Catholic Social And Economic Doctrine And Evolution

Place the biospirtual evolution to God in the capable hands of traditional Christian social and economic doctrine, rather than only radical eugenic programs.

The distribution of private property as widely as possible, a just use of capital, variety, and light federalism, provide a better environment for survival and reproduction success, and evolution, than any other doctrine yet presented, and these traditional doctrines have the practical advantage of being traditional and conservative, not radical, channeling the new into the old, not destroying all that has gone before.

Caring for the poor, as we are rightly asked to do, never did mean Communism or the devolution of the Church. Those living in the world, the healthy, the intelligent, share of themselves and their goods when their own possessions are in excess of their own present and future needs. A church without possessions could not feed the poor. Those living in religious communities, who have no possessions, communally share.

The position of  the Theoevolutionary Church is that we can survive and reproduce and evolve to Godhood best with the traditional social and economic doctrines of the traditional Church, enlarged with knowledge of Cattell's Beyondism.

Reattaching the Gordian Knot

Whether evolution moves from the simple to the complex, or back again from the complex to the simple in natural selection, it is the “striving” that seems to remain constant. You may say that it is only the genes that are striving, or you may say that the human being is striving, but it is still striving.

To claim that the striving is pointless or blind or directionless, as many physical materialists do, is as unscientific as saying that the striving has a direction or purpose, as many theologians say. Neither are empirically proven.

It is at the juncture of “striving” that the Gordian Knot between science and religion, matter and spirit can be reattached. Matter in evolution and spirit in theology are both striving for immortality, matter calls it biological or genetic immortality, religion calls it spiritual or the soul’s immortality.

And immortality, whether biological or spiritual, is Godhood. Thus religion and science can be joined, thanks to the striving of life.

(For excellent thinking somewhat related to this, see John Haught’s “Deeper Than Darwin” John Haught

Addition Not Deletion

Evolution is an addition to, not a deletion of Church Tradition, and it does not affect the validity of the church, in my opinion.

I affirm the traditional conservative principle that new additions must be channeled into tradition and custom, and must not destroy tradition and custom.

The symbol of  the Theoevolutionary Church suggests, among other things, the synthesis of evolution and tradition.

The common people, the laity, never desire change, they prefer stability in religious concerns, but this is not why one holds to tradition. The traditional church reveals much of the nature of the God we hope to evolve to. These revelations are almost as important as evolving to God. The traditional church also presents the virtues and morals that make living and evolving possible in this world and the next.

Parts And The Whole

The fall of man was not described best
by Rousseau, it was Aristotle
who understood we can be happy
living in the lap of civilization,
the fall of man was about fleeing
from what we are, and the scars of
trying to change remain; we are the same,
the liberators did not see us
as ecologically whole, they used
seductive arts to sell us only parts.

Change And Custom In The Theoevolutionary Church

The Theoevolutionary Church (TC) does not merely make an obligatory bow to custom and tradition, it fully affirms Conservatism.TC needs to be channeled into custom and tradition. (For an excellent debate on change versus custom, see The American Conservative, “On The Next Conservatism.” Feb 12 2007) amconmag.com

Evolution as a subject within the Church has not so much “evolved,” our understanding has become clearer. Evolution to God has always been here, we have not seen it clearly. The challenge is to include change in Conservatism, to channel change into the current of custom, as Burke put it.

This understanding will only gradually arrive. We see and experience God or the Spirit Within with revealed religion, we bio-spiritually evolve to God with our knowledge of science and religion.

What We Know And Do Not Know

How God came to have permanent existence, and why the cosmos is set up to allow evolution within it, is not known. The Great Religions say that God has always been the ground of Being and Becoming.

We may not know why or how God exists until we attain Godhood, or until we are far more intelligent and have far higher consciousness than we do now.

We have the concepts that God exists permanently, and natural selection in evolution seeks permanence, eternal representation.  Religion has examined Godhood by examining the soul within, among other things, and science has examined evolution. The Evolutionary Christian Church combines these findings with the evolution of life to Godhood.

James N. Gardner’s "Biocosm" hypothesis

The Biocosm hypothesis from 2003 is an interesting take on the cosmos, although, of course, James N. Gardner is not an Evolutionary Catholic.

Looking Backward and Forward In Religion and Evolution

Religion looks back to the beginning where it finds God, and examines God by way of the Spirit and Soul within us, which is intimately related to God. Biological evolution, defined in the Theoevolutionary Church (TC), looks forward to God at the end of evolution, whom we evolve to if we are successful in evolution. Both religion and evolution define the same God, but traditional religion has centered on the God seen inwardly whereas we center on Godhood reached outwardly through evolution.  This is the Twofold Path.

Religion is almost deductive, first seeing God and then showing God in particulars. Evolution is almost inductive, evolving particulars to a universal God. We can also say that God is reached by involution in religion, and by evolution in biological religion.

Seeing or knowing God in Traditional religion, difficult as this is, is not nearly as difficult as materially-supermaterially evolving to Godhood. But both ways can help each other. Religion helps us better understand the God we are evolving to, and evolution helps us actually reach the God we see in religion.

Traditional Christianity, with its most ancient rites and long tradition is the Western way to see God, to reach God, and it also provides the best conservative environment for evolving successfully to Godhood. The Theoevolutionary Church emphasizes higher intelligence and higher consciousness in evolution, without deemphasizing the traditional virtues and morals of Christianity.