My generation has a unique burden. Rewrite our understanding of the universe in light of both spiritual and scientific truth. After the significant work of Charles Darwin the ground-breaking truth of evolution came to light and many left the concept of faith behind them. I did too until I experienced several impossible miracles that I can never dismiss. No, I am keenly aware that I owe my life and freedom to the Lord and I will happily remain puzzled as long as necessary as I juxtapose two sources of truth: science and spirituality.
As of now, my greatest contribution to this puzzle is to say that evolution does not contradict the Bible but rather requires a broader understanding of the way in which the Spirit of God is responsible for the origin of intelligent life. All that I aim to be is a patient pious peasant preaching prophetic presence. Take it or leave it.
Many in Western culture have little understanding of the Tao but this concept is broadly understood, if not directly felt and known, in the East. Briefly, the Tao is a patient force which acts upon the world more as a growing force than a building entity. By example, let’s consider the two ways in which something can come from nothing. As humans we understand the concept of construction and deliberate creation. A home is made by first envisioning the goal, then gathering the materials, then piecing them together. We act against external forces such as gravity and the weather and through persistence and broad understanding of the elements we accomplish our goal of a completed dwelling. The Tao can be considered as the inverse.
The Tao is a growing force and does not express agency except in gentle and subtle ways. There is a notion called “Wu-Wei” (translated from Chinese as “non-action”) which expresses the idea of “letting it happen”. The Tao is perfectly capable of developing structure, order, symmetry, and design but it does so by guiding, not by forcing. It resists our desire to look directly at it and capture it in a box or label it. The Tao which is written is not the eternal Tao.
Consider the lilies. A lily begins as a seed and slowly grows into something that was within itself all along. It does not oppose the forces of nature but befriends them. It is not water resistant like a home but is permeable and uses the water to develop its final structure. It is birthed, not built.
The Tao acts on you as well. Have you ever let go of a desire and had it fulfilled in a way you could not anticipate? This is the concept of the Tao. You can often feel it. Breath, close your eyes, quiet your soul and extend your consciousness into the silence. There it is.
This effort can be frustrating but the value of even glimpsing the Tao is so overwhelming beneficial to our worried and restless modern culture that I will allow myself to breach Eastern norms by describing the Tao. Consider this a starting point for further discussion about how I believe the Tao is, in my opinion, a manifestation of the Spirit of God.
Genesis 1:2 “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Christians often see God as building the Earth as if he used a hammer. I disagree. I believe the Spirit of the Lord (the Tao being some subsection of its presence) guided the universe into being. This fits with the scientific understanding that we reached our present state only through billions of years of the Earth being slowly shaped.
I believe that the creation of intelligent life was guided by the Holy Spirit. Evolution has been proven and certainly took place, but you have to admit that there is an uncanny order to life that just doesn’t feel random. So, I consider Genesis to be metaphorical in that the seven days of creation are in fact billions of years represented as days.
This article is lengthy enough without diving into the problem of sin. In the next article I will discuss what I learned through my visions if not only as a way to process realizations (true or hallucinated) that have troubled and haunted me for years. It’s time they find their home in writing.
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