Experiencing God Within Evolution

At Bethesda United Methodist Church in Bethesda, Maryland, we recently completed a four session adult class using the book, Journey of the Universe, by Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker.  The book describes the amazing story of how the universe has evolved over the past 13.8 billion years, including life and us as humans. It includes many of the discoveries of the recent years that emphasize the total interrelatedness and interdependencies of everything. In our class we naturally asked the question, “Where is God in this story?” For we can no longer think of God literally as a being on a throne in a heaven that is located just above the dome of the sky. God is always something more than human words or pictures can express. Yet God is an integral part of the entire story of the universe.

For me, John Dominic Crossan, a theologian, a former Catholic priest, and co-founder of the Jesus Seminar, said it poetically and succinctly, “God is the beating heart of the Universe.”

Loren Bullock

May 23, 2016