Friday, May 22, 2009

Evolution and Christology Part II

An imperfect analogy:
My parents love me very much. They raised me from before I was born, and they paid my tuition through academy, and supported me through college. Also, they have told me that they love me. My father and mother love me, even though they did not build me. "Wait",you say, "they created you!" And, so they did. But indirectly. They did not carve me out of a piece of stone, or sculpt me from clay. What they did was initiate a chain of events that resulted in me. They each donated a gamete, and my mother donated space and resources. They came together and made a miniature big bang that had in it all the potentialities for life. But, they did not decide what gender would result, or what color of hair, or what physique the life would have. They had no control of the personality. They simply created circumstances that resulted in the formation of a zygote.
Now, in order for me to mature properly, I had to be protected. From my mother. Somethings called a placenta and umbilical cord formed, serving to shuttle resources to me and to protect me from my mother’s immune system, which saw me as an invader, a parasite. The placenta and umbilical cord: my lifeline, my shield. It’s not that Momma wanted to kill me. It’s just that I was (and am) a distinct entity and her body recognized that. Also, at that point my own system was not mature enough to defend itself. I could interact with her only at a very primitive level: I kicked. But even though I couldn’t understand what she said to me, couldn’t respond to her or converse with her on any advanced level, she loved me. She had no idea what I would end up being like, and she loved me.
Later, I was born. With jaundice. Nothing severe, but an imperfection nonetheless. It was quickly cleared up. It could have been something different, something worse. I could have been born with Downs. I could have been born premature, or even stillborn. I might have come out breach. Even after my birth, I might have died of SIDS. There are thousands of things that could have gone wrong.
My parents had rules for me that were imperfect. As I grew, the rules altered subtly and sometimes disappeared. My parents hadn’t been raising me poorly (at least, I think I had a great upbringing), it’s just that it was easier, simpler to give a simple, but imperfect rule when I couldn’t understand the complexities of how to cope with being alive with other people. Now, they set very few rules, possibly none. I don’t actually know if they have any rules. I haven’t been told that I’ve broken one in a very long time. I get these disappointed looks once in a while, but no scoldings.
My parents are like God (and, to set the record straight, my dad is way stronger than your dad, and my mom makes way better potato salad than your mom). God (possibly) sparked the Big Bang, and built into it all the potentialities for life. God (possibly) separated Itself from us, from the Universe, even, to allow it and us to develop into our own being. Otherwise, we would have been overwhelmed. God (possibly) chose not to know or control what we would be like: superficially, what our appearance would be like; more importantly, what kind of music and art we would make; what kind of dysfunctions we might develop. God might have left in the possibility that we might be stillborn. Perhaps somewhere out there, up in the black, there was a sentient race that destroyed itself, or was destroyed by an outside agent (disease, really big space rocks, etc.). It seems, though, that God has gifted sentient creatures with at least a primitive mechanism for interacting with It. Call it conscience, or consciousness, or whatever. People seem to somehow sense the divine. It’s not clear how it works, or what it means (thousands of people have interpreted it in thousands of ways), but God seems to be talking.
Yeah, my parents are like God.

I recognize that this is only slightly about evolution in many places. However, it is consistent with all the other stuff I wrote about in Part I?. More to come?

1 comment:

Joelle said...

OMG. Brilliant! Wow! Jaw-dropped. Perfect analogy. Had never thought of evolution in that way, but you present such a powerful argument in a beautiful metaphor. I buy it. Great thinking! Excellent writing! Gorgeous brain! Keep it coming.