This document summarizes and compares the views of Teilhard de Chardin, Paul Tillich, and John Haught on the meaning and end of the evolving cosmos. Teilhard envisioned an Omega Point of spiritual convergence, while Tillich described the "Kingdom of God" unfolding within history. Haught asserted Teilhard's evolutionary vision was more adequate than Tillich's classical theology. The document also discusses their different approaches to relating science and religion, with Tillich emphasizing distinct dimensions and Haught advocating contact and confirmation. Overall, it provides an overview of these theologians' perspectives on cosmology, evolution, and the relationship between science and spirituality.

1. What is the Meaning, Goal, Purpose, & End of the
Evolving Cosmos?
Einstein Teilhard Tillich
By Paul H. Carr, Rivier Institute for Senior Education, Nashua, NH.
Paper Available at http://mirrorofnature.org/TillichTeilhardZygon.pdf
The end of the world: the overthrow of equilibrium (heat death), will detach the mind,
fulfilled at last, from its material matrix, so that it will henceforth rest with all its weight
on God-Omega (Teilbard de Chardin)"
”Kingdom of God” within history & as the “End (Goal) of History (Paul Tillich)”

2. "I want to know God's thoughts, the rest are details”
”In the beginning was the word (logos) and the word was God”
John 1:1”
“I want to know how God created this world. I'm not interested
in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element.
I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details.”
Einstein often used "God" as a
stand-in for "the laws of the
universe". Or rather, his conception
of God is the Spinozan God, an
anthropomorphic deity who created
the laws of the universe and then set
it in motion, never touching it again.
In this conception, the laws of
physics are the "thoughts of God".
E = mc2
Energy
E=
mass, m,
times
Light
velocity,
c2
(1905)

3. Lemaitre inspired by
Hubble’s discovery of the expanding
universe &
Einstein’s theory of General Relativity
published his Hot Big Bang theory in 1927

4. Emergence of “Cool” Cosmos from “Hot”
13.8 Billion years ago.
Earth
4

5. BEAUTY OF THE UNIVERSE
From cooler temperatures 0.3 M yrs after the “Beginning,”
to Galaxies, 2 B years later.
Hubble Optical Deep Field
Image of Galaxies 12 Billion
Light Years away, about
2 Billion years after “the
beginning.” (1996)
Image of the universe 0.3 Million
years after “the beginning.” This
image of temperature fluctuations
was measured by the Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe. The
cooler regions “seeded” the stars
and the galaxies.
5

6. Figure from “Cosmic Dawn” by Eric Chaisson
EMERGENCE OF LIFE ON EARTH
Carbon
Dioxide, CO22
Prokaryote Cells Eukaryote Cells
6

7. The discovery of fire
enabled primates to cook
food,
resulting in smaller jaws,
that made room for larger
brains.

8. Teilhard, Peking, February 1934, "The Evolution of Chastity" in
Toward the Future, London: Collins, 1975: 86-87.

9. The biblical creations stories in Genesis 1 and John 1 both
anticipated modern cosmology.
There was a beginning, and God created light energy.
Genesis 1:3, “And God said, let there be light.”
The Gospel of John 1 states in verses 1,4, and 5: “In the
beginning was the Word (Logos) and the Word was God and
with God…. In him (Jesus) was life; and the life was the light
of humankind… And light shines in the darkness.”
The Word or Logos is the rational structure of the cosmos,
which include such laws as the conservation of energy.

10. Was theologian John Haught’s assertion true?
•Roman Catholic process theologian John Haught presented the
paper “Search for a God of Evolution…” at the American
Academy of Religion in 2002.
•He questioned if Tillich’s classical theology of becoming was
radical enough to account for the becoming of the evolving-
creating cosmos.
•He asserted that Teilhard de Chardin’s evolutionary vision was
more adequate.

11. TEILHARD S.J. (1881-1955) TILLICH (1886 -1965)
•Evolutionary progress *Dialectic of being & nonbeing
•towards God-Omega *”Kingdom of God” within history
& as the “End (Goal) of History.”
( God is the creative ground &
abyss of being.)

12. TEILHARD’S
OMEGA POINT
“THE PHENOMENON OF MAN”
Pg. 192, 287
"The end of the world: the wholesale
introversion upon itself of the
noosphere, which has simultaneously
reached the uttermost limits of its
complexity and its centrality.
The end of the world: the overthrow
of equilibrium (heat death), will detach
the mind, fulfilled at last, from its
material matrix, so that it will
henceforth rest with all its weight on
God-Omega."

13. Teilhard de Chardin. Evolution from the Cosmos to the Diosphere.

15. Convergence towards Teilhard de Chardin’s Omega Point and God.

17. Tillich's concept of being includes
becoming.
His structure of being includes the polarity of
dynamics and form. There is no being without
form. We human beings identify each other by
the form of our bodies.
Dynamics is the potentiality of being, that is,
becoming.

18. DYNAMICS of my FORM
1935 1941 1972

19. Tillich's concept of being includes becoming.
His structure of being includes the polarity of dynamics and form.
There is no being without form. We human beings identify each other
by the form of our bodies.
Dynamics is the potentiality of being, that is, becoming.
Tillich stated:
"The dynamic character of being implies the tendency of everything
to transcend itself and create new forms…
Therefore, it is impossible to speak of being without also speaking
of becoming.
Becoming is just as genuine in the structure of being as is that
which remains unchanged in the process of becoming.”
Tillich in a dialogue with process theologian Charles Hartschorne
stated:
"I am not disinclined to accept the process-character of being-itself."

20. ”Deer”
Sculpture,
Form.
Rivier
University
Exhibit,
Memorial Hall,
October 2017, by
Samuel Fuller.

22. Teilhard de Chardin & Tillich
• Both Teilhard and Tillich have made contributions to a theology
of evolution. However, Tillich did not share Teilhard's optimistic
vision of the future.
• Tillich's "Kingdom of God" within history as well as "the End of
History," in contrast to Teilhard's Omega Point, does not appear to
contradict the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which predicts that
the universe will ultimately disintegrate.
•Tillich's dynamic dialectic of being and nonbeing is a more
descriptive metaphor for the five mass extinctions of evolutionary
history than Teilhard's progress towards an Omega Point.
• Haught's contrast/contact mode of relating science and religion
would regard Teilhard's Omega Point as an expression of spiritual
hope and purpose in contrast to a scientifically verifiable principle.
The contrast/contact position is also consonant with Tillich's vertical
dimension of religion and horizontal dimension of science.

23. From Cosmos to Psyche
John Wheeler’s Participatory Universe
Human consciousness & eyes have emerged from the
beginning of the Universe (U) to look back 13.8 B years &
ask, “How did we get here and why?”
23

24. "The universe - the totality of what is,
which includes our subjective impressions as well
as objective data-
composes a narrative and contains a poem,
which our own stories and poems echo."
John Updike, 1932 – 2009, 1st page of Yerkes, 1999)
2002 Photo of
John Updike &.
Paul H. Carr, St
John’s Episcopal
Church Fair,
Beverly Farms, MA.

25. Chapter 11. A Beautiful New Story
• The emergent evolutionary
process produced homo
sapiens, who see beauty in
the natural world.
• I experience beauty
in both science and
religion.
• “If nature were not
beautiful, it would not
be worth knowing.”
Henri Poincare
25

26. “This is salvation
When we marvel
At the beauty
Of created things
And praise
The beautiful providence
Of their Creator.”
- Meister Eckart ( 1260 – 1327),
“The thirst for beauty that permeates our lives is
an opening for transcendence…” Theologian Philip Hefner.
Foreword, Beauty in Science and Spirit.”
“Beauty’s self and beauty’s giver…” Gerald Manley Hopkins 26

27. "Here is beauty
– whatever those who have never looked at butterfly may say-
Beauty that rejoices and humbles,…
beauty remote from all that is meant by words like random or
purposeless, utilitarian or materialistic,
beauty in its impact is akin to the authentic encounter with God.“
Naturalist priest Charles Raven
27

28. Concluding Chapter 11, “A Beautiful New Story” of my book
BEAUTY IN SCIENCE AND SPIRIT
"The teleology (goal) of the Universe is the production of
beauty."
Alfred N. Whitehead (1933).
Process thought and theology asserts that the universe is not static
but an evolving and continuing creation, whose intricacies result in
continuing scientific discoveries.
"The universe is not a place where evolution happens. It is evolution
happening (Rue 2000)."
Let us pray for the wisdom to use the power of scientific knowledge
as responsible co-creators and not as destroyers of our earth through
the unintended consequences of our technology. As created and
creating creatures, we can profit from religious wisdom. In it, there is
hope that the continuing creation is converging toward its ultimate
consummation in beauty.

29. THE PROCESS VISION
Because everything is related;
Because the decision of each event matters for all events;
Because freedom is a reality;
The greatest power is not coercive force,
But patient, creative, persuading, redeeming, gracious love.
This is God's power,
Which continually works to lure the whole creation:
To bring enriching diversity and intensity out of struggle;
To overcome destructive conflict with greater harmonies;
To redeem the evil wrought in death and
Disaster with new life.

30. Process Theologian JOHN HAUGHT’S 4 WAYS OF
RELATING SCIENCE & RELIGION
Conflict: science and religion are irreconcilable,
such as creationism vs. scientism.
Contrast: no genuine conflict as they are independent and
deal with different questions.
Contact: dialogue, interaction, and possible consonance.
Confirmation: religion supports and nourishes the scientific
enterprise.

31. R
S C I E N C E
L
I
G
I
O
N Tillich saw religion as part of the vertical dimension
of depth, ultimate concern, meaning, and purpose.
He regarded science, as part of the horizontal dimension of
relationships between finite objects.
Tillich states: "Science lives and works in another dimension and
therefore cannot interfere with the religious symbols of
creation, fulfillment, forgiveness, and incarnation,
nor can religion interfere with scientific statements.”
“Dimensions cross without destroying each other;
there is no conflict between dimensions.”

32. 32
CREATION, COSMOS, CLIMATE, & THEOLOGICAL MEANING
Mondays, 10:45 – 12:15, 2017
Rivier Institute for Senior Education
10/23. Did our cosmos emerge from divine conscious creativity?
11/6 What are we doing to our climate? What is it doing to us?
11/13 Theologian Paul Tillich:
Climate Prophesy versus Profit: Paper
11/27. Theological Meaning & End (Goal) of the Evolving-
Creative Cosmos: Haught, Tillich, de Teilhard de Chardin.
My paper “A Theology for Evolution: Haught, Tillich, &
Teilhard de Chardin” is available at
http://www.mirrorofnature.org/TillichTeilhardZygon.pdf