Spirituality: A World Shaped By Promise

By Cal Wiebe

I’VE BEEN BORN again. Born again into the same body I‘ve inhabited for the past 42 years. Born again into the same world I have grown up in. Born again into the universe I occupy.

It seems strange to use the language of a religious conversion when doing a reflection on the effects of studying the science of our universe. Science and religion are often portrayed as opposed to each other, even diametrically opposed. But in the past 11 months of studying the current scientific understandings of our world I have come to a deeper and richer understanding of myself, the world and the God who made it all possible.

Observing the world of nature has always led me to wonder. I marvel at the shape of a leaf, the flight of a bird or the first new flower arriving in spring. In the last few years I have felt a growing desire to understand the inner workings of our world. How did it come to be like this? What were the processes that brought about such a vibrant and fecund universe?

As grace would have it, Paul and Bev went away last May to a conference which featured the cosmologist Brian Swimme. They came back with some videos, some books by John Haught and a desire to lead us into a study on the “Wisdom of the Universe”. We tend to focus our studying at Watershed on psychology, spirituality and literature so it was a bit of a departure for us to be talking and learning about the Big Bang and Darwin’s theory of evolution.

"But the more I studied cosmology the more I found myself confronted by a Presence that was moving the whole process into the future."

"But the more I studied cosmology the more I found myself confronted by a Presence that was moving the whole process into the future."

I expected my study to give me a general understanding of the scientific ideas of our time. What I did not expect, however, was that studying science would deepen my sense of spirituality. I know that this does not have to be the case. I know that for some people the idea of evolution and the new cosmology conveniently does away with the notion of God.

But the more I studied cosmology the more I found myself being confronted by a Presence that was moving the whole process into the future. I was continually amazed at the surprises that happened in the evolution of the cosmos. And the more I learned the more convinced I became that something larger than us seeded the cosmos with promise and potential.

[1] 2 Next