Father
Pierre Teilhard was a Jesuit Priest who not only believed in evolution, but believed
that humanity was evolving towards a higher consciousness that would someday result
in a global community living in peace. He described evolution in terms of increasing
complexity resulting in higher and higher levels of consciousness, from inanimate
objects to humans. Teilhard coined the word noosphere - meaning the "world
of thought" - to describe his belief that the earth itself was evolving a
consciousness - a network of thinking made up of all of the consciousness of the
living creatures that live on the earth. Father Tielhard was removed from his
teaching position at the Catholic Institute in Paris because his views were considered
too controversial. So he went to China for 20 years to research paleontology.
He was part of the team that discovered the fossils of Peking Man, an early human
ancestor. All the while he wrote about his worldview, integrating science and
spirituality, but the Catholic Church would not allow his work to be published.
After he died, his works were published and for the past 50 years have continued
to influence many schools of thought: He helped influence the Gaia theory, which
claims that the earth itself is conscious; some claim his writing predicted the
rise of the Internet and the global consciousness it is helping to create; others
revere his teachings as an inspiration for finding spirituality in a mundane world.
