The Evolution of Theology

Theology and science have always appears to be at battle with each other. As if the purpose of one was to disprove the other. Hundreds of year ago one came under the sway of the powers that be and one didn't not. One had the ability to flourish and one remained stagnant. We all have the blessings of the flourishing of science and technology, but few have the blessings of theology. It appears that theology is the "old man" that the younger, hipper, more up to date just mock as if the evolution of one is quantum and the other hasn't moved in 2000 years.

To a certain extent, there is truth in that thought process.

I happen to be one of the few who believe that technology and theology are not polar opposites.

When the onset of modern medicine came into existence and those first ideas came in to play, it wasn't as if they remained static. When early medical practices were documented, we didn't "close the canon" on them and practice them the same way for hundreds of years.

We don't consider the first written medical of science books to be holy script. We allowed science and technology to evolve.

The question then is, why didn't we allow theology to do the same thing?

As mentioned earlier, theology because the property of the hierarchy and became the method of control. The hierarchy could then dole out their blessing and as they saw fit and it became the chosen method to control the masses. As heaven became more real by the teachings of the heads of the church, so to, did it admission.

The further technology advanced and the further away heaven got, the more science and theology battled with each other.

Now as I shared, I do not consider them to be opposites. Showing the world is billions of years old doesn't mean there was truth to holy scripture. It just so happened that the outlook of thousands of years ago was the mindset that translated holy text.

If no one knew that the world was round and no one knew that the earth wasn't the center of the universe, why would the writers.

Now we know that we've heard the reason they should have known was because holy text is the God inspired Word and of course God knew the world wasn't flat. So why didn't God tell the writers of the sacred text.

Before I move forward, I'm using the term "holy text" to refer to all religious writings, not just those of a Judeo-Christian mindset.


When science thought that bleeding someone or leeches was a good technique, we know why they use the term "practicing" medicine. We knew then, just like we know now that science and technology are advancing and that the methods used today may seem barbaric in a hundred years.

So again, why has theology remained virtually the same?

It's interesting to me that we use the word "practice" for both our religion and our medicine, but one is advancing and the other is not.

"Practicing," in medicine means advancing and "practicing," in our religion means staying the same.

As science, medicine and technology are important to our physical and intellectual bodies, so to, religion is important to our spiritual and psychological bodies.

If we expect theology to remain relevant to the upcoming generations, theology will need to evolve.

A way that religion can evolve is by us "practicing" it. Now that doesn't just mean attending a local service or gathering. It means studying sacred texts and seeing how they pertain to evolved and more scientifically educated society.

One of the science/theology battles is evolution.

Using the theory of evolution, where does science see the next step in the evolution of mankind?

Most people, scientific or not, have a very self centered version of the future evolution of mankind. Most see modern man as the end all of the evolutionary process.

For all intents and purposes, Java Man may have thought the same thing about himself.

It is possible that the next evolutionary movement of mankind maybe from an intellectual or psychological level. It would be tragic that theology would not be a part of that.

But if theology remains static and holy text is not looked upon as an instructional manual, but as a distant worshiped set of guidelines, I feel that the evolution of theology is far off.

Now religious people often call their texts "living". I have many people call the Bible a "living" book. That it can be read and have todays circumstances be resolved in the depth of the texts.

I believe this to be true. But we are still talking about applying it to the same person. The question is how do we take holy scripture and have it make us evolve?

The only way theology can evolve is by having mankind spiritual evolve and this doesn't just involve being a nicer person, even though for most that would be quite an evolution, I'm talking about taking mankind spiritually and psychologically to the next level of evolution.

Technology is racing forward and mankind is not. So as advanced as we are claiming to be, we are not. Technology is advancing and of course it's creators are doing us a great service, but sadly mankind is staying the same with just more things to play with and more access to things and information.

Let the battle end. The only way mankind can evolve to the next level of existence is though theology.