I finally finished Pierre De Chardin's The Phenomenon of Man.
(note: this fragment was written mid-December.) It only took me three months. Hell, last time I read the whole Old Testament, it took me a week. Then, this was a very powerful book on the metaphysical direction of evolution and thought. I took so long because of how hard I'd hammered at the concept that biological evolution could be a flow of life toward metaphysical unity, or a force that is unstoppable in its motion toward Omega, final unification.
In the epilogue, Chardin posits a question that might come from his readers, and definitely would have come from me: How can humans appear to move backward historically and culturally while evolution generates the forces that move life irrevocably forward? In other words, can we be moving in a positive progression when reality is full of humans fighting to slide backwards into negation. Chardin's answer made as much sense as any French philosopher, whose writings are usually as dense as a two-year-old Christmas fruitcake, but I managed to get the gist of it. History moves in all directions, as life always moves forward. I'm beginning to fully feel the immense potential power of life as dynamically-powered pistons for the cosmogenetic engine. In this way, there is the possibility of faith that can be used to escape the limitations of suffering and prejudice without turning away from the amorality of the power of nature.....