The greatest story ever told

by Michou Landon
(editorials@boulderweekly.com)

In 1909's Pluralistic Universe, William James proposed that if an objective, absolute truth cannot be known about reality, then pragmatism suggests that we align our worldview and actions, based on what we do know, with what is supportive, fruitful and empowering for both the individual and the whole. The suggestion emboldens people to discover the cosmology that resonates in their bones as true, invites them into collaboration with life's persistent mystery, and inspires them to lead moral lives. What seems to have troubled humanity over the centuries, however, is how these belief systems differ with each culture and individual.

In the United States, there has long been tension between those who advocate science as the means of understanding the world and those who interpret the world through biblical literalism. Most recently, this has taken shape as a conflict between people who want schools to continue to teach Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution and those who wish to shift to "intelligent design." Currently, 20 state legislatures are challenging evolution's dominance in public school curricula and proposing to replace it with the concept of intelligent design.

But are these our only choices?

Not according to evolutionary theologian and author Michael Dowd. In 2002, Dowd and his wife, Connie Barlow, merged their cumulative lives' work into a traveling ministry for Sacred Evolution. Dowd and Barlow live, literally and figuratively, a marriage of spirit and science. Dowd, born first into Catholicism, then born again into evangelical Christianity, came to embrace and practice a less orthodox view in his more recent background as a mediator and ecumenical pastor. Barlow, calling herself an evolutionary humanist, is the author of many popular science books focusing on evolution.

The pair tours North America year round in a roomy Mercedes-made van, hosted by kindred strangers, in order to present "The Great Story" free of charge to all ages through inspirational lectures and workshops held in venues both sacred and secular. They offer pragmatic and enthusiastic witness to how faith can be strengthened, deepened and enriched by evolution; how divinity and science are not only compatible, but synergistic and intertwined; and how this understanding promotes a holistic and hopeful view of life, the universe, and humanity's future.

They will be touring Colorado in June and July, stopping in Boulder on July 16 and 19 for presentations at the Unitarian Universalist Church and on July 23 at Spirit-Keepers Interfaith Fellowship.

Creation conversation

Darwin's Theory of Evolution, or natural selection, suggests that the human race and other species find themselves in their current forms after millennia of incremental mutations, originating with far less complex life forms. The theory seeks to explain scientifically the diversity of life forms, not the origin of life itself, as many mistakenly assume, while creationism purports to explain both. Strictest creationism states that God created the world in six days and created man in his current form.

Intelligent design asserts that attributes of the universe and life display the signature of intelligence and purpose, rather than apparently random processes like natural selection. Ostensibly the theory eschews speculation on the nature or "identity" of the designing intelligence itself, though some critics say intelligent design is nothing more than creationism in disguise.

Scientific discoveries in the past century pose problems for advocates of creationism and evolution alike. Although many scientists are loathe to grant it the status of a theory, the more recently posited concept of intelligent design has the advantage of incorporating more of the recent scientific findings that seem to conflict with evolutionary and creationist claims. Moreover, unlike strict creationism, intelligent design does not exclude the theory of natural selection observed by Darwin.

At present, no one can prove with absolute certainty that any of these views are true to the exclusion of the others. That's why many in the intelligent design movement believe that understanding could only be strengthened by offering the young of our species a balanced consideration of all leading cosmologies and the questions each seeks to answer.

However, voices from many camps lament that, as it straddles the intellectual gap between the ineffable and the quantifiable, intelligent design doesn't go far enough.

"Intelligent design trivializes both God and science," Dowd says. "It trivializes God by implying an externalized designer with a pre-thought-out plan; and it trivializes science by implying that present gaps [in our understanding] is a bad thing."

This, then, necessitates an external divine intervention. In Dowd's opinion, "God" exists in more than the gaps of our scientific knowledge.

Dowd prefers the term "immanent creativity" to intelligent design.

"What we see in evolution is evidence of enormous creativity that is more like a conversation," elaborates Dowd. "[No one] in an [organic] conversation has pre-determined where it is going to go; but some amazing creative breakthroughs and life-changing insights can come out of a conversation. 'Immanent creativity' allows for creativity within the process.

"For me the fundamental truth that we now understand that few ancients could—without telescopes, microscopes and computers—is that reality is nested and emergent in its creativity," continues Dowd. "Whatever creativity that brings things into existence, that draws things to itself, that sustains, that transforms—which is traditionally ascribed to the gods, the goddess, divinity—that creativity is like nesting dolls. The universe has gone from simple atoms to more complex atoms, to molecules, to more complex molecules, to organisms to more complex creatures, to societies, to more complex societies."

The universe is in a process of unfolding and "complexifying," and humans are a part of that process, he says.

Evolution's epic

So what is "The Great Story?"

Dowd describes "The Great Story" as "the epic of evolution, the history of the universe that we now know through mainstream sciences, told in a mythic, sacred way."

It includes all stories: religious, individual and cosmic, and it becomes "The Great Story" as each individual relates to it in a way that illuminates his or her life as uniquely meaningful and connected to the whole. Dowd uses the term "evolution" in a sense that includes not simply Darwin's work, but the contributions of astrophysics, geology, biology, chemistry, etc. However, it does not stop there.

"'The Great Story' is fundamentally a science-based narrative, but it uses mythic, poetic or even religious language as a way to [make] clear that this is our creation myth," Dowd continues. "All cultures have had a set of stories that explain, 'Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going?' These cosmologies become the foundation on which a culture's social institutions are based."

Dowd points out that most major religions developed when people still thought the Earth was flat and stationary and that the sun and other heavenly bodies revolved around it. Modern humans have technological advantages and a scientific understanding that ancient peoples lacked.

"I believe that no religion could emerge into its full glory and potential until deep time-evolution was understood," he says. "If the meaning and significance of our religious traditions don't grow commensurate with the knowledge we have now, we are not only out of step with whatever your name is for 'ultimacy'—Life, God, Great Mystery, whatever—we are also doing our traditions a disservice."

Both a religion and its adherents are challenged to survive when out of step with the practical knowledge and processes of the world in which they live.

In the big picture each religion has an important piece of the bigger story, Dowd says. Each tradition emerged as a way to help people of a particular region or tribe to understand the world, cooperate and reap the profound benefits of doing so. As technology brings the global community together, humans are finding themselves forced to cooperate on a worldwide scale—something our original traditions don't support, he says.

But as religions go back to their original doctrines and rituals and reinterpret their core insights, a story emerges that is harmonious with modern scientific discoveries, he says.

"'The Great Story' transcends and includes all stories," he says. "Each tradition will [still] freely use the language, ritual and metaphor that it holds sacred, yet each tradition will be [connected by and] grounded in these 'corroborable' scientific facts."

Dowd and Barlow begin the human story in the bellies of ancient stars, which contained nearly all the chemical elements that make up our bodies and everything else in our physical reality. However, we seem to have evolved into more than just "star dust." As important as knowing how that transpired is understanding where we go from here.

So, Barlow and Dowd weave together discoveries and concepts from all the human sciences, synthesizing a comprehensive cosmology with contributions from Joseph Campbell, Thielhard de Chardin, Andrew Cohen, William McDonough, Carl Sagan, Brian Swimme, Ken Wilber and too many others to mention.

Barlow especially credits the work of Julian Huxley, an evolutionary humanist, with her awakening out of the constraints of her scientific conditioning.

"I realized that evolution and science was more than just a bland world view; it was a religion without revelation," Barlow said in a recent radio interview on the program "New Dimensions." "It could give insight about our origins, purpose and destiny, the role of humans."

Barlow claims that Huxley's writings helped her overcome the assumption that humans were just a blight on the planet.

"Through the human, the universe has become conscious of itself and its own story," she says.

Dowd explains it this way: "All creatures know; and over time humans have come to know that they know. The point is that this self-reflexive consciousness keeps getting more complex, deeper and broader."

Barlow believes that it isn't enough just to know the 14-billion-year universe story. Through eco-theologian Thomas Berry's writings she realized that humanity's role is to celebrate.

"We are the celebrants of this grand epic," she says. "Scientists are not the top of the heap in this regard. Artists, children who love to draw dinosaurs, and all others with depth of heart, are doing exactly the human's role."

Having blossomed with the teachings of these sacred evolutionists, Barlow's background in science and Dowd's in evangelical religion, merge into a message that reportedly packs a compelling one-two punch of credibility and enthusiasm.

They reach audiences of diverse membership, including church congregations, youth organizations, peace, justice and ecological groups, Quaker meetings, Buddhist sanghas and conferences of clergy or free-thinkers.

Time and again, Dowd says, he's watched bored teenagers, demoralized activists, atheists, and more conservative Christians melt and open in the course of a presentation, and thank him tearfully afterward, sometimes acknowledging both lingering reservations and renewed hope, with a willingness to consider and apply these ideas.

"Many will say, 'I've never heard it put quite like this, but I've always known this is true,'" says Dowd. "It resonates in a deep part of their being."

Adds Dowd, "Our goal is not to convert or convince that we are right, but to articulate a way of thinking about the big picture and how all religions fit into it."

With titles like "Beyond Sustainability" and "The Gospel According to Evolution," workshops tailored for different audiences, and emphasizing varying themes, all elucidate the relevance of "The Great Story" in every aspect of the human predicament, mystical and practical.

Dowd and Barlow have come to view "God" as beyond all religion, as one of many terms for an ultimate, all-inclusive, unlimited reality, the creative continuum—"the Whole," as Dowd calls it.

And the whole is present in every part. To view it in any other way furthers a mindset that sees us as separate from nature, separate from God, he says.

Optimistic future

"I'm a pragmatist," says Dowd. "Fifty-five percent of the world are Muslims or Christians, mostly conservative. In the next 50 to 70 years, I don't see three to five billion people ceasing to use God language. I use God language that all of us—atheist, theist and pantheist—can agree on."

It's important to Dowd to use language that has a universal reach because, true to his evangelical roots, he's trying to provide people with a perspective that can transform their lives so that they feel hope and want to live meaningful lives.

"Through the entire evolutionary story," Dowd says, "the primary catalyst that drives creativity and transformation is chaos, breakdowns and bad news. From an evolutionary standpoint, that gives us some hope. I look at our big challenges—like peak oil and global warming—and say not, 'Oh God, the whole thing's going down,' but, 'Wow, we're not going to be able to avoid this; it is going to force major changes.' When people see this they can trust the chaos of our times and be engaged."

To the degree that we are aware of how evolution has worked over time, says Dowd, humans can participate in the process with a conscious understanding. Then society can align its laws, policies, programs and institutions with that knowledge to create a more sustainable future. To do the opposite and ignore the way evolution works is to set humanity at odds with the way the Divine has been running things for the past 14 billion years, he cautions.

In their presentations, Dowd and Barlow offer practical ways people can find their place in this process and embrace this calling as individuals and as integral instruments of the whole.

"The three main points of this Sacred—or God-glorifying, depending on who I'm talking to—understanding of evolution are that it helps to real-ize science—that is, to take otherworldly concepts and [demonstrate] that they are fundamentally, measurably real—life-changingly so," says Dowd. "The second is that it clarifies our way into the future. When we understand these long-term patterns, it becomes obvious what the will of 'The Whole' is for us now. The third thing is that it really does expand and deepen traditional morality, expands and deepens our integrity, our love, our compassion. So, it furthers what religion has been about."

By transcending polarization and separation, "The Great Story" transforms religion and science from competing theories to systems that support one another.

Says Dowd: "Once you get it—that the universe isn't something 'out there,' that it is 'in me'—[you] trust something other than the rational brain. [You don't] try to have faith or trust, you just have it."

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