eliminate altogether supernatural beliefs, and there shall be more cooperation among religions to promote social justice.

Religions shall be less and less like exclusive groups but more and more like community associations for social amelioration.

Religions that cannot or will not change will split into subgroups or disband altogether. Followers who do not feel comfortable with their old faith will form their own.

The New Religion

The new religion will still derive from holy scriptures their sacred ideals and aspirations but god is no longer a supernatural being. God shall have become a metaphor of man’s highest aspirations, a symbol of everlasting hope, happiness and eternal love.

For Forrest Church, God is “a symbol, an arrow pointing toward a reality invested at the heart of being.” God is the life force that animates our lives into its own.

Rabbi Arthur Green says this evolving god concept is human evolution no less --- to higher and higher form of consciousness. So the concept evolves from tribal gods to a single god to an abstract metaphorical god.

The biologist Stuart Kauffman says it right, that God is the creativity at the heart of the universe. How much more metaphorical can you get?

Centuries from now, religions will no longer preach a god who is some supernatural being but, in the words of William James, in his book Varieties of Religious Experience --- “feelings and experiences of individuals in their solitude….” Feelings and experiences --- things internal in the human breast, not relationship to an external mystical spirit.

For Albert Einstein, religion is also a feeling, the awe and wonder of nature and the universe, not a personal god who answers the prayers of supplicants one way or the other.

There will still be wars and violence but man will wage these wars less on religious grounds. There shall still be violence but this comes not from some religious fanaticism but from man’s greed and lust for power.

Moral Ascendancy

In every generation, we see moral ascendancy in our global society. From feudalism to capitalism, from theocracy to monarchy to autocracy to democracy, from slavery to free men and women everywhere --- today’s liberalizing religions will spearhead the ultimate ascent of humankind.

Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God, calls this the moral truth of social structure --- peace and harmony among peoples and less violence among individuals. The closer we are to moral truth, the closer we are to salvation in the original Abrahamic sense of the term, which is the salvation of our global society.

Belief Doesn’t Matter

Now comes professor Alvin Plantinga of Notre Dame University, who says he cannot prove that God exists, but that doesn’t matter. Belief in God, he says, is a basic belief that doesn’t need proof, like the belief that the past exists, or that other people have minds, and that one plus one equals two.

Mr Platinga gives the example of a frog in a pond who sticks out his tongue when a fly passes by. It doesn’t matter what the frog thinks, if he’s thinking at all, when he sticks out his tongue --- whether a princess will kiss him and turn him into a handsome prince. It doesn’t matter if this belief is true or false. All he knows, in his frog mind, is that when he sits on that leaf floating on the pond, a fly will pass by and he will stick out his tongue and he will swallow the fly.

By extension, in human evolution, it doesn’t matter whether belief in God is true or false (it’s a basic belief, remember?) --- as long as this belief produces adaptive behavior in the individual that will insure his survival in the society he lives in, and will guarantee the transmission of his genes to the next generation. In other words, evolution by natural selection favors those random mutations that are adaptive for survival and reproduction.

Better Angels of Our Nature

In conclusion --- on a grander scale, how can religion hasten the peace and harmony that various faiths extol in their holy scriptures? Steven Pinker, in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature, while dismissive of religion’s role in decreased violence throughout history --- he grudgingly acknowledges that “particular religious movements at particular times in history have worked against violence.” I can think, in history, of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. and the nonviolent independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.

So if we want to have a better society for ourselves and for our children --- whether we are believers or not --- we must be vigilant in defending our religious rights and the religious rights of others. And if necessary, joining their cause in their expression of their religious freedom.

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