CRISIS, RENEWAL, AND THE TROUBLED WORLD

Ur troubled times and the distress we feel aren’t unique.

- Deepak Chopra

They are the norm historically, going back to the roots of uncertainty and calamity in human life. Yet if you seek advice about what to do when you find yourself in a troubled world, surprisingly few answers appear, and they keep being repeated. The choices come down to three: A. Turn to God or the gods, B. Place your trust in science and rational thought, or C. Renounce the world and retreat inward.

These answers have practical outcomes, which is why we have cathedrals, space programs, and monasteries. But what if none of the three time-honored answers work anymore? That's the general situation most modern people find themselves in, and so they retain a diluted loyalty to old answers in the absence of a better one. For example, most Americans do not believe the creation story in the Book of Genesis, but neither do they completely believe Darwinism, telling pollsters that in some undefined way God enters into evolution despite the view among evolutionary scientists that Darwin's theory is completely valid.

The third option, retreating from the world, is actually the one most of us have chosen more or less automatically. We lament the state of the world but spend every day occupied with our personal affairs. If you do nothing to improve the world, you are for all intents and purposes, reliant on your thoughts and actions. A higher authority or proven worldview is irrelevant.

What we need to realize is that a refusal to have a higher vision of life is self-defeating and will do little but let the troubled world go its own way. Shrugging your shoulders and retreating is an attitude that builds no cathedrals or space programs. It represents stasis instead of evolution. I am a great believer in evolution myself, and here's why.