Notes From the End Of Life as We Know It 13: Stewardship and Evolution

by Agustin Martin Rodriguez

Scientists say that the universe was born of a great release of energy from one particle that was densely packed with matter. The matter from that single particle is the very stuff of the stars and the planets and the atoms that form us. The energy that broke that particle up is the very energy that allows stars to blaze into being, the earth to revolve around the sun, and for a multiplicity of complex beings to emerge and flourish. The very matter and energy of that first big bang led to the birth of life in a small, blue planet; and from life emerged consciousness, then self-consciousness from one of its weakest and most naked creatures.

Beginning with the creative explosion of the big bang, to the precise formation of stars and planetary systems, to the coming to fore of a planet that allowed for the flourishing of life, to the birth of homo sapiens, one can draw a straight line that seems to lead inevitably to the emergence of the human person. However, the emergence of the human person, not to mention life and a life sustaining planet, seems like such a long shot from the big bang. The road of evolution from cosmic dust to spirit capable of willing and thinking seems so improbable. And yet it is so, and we who are able to wonder ask if, accident upon accident, the blind movement of creative drive in the universe intended us.

Whether accidental or intentioned, here we are in the universe. Philosophers have always wondered about our mysterious presence in the universe. They have always wondered why, among the myriad creatures, one had to emerge with an awareness of itself as existing, as bearing a value, as being toward potential nothingness. Why was it necessary, when life was able to grow in abundance for millions of years without humans, for one being to emerge that could question its own value and the meaning of its existence? Was self-consciousness just the best strategy for survival of a weak naked mammal? Was it just the best tool to build social formations that would allow us to dominate the food chain and so it just continued to develop from its first accidental manifestation in a mammal? Some archeologists believe so. Still, we persist with wondering about ourselves and what we are about—the only beings in the planet, and perhaps the universe, who can look at themselves and their world and wonder what existence is all about.

What is the human place in the universe? Without the human person, no creature would articulate the coming to presence of the universe; no being would look upon its existence and the existence of others with a deep awareness of their value, the symmetry of creation, and the potential eternity of finite reality. Only we appreciate the beauty and tragedy of the end of a day. Only we can appreciate the fragile and enduring joy of a child walking hand in hand with her mortal father. Only we can articulate and immortalize the magnificence of a birth and a death. The human being seems to have emerged from the dust of stars in order to be able to look back at her own existence and the existence of all things around her and articulate their eternal value. And we do articulate the eternal value and truth of all things through our creative acts. When we shape the earth to be a better dwelling for the flouring of life in its infinite richness, when we nurture life and participate in its flourishing, we participate in the constant creativity of evolution. When we bring nature to its potential as true and beautiful, we bring a value added to nature that no other being will ever be able to bring.

It seems that this is the reason the creative drive in the universe pushed toward the creation of the human being: it needed a creature with enough inwardness to affirm its existence as meaningful and valuable. Our being here is a standing before the evolution of nature, before the gift of what need not be but is. It can be argued that the creative energy that created the universe brought us forth to witness its miraculous becoming and to articulate its meaning, to narrate its history and celebrate its passing with our creative work.

Ironically, we who were brought forth to witness and cooperate in the unfolding of the creative energies of the universe are the creatures primarily at the fore of the earth’s degradation. Despite our capacity to participate in the creativity of the universe, we are the cause of global warming, environmental destruction, and the loss of much of life’s variety—not to mention the suffering of our fellow human beings. Most of these destructive acts we realized without thinking, without reflection, and without self awareness. It is as if we shut off our most essential gift when we built unsustainable and destructive civilizations. Instead of realizing our gift of creativity and self-awareness, we still persist in acting unmindfully against the world’s creativity.
Today, more than at any time, human beings are being called to restore their proper relationship to the universe. Millions of years of evolution brought forth this creature that could purposely articulate why there is anything, and to celebrate that there is with their acts of creation. We are called to remember this role and dwell more mindfully upon the earth in order to properly celebrate what is unfolding.

We are at the end of life as we know it, and we are called to pursue our being in the world with more mindfulness. We are called to participate in the cosmic becoming as person’s able to bring this becoming to fullness through our contemplation and our celebration of it, on one hand, and through our creative and respectful self-realization in the earth, on the other. We are at the beginning of life as we have yet to imagine it. We are being invited to realize our potential as thinkers, as creatures of imagination and will, as spirits of great compassion and wisdom. We are called to realize our potential as evolution’s youngest offspring.