Evolutionism

Evolutionism is one of the two opposing (the second is creationism) paradigms about the origin of the world, which is based on the idea of natural (vs. divine) development of being. Although the earliest roots of evolutionary thinking appeared already among ancient thinkers, later among the workers of the 17th and 18th centuries, and particularly during the Enlightment, it was Lamark who proposed in 19th century the first comprehensive theory of evolution. The modern views, accepted by majority of scholars, are based on the works of Charles Darwin, particularly on his Origin of Species, first published in 1859, were he proposed the theory of natural selection and common descent. Evolutionism, as opposed to religious creationism, is based on scientific evidence.

The term is sometimes used (often derogatorily) to denote the theory of evolution. Its exact meaning has changed over time as the study of evolution has progressed. In the 19th century, it was used to describe the belief that organisms deliberately improved themselves through progressive inherited change (orthogenesis). The teleological belief went on to include cultural evolution and social evolution. In the 1970s the term Neo-Evolutionism was used to describe the idea "that human beings sought to preserve a familiar style of life unless change was forced on them by factors that were beyond their control".

The term is most often used by creationists to describe adherence to the scientific consensus on evolution as equivalent to a secular religion. The term is very seldom used within the scientific community, since the scientific position on evolution is accepted by the overwhelming majority of scientists. Because evolutionary biology is the default scientific position, it is assumed that "scientists" or "biologists" are "evolutionists" unless specifically noted otherwise. In the creation–evolution controversy, creationists often call those who accept the validity of the modern evolutionary synthesis "evolutionists" and the theory itself "evolutionism".

19th-century teleological use
Before its use to describe biological evolution, the term "evolution" was originally used to refer to any orderly sequence of events with the outcome somehow contained at the start. The first five editions of Darwin's in Origin of Species used the word "evolved", but the word "evolution" was only used in its sixth edition in 1872. By then, Herbert Spencer had developed the concept theory that organisms strive to evolve due to an internal "driving force" (orthogenesis) in 1862. Edward B. Tylor and Lewis H Morgan brought the term "evolution" to anthropology though they tended toward the older pre-Spencerian definition helping to form the concept of unilineal (social) evolution used during the later part of what Trigger calls the Antiquarianism-Imperial Synthesis period (c1770-c1900). The term evolutionism subsequently came to be used for the now discredited theory that evolution contained a deliberate component, rather than the selection of beneficial traits from random variation by differential survival.

Modern use by creationists
The term evolution is widely used, but the term evolutionism is not used in the scientific community to refer to evolutionary biology as it is redundant and anachronistic.

However, the term has been used by creationists in discussing the creation–evolution controversy. For example, the Institute for Creation Research, in order to imply placement of evolution in the category of 'religions', including atheism, fascism, humanism and occultism, commonly uses the words evolutionism and evolutionist to describe the consensus of mainstream science and the scientists subscribing to it, thus implying through language that the issue is a matter of religious belief. The BioLogos Foundation, an organization that promotes the idea of theistic evolution, uses the term "evolutionism" to describe "the atheistic worldview that so often accompanies the acceptance of biological evolution in public discourse." It views this as a subset of scientism.

Influences and origins
Evolutionism developed originally on the internet in the 2010s, but it did not see substantial growth during its first decade. During the 2020s with the COVID-19 pandemic it began to grow into a cultural force.

Beliefs
The religion of Evolutionism has its beliefs and practices organized into two distinct parts: Apollonian and Dionysian. The Apollonian is based primarily on philosophy and empirical research, while the Dionysian is a more emotional part based on myths.

This is influenced both by Nietzsche's concept of the two aesthetics, and John Vervaeke's concept of the three orders

Dionysian
It's a misconception to understand the Dionysian as strictly irrational in its nature, rather the Dionysian is conceptualized as lying outside of the scope of conventional science.

Mythology
Evolutionism uses a set of mythical narratives based on a concept of an Alpha Point and an Omega Point. The lives of individuals and historical narratives are contextualized as movement from the Alpha Point to the Omega point.

Gaiad
The Gaiad is a scriptural book based on a narrative similar to the Old Testament, telling the story of natural history with genealogies of many related organisms. It goes into substantial depth cladistically, discussing many clades otherwise unspoken of by the general public.

The Gaiad enters human history with mythical narratives linked to evolutionary psychology, and similar such genealogies being linked to haplogroups and descent from antiquity.

Such genealogies are often used in rituals, with each Evolutionist having their own personal Gaiad with their own genealogy and genetics covered. Evolutionism makes no claim of these genealogies being literally true, but rather that they exist to allow easy understanding of an otherwise convoluted narrative without clear figures.

The Gaiad is going to be extended to the present day throughout all history, but as of 2022 the end of World War 2 is considered the end of Gaiadic times, as more recent times are considered to not have enough information available on them.

Gospel
The Gospel is a series of narratives primarily based around the present day. Gospel narratives are quite individually oriented. Video games are often used as the vessel for such narratives.

Galaxiad
The Galaxiad is a series of branching science fiction narratives based on the future of Evolutionism, humanity, and the universe. The purpose of the Galaxiad is to act as a common reference point for

Practices
Evolutionism follows a system of practices built around science and philosophy

Social practices
Evolutionism has positioned itself as offering a progressive and equible alternative to 21st century society during the 2020s

The Church of Evolution has heavily criticized cancel culture, Identity politics, and Trumpism as products of a nihilistic 21st century society.

Cancel Culture and Harmony Maintainance
The Church of Evolution considers cancel culture to be an ineffective and inappropriate way to help marginalized groups, one which comes at the detriment to societal order and safety. Immanuel has argued that cancel culture is especially intimidating to members of marginalized groups who often lack social alternatives when ostracized vs more privileged people.

As such the church has implemented a hate speech policy known as "consistent guidance". Under the policy priests are able to give demerits and confront members for any form of hate speech or casual racism. Priests are encouraged to be extremely consistent with this and give such penalties to any member regardless of extenuating circumstances. By contrast lay members are not allowed to criticize the behavior of each other when it comes to creating an inclusive environment, in fact such behavior is punished in the same way that racism and homophobia are.

The theory behind this practice is that cancel culture and peer pressure often fail to consistently promote good social behaviors. Bigoted acts which are too small to gain group attention are often ignored, while larger acts are often given excessive attention, and fear of receiving such attention may keep people with different outlooks from expressing their views. Additionally it is often noted that when people are confronted en masse by untrained peers their views are often enforced.

By contrast priests are trained and educated in psychology, ethics, and critical theory. A priest confronting someone will know very well how to articulate the harm the person's actions have caused, and know how to approach someone without causing the blowback effect. Such confrontations resemble a police interrogation in some ways, but differ in that the goal is calming someone down and convincing them to reassess their behavior. Contents of such confrontations are considered subject to the seal of confession and priest-penitient privilege.