Evolution / Development of Theory

Evolution in theory and fact has been an active part of our culture for the last century and a half. Charles Darwin, the great English naturalist, published his epoch making Origin of Species in 1858, herading investigations and arguments which continue very much into current time.

It is not as though the critical questions are either settled or completely understood. Far from it. Evolution is an important issue in itself, but even more than that, it is a touchstone for many important centers of thought and investigation: biology, anthopology, philosophy and religion. Evolution makes a difference not only itself, but also relative to how we see ourselves as humans, and how we see our place in the universe. The study of evolution and its attendant problems is a central focus in PsyQuest.

An Evolving Universe

It is not that long ago that, as a culture, we either thought that things had probably always been pretty much as they seem to be in current time, or that God had simply created things the way they are around us. Wrong on both scores.

It turns out the universe is a much more exciting place than would be suggested by a static model of things. Evolution has been resisted by many in our culture, because it seems to take God out of the picture, and has had an unsettling effect because of that. That’s a misreading of the available facts. Human culture as a phenomenon turns out to be a recent phenomenon by any sort of cosmological standard. Our view of the cosmos has changed as we have learned more about time, physics and the biosphere. What needs to happen is that we need to understand the working of God in the universe differently. The world is a much more dynamic place than we thought it was.

The Grand Adventure

Not only has the race itself evolved. Our physical evolution has, as things go in the universe, has been a rapid phenomenon. Much more rapid, however, has been the evolution of culture. It is important to develop valid perspectives on this process. Sometimes it seems as though culture is on an unstoppable downward course. The reality is that as technology has developed, so has our ability to impact and control our own ecology and the future of the human experience. Truth of the matter is, if we allow the human experience to dehumanize, we have no one to thank but ourselves. What we do and how we view things makes a difference.