Darwinism and Dualism in the Same Cave

Dualism, which presents itself as the “orthodox” Christian understanding of things, views God and humans as separated entities--Creator and creatures forever different, unequal, and awkwardly juxtaposed. The gap between God and humans is spanned by Jesus as the intermediary, but even after death we will be but honored guests in God’s awesome presence.

With astonishing irony the dualism of church theologians gives Darwinism a nod of recognition. Charles Darwin was a diligent scientist who carefully catalogued evidence from the natural world. The problem is that his theories were built on speculation (actually he was more hesitant about his conclusions than were his admirers). And the mechanism of his theory is propelled by natural but random snail paced selection, which has failed to bridge fossil gaps (leaps) in species development. Evolution is evident, but Darwin's speculative stream is unguided, not uniform, and not continuous. Twentieth century scientists and “neo-Darwinists” have manfully updated Darwin with various ineffective explanations of how biological science can still carry the load.

Dismayingly, dualistic theology similarly wrestles with a way to explain how Jesus bridges the supposed “gap” between God and God’s creatures. Unfortunately, to explain what they did not understand about the cosmology of sin, theologians stumblingly invented the doctrine of “immaculate conception” for Jesus’ mother, a notion not found in the Bible. (The “arrival” at an accepted formulation of this doctrine is a mix of contradictions and inconsistencies. I‘ll spare you the details.)

The contemporary scientific “academy” still insists on using the Darwinism filter to hold back the drip of more advanced science. And dualistic theology likewise filters the Gospel message with theories that can’t carry the weight of how Jesus, a human, could be in divine connection with God (or vice versa). Trying to explain how Jesus leaped across the gap by a virgin birth is as helpful as imagining an amoeba crawling out of water onto a beach--not that either one did not happen, but both images fail to explain the end result.

Surprisingly, help comes from front-edge physicists who are showing how science and religion are amazingly in agreement about how the universe came “from nothing.” Theologians should stop trying to defend God with inadequate analogies and explanations dipped in the language of simple pagan-paralleling myths. Christians don’t need to be so defensive about God’s message in the Bible when science itself is beginning to show how sound are the realities underlying the biblical “stories.”

Spiritual dualism dimly offers sexual preoccupations (virgin birth) and visionary expectations (the rapture) to pull it all together. I’m not contradicting the biblical message; I’m only saying the “verbal images” undeciphered don’t begin to convey the deeper meaning of Jesus’ message. Jesus said he was “the Way,” in other words, not just a bridge over the spiritual fossil gap between the Old and New biblical evidence, but a path to and through the gate.

Darwin’s similar inadequacy can’t compete with today’s scientific discoveries in the realm of neurology and consciousness studies. Darwin investigated with a flashlight; today’s best physicists are turning on the overhead. Darwinism and Dualism theology both have trouble with gaps. The wonders of nature that Darwin helpfully catalogued, and the miracles to which the Bible testifies are alike--at first glance, strikingly suggestive; but underneath in better light, the evidence becomes breathtakingly revelatory.

Bridging the Gap

In the cosmology of God, sin is not eliminated; it is simply locked in its place, impotent before the holiness of God. Sin is not an infection, it is an option. It is not something that “passes down” through the generations since Eve; it is an ever present contrast to holiness that stunningly helps delineate the grandeur of divine power. Without sin and its symbolic chieftain--Satan--God and family would be only sweet pastries.

Human Jesus showed us how God deals with the presence of sin in the cosmos. If Jesus had not been human, God wouldn’t have had anything to show us of how S/He deals with sin. On the other hand, if Jesus were not divine, he wouldn’t have handled sin any better than the rest of us.

Sin is not biologically dependent. God intends for humans to deal with sin triumphantly, just as God does it, not by avoiding it or being luckily immune, but by challenging and conquering it. Jesus’ personal calling was to demonstrate how humans could succeed at it. Jesus was not sinless by immunity. He was sinless in the way that God is; and as a human, he showed that we could be sinless the same way.

Immaculateness is a gift of grace, accepted by choice (not by evolutionary increments); it is not a trophy of battle. The choice is the battle. With the trophy in grip, the contest is over (the gap is closed). As a representation of God, Jesus displayed the process of “advantage” meeting “challenge.” His modeling was believable because of his humanness (meekness), and his trophy (divinity) awesome because of his miracles. He is “savior” in the role of team anchor. If Jesus can triumph, we can too, doing it God’s way. Jesus had no advantage that we don’t also have, because he was so obviously human. He is the “saving inspiration” because at his living moment of deepest trouble, he confidently drew on his advantage (divine connection). The whole story of good and evil (species development) has been played out before us now--from the First Adam to the Second Adam.

God can source the manifesting of the perfection process through a virgin or otherwise. What is harder, a virgin birth or an Adam made from dust? As God's progeny, all humans are immaculate conceptions of the Almighty--imaginal enfleshments dramatically processing God’s preeminence in all its implications. We can conceptualize Jesus as the Messiah--the "gap jumper"--because he fulfilled the predicted requirements of Jewish tradition. But it doesn’t take a student of the Old Testament to read about Jesus’ teachings and become a believer. Jesus was both divine and human because that is where God lives--in touch and in control. God creates humans, imago dei, in His/Her image.

The way we can have any hope, is to understand that we humans are of the “Way” as Jesus modeled it, if we choose. The “new birth” isn’t “new” after all. We are God’s Self-image, and were before we knew it. The “original sin” is our choosing to live in a dark closet, preferring not to let in the light of who we really are. Walking away from God, Adam and Eve did not force God to design the notion of forgiveness to fix the problem. The first dwellers of Eden simply “chose” a focus (the fruit tree) that stunted their “memory.” God and we are “entangled,” as Jesus showed and told; and, surprisingly enough, some scientists are discovering how this could be. (Google Schroedinger's cat)

Forgiveness is a given, part of the cosmological God-scheme. Evil is as patently ever present as good is. Sin is not a piecemeal caving-in. It is an existential option, but is no threat for God, or for Jesus our big brother who opened the closet door. The light does not seep in step by random step.

There are no fossil gaps between sinner and saint to keep us from seeing how mistletoe fits into the Advent story.

Doug Good