THE theory of evolution was jointly announced in 1858 by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. The theory stated that the various species of life were not created separately but evolved from common ancestors. The types of life that are best equipped to survive in the changing natural environment are automatically favoured to survive and procreate. This natural selection ("survival of the fittest") was proposed as the mechanism through which evolution worked.
Darwin made it explicit in his book, The Descent of Man, published in 1871, that man is likewise descended from simpler forms of life. The insights provided by Darwin and Wallace were grossly at variance with the accepted view of the natural world and man's place within it. These traditional views were largely founded on tracts from the Old Testament.
The churches at first fiercely resisted the new evolutionary ideas but gradually mollified their positions. Today, the mainstream churches no longer oppose the theory of evolution. However, the fundamentalist traditions still maintain a vigorous opposition to the theory of evolution.
The general understanding prior to Darwin, of the origin and development of life was based on the biblical account in the Book of Genesis. According to this, God created all species more or less at the same time. An Irish expert, Archbishop James Usher, based on the genealogies recounted in the Bible, calculated that all life was created in the year 4,004 BC.
It was generally reckoned that, since that date, only Noah's flood had reshaped life and landscapes into the forms known in the 19th century. Darwin's and Wallace's theory painted a radically different picture and seemed to demote the importance of the Divine Creator.
The flavour of the debate between the church and the evolutionists is well caught in the oft-quoted story of the debate between Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, and Thomas H. Huxley, a defender of Darwin. The debate took place at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford in June, 1860. Word spread that the Bishop of Oxford intended to "smash Darwin", who was not present.
Some 700 people packed the meeting room. For half an hour, the bishop criticised Darwin fiercely and then, turning on Thomas H. Huxley, he asked sneeringly: "Is it through his grandfather or his grandmother that Mr Huxley claims decent from an ape?" Huxley rose to his feet and declared that he would much prefer to have an ape for an ancestor than a bishop who discussed scientific questions he knew nothing about!
The fossil record indicates that life began on earth slightly over 3 billion years ago. The first living creature was a single-celled organism similar to a bacterium. From this humble beginning, evolution developed all of the species that exist on earth today.
How did the first living cell arise? The working hypothesis is that, prior to the phase of biological evolution, there was a long phase of chemical evolution, during which key chemicals vital for life were developed. These chemicals spontaneously organised themselves into the first living cell. There is a small amount of indirect evidence for this and this scenario represents the only logical natural explanation for the origin of life.
It is very difficult to imagine how a living cell could spontaneously arise from a chemical soup. However, since the existence and maintenance of life as we know it is in harmony with natural laws, so the spontaneous origin of life from non-life would not violate the natural laws and, therefore, could have happened. Also, current research on non-linear systems and non-equilibrium thermodynamics is beginning to reveal how order can arise from a background of apparent disorder.
The fossil record clearly shows a steady evolution over the last 3 billion years, from a few simple organisms, through gradually more complex forms up to the profusion of life-forms that covers the earth today. Humankind is the latest and most complex form of life to arise, first appearing on the scene about a million years ago.
The French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin made a powerful and moving attempt to interpret evolution as the natural path through which humankind would eventually find salvation in religious terms. Teilhard de Chardin died in 1955 at the end of a world-renowned career as a biologist and a palaeontologist. His philosophy regarding evolution and life is summarised in a book, The Phenomenon of Man (Fontana Books 1965).
Teilhard de Chardin draws particular attention to the direction which is inherent in the evolutionary process. Because evolution has a direction it can be inferred that it will continue in that same direction. The history of evolution is the story of the development of ever more complex organisms. Teilhard de Chardin says that all matter contains a certain level of consciousness, even inanimate matter.
The more complex the organisation of matter, the greater this inner life of consciousness. The level of consciousness in inanimate matter is so poorly developed that it cannot be recognised outwardly. Consciousness increased in intensity as evolution successively developed plant, animal and human life.
With the origin and evolution of life on earth, the globe became covered with a skin of life - the biosphere. With the coming of humankind, the globe has become covered with a new sphere of consciousness, which Teilhard de Chardin calls the noosphere.
He predicted that future evolutionary advances will take place primarily in the noosphere.
He saw this evolution occurring gradually until each human consciousness merges with all others into a single coherent self reflective human consciousness which will be the end point of evolution. He called this end point the Omega point and he equates the Omega point with God. Incidentally, the Omega point harmonises nicely with St Paul's vision of the ultimate salvation of mankind being the individual pooling of souls in the Mystical Body of Christ.
Of course, the Judaeo-Christian religious tradition has itself been an evolutionary process. The Old Testament is replete with gradual and successive revelations from God. This tradition was then modified and radically extended by the teachings of Jesus Christ. Also, the churches' understanding and interpretation of their basic message has evolved from the time of Christ up to the present day, e.g., the first members of the church believed that the second coming of Christ would occur during their lifetimes.
Teilhard de Chardin's appreciation of the evolutionary history of the Christian tradition may have helped him to obtain creative insights into the meaning of the natural evolutionary process. In any event, this type of interaction between science and religion is far more productive than the many sterile confrontations that have occurred in the past.
In recent centuries, when verifiable scientific evidence and religious positions have conflicted, the instinct of the church has always been to vigorously defend its position. The church has invariably come off worse in these confrontations - e.g., the Galileo affair.
It should only be necessary to defend "to the death" matters of central moral principle. When conflict arises in other areas, it would be much more productive to enter into dialogue and carefully explore matters. In this way it is possible for both religion and science to get new and useful insights.