Epic of Evolution - Interpretations of The Epic

Interpretations of The Epic

Epic of Evolution on Earth -4500 — – -4000 — – -3500 — – -3000 — – -2500 — – -2000 — – -1500 — – -1000 — – -500 — – 0 — Life? Photosynthesis? Eukaryotes Complex multicellular life Animals Land plants ← Formation
of Earth ← Meteorite bombardment ← Atmospheric oxygen ← Ediacara biota ← Cambrian explosion ← Modern-looking
humans Axis scale: millions of years ago

E. O. Wilson explained that humans had a need for the Epic of Evolution because they must have a mythical story or a sublime account of how the world was created and how humanity became part of it. Religious epics fulfill a primal need in this respect as they verify that humans are part of something greater than themselves. The best empirical knowledge that science and history can provide is necessary in order to provide a comparable epic tale that will reliably unite a separated human spirituality. He believes the evolutionary epic can be as inherently noble as any religious epic when it is expressed in a poetic way. In a similar vein, biologist Ursula Goodenough sees the tale of natural emergence as far more magical than traditional religious miracles. It is a story that people can work with in a religious way if they elect to do so.

Philip Hefner uses the analogy of weaving to describe the Epic. The warp anchors the story and the weft creates the pattern and the tapestry. The Epic, as scientists see it, is the warp and the weft forms the pattern as each of us views it (we are all weavers) but the patterns all have the warp in common. Hefner writes that stories about the evolutionary epic are redolent with ultimacy. It is not science; it is scientifically informed myth, a myth driven by the refusal to give up on the insistence that the natural world and our lives in the world have meaning and purpose. It is a mythical tale of irony and hope that fills a large space in the domaine of religion-and-science. Biologist Ursula Goodenough also makes use of Hefner’s weaving metaphor.

Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd's Great Story divides the epic into 8 phases eons or eras: the Great Radiance, the Galactic, Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic. Dowd uses the term 'Epic of Evolution' to help construct his viewpoint of evolution theology (a form of theistic evolution). His position is that science and religious faith are not mutually exclusive. He preaches that the epic of cosmic, biological, and human evolution, revealed by science, is a basis for an inspiring and meaningful view of our place in the universe. Evolution is viewed as a spiritual process that it is not meaningless blind chance.

Loyal Rue states that there is nothing in the core of everybody's story to rule out belief in a personal deity. However belief in God is not an indispensable part of this narrative and here will be both theistic and non-theistic versions of it. He says it is the fundamental story of matter, created from energy, the organization of that matter into complex conditions, and then via self-organization into diverse life forms. Humans are as other living things – we are by nature star-born, earth-formed, fitness- maximinized, biochemical systems. An aspect of the Epic is the evolution of behavior by that biochemical system.

Brian Swimme sees the Epic as a way to gently maneuver a person into the magnificence of the Universeand as an antidote to the unhealthy consciousness of consumerism. It is the way into the future and enabled him to comprehend the cultural significance of this new story of science moving away from a materialistic worldview. It may move science away from its traditional abstractness to the uniqueness found in natural history. To him evolution and creativity are equivalent so it could be the Epic of Creativity (similar to Gordon Kaufman’s thinking). Although the Epic is scientific, it is ‘definitely mythic' – it has the fundamental nature of being mythic.“You take hydrogen gas, and you leave it alone, and it turns into rosebuds, giraffes and humans.”

Gordon D. Kaufman sees the Epic as a serendipitous creative process. He states that it is a notion that can interpret the enormous expansion and complexification of the physical universe (from the Big Bang outward), as well as the evolution of life here on earth and the gradual emergence of human historical existence. The whole vast process manifests (in varying degrees) serendipitous creativity, an everflowing coming into being of new modes of reality. In his book, In the beginning—creativity, he says this creative process is God. Creativity, as metaphor, and as defined in the concept of evolution, has possibilities for constructing a new concept of God. The most foundational kind of creativity is found in that of cosmos/biological evolution – a paradigm that is now the organizing principle of all the sciences. It would seem as though he was equating God to the evolutionary story. This is similar to Dowd who sees the facts of Nature as God's native tongue.

Eric Chaisson sees a directionality to the epic, which he divides into 'Seven Ages of the Cosmos': Particulate, Galactic, Stellar, Planetary, Chemical, Biological and Cultural

Other interpretations include

• The Cosmic Walk is a ritual created by Miriam MacGillis as a way of allowing emotional acceptance of the intellectual knowledge of the 14 billion year process of the evolution of the universe.
• Bron Taylor's Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature gives four primary categories: cosmic, planetary, life, cultural
• Professor David Christian, San Diego State University, organizes the epic of creation into eight thresholds. Each threshold marks a time when something truly new appeared and forms never before seen began to arise. The story Christian relates has only been possible since the mid-1900 due to improved dating techniques. As he explains, this epic will continue to grow and change as scientists and historians accumulate new knowledge.