Why do many teachers in the yogic tradition promote and support the theory of evolution?
I want to be clear here... Evolution is at best a scientific theory and at worst a religion. It was propagated by a man named Darwin many years ago, a man who had been a Christian and then turned away from his religion.
I am a Christian, and like Darwin am turning away from my religion, attempting to disentangle myself from it to free myself completely. But I am not out to discredit it. I try to be respectful to people, and that means respecting their belief systems as much as I can, if I am able to (I can't respect destructive, evil religions.)
I can't take some scientific instrument and prove that evolution is right or wrong, or even that creation is right or wrong. Even if I had an instrument and was well trained in its use I could not guaranteed its accuracy. Carbon dating is an example of a scientific instrument and process that provides inaccurate results.
However I can draw some conclusions from my own perceptions, experience, and general wisdom:
1. The sun can not possibly be millions of years old. Suns have a limited lifespan, so scientific research has proven. If the sun is not millions of years old, then the earth can't be either.
2. Common sense tells me that throwing a bunch of junk in my room along with a good source of water and letting it stew for a few millions years would not cause anything new creature to crawl out of my room. New creatures are discovered, but if evolution were true new creatures would be evolving into higher life forms every day because the process started, according to the theory, millions of years ago. Now current creatures are mutating, and my friend would call this adaption, hearkening back to the theory of evolution, but I am discussing the process here of some species of ape (for example) in current times loosing its hair, wrapping fig leaves around its unmentionables, and using a spear to hunt something.
3. Disregarding the first two I have one final observation... The world is far too complex to be the result of random chance. The physical realm alone is complex beyond imagining. We are still making new discoveries every day. This doesn't even include the spiritual, non-physical realities. To me it speaks of a higher than human, far higher than human in fact, intelligence. The hand of an Artist, a Creator, which I would call God. I would believe this even if I renounced my faith. I would retain this belief, as it is my own, developed from my own experiences in physical reality, dreaming reality, and the usage of various universal mechanisms like the "Law of Attraction" and the "Law of Intention" (neither of which would be discussed in Christina circles as far as I know.) In short my personal belief is that apes are designed in our image, and we in God's.
In any case we come to the heart of the matter, what has been troubling me for a few days now. I have encountered numerous times in spiritual books by authors such as Deepak Chopra statements like, "...millions of years..." as well as references to man being an animal. It confuses me because many of these same authors profess to the existence of a God and the creative process. They seem to be concerned with the spiritual development of man, but still seem to want us to believe we are nothing more than evolved animals. I think people use this as an excuse. If I am nothing more than an animal, then I can act like an animal, human morals and societal standards are above me. How can a spiritually developed person see themselves as nothing more than an animal? No different than an ape, with only some arbitrary time gap of millions of years to differentiate them? It makes no sense to me.
So my question here is simply this... Why is the scientific theory and religion of evolution taught in many spiritual texts? Why profess a God but deny any power of creation? Why teach us to look inwards towards our divinity, how we are connected to God, and at the same time teach us that we are merely highly evolved animals? Which is it? Are we a divinely connected human being or a highly evolved animal?
What are your thoughts, and more importantly, why do you think or believe that? Be sure to include that last vital part! Stop regurgitating what you have been taught on others and look deep inside to see what, if anything, you believe and why you believe that. Support your beliefs! This is a thread for discussion, not a dumping point for theories which are not even your own! Follow my example. See how I am developing my own thoughts, outside the walls of creationism and evolution.
I am seeking some enlightenment here, some explanation. Help me find it!
- DreamBliss