From Darwin to the Spirit in Evolution 

By Margarete van den Brink

Translation by Philip Mees

In two earlier contributions, The Creation – Coincidence or Intention? and The Angelic Hierarchies – Creators of the Human Being and Earth, I wrote about the development of the human being and the earth. The key question there was whether the creation came about by chance, as a coincidence, or that it was an actual creation by a higher spiritual or divine power with a certain intention. In the former article I showed how in pre-Christian times Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato thought about the creation, followed later by the conclusions Darwin reached in his evolution theory, based on his research into nature in the 19th century.

In the second article I approached the question not from the earthly point of view, but from the spiritual. Everything we see around us as solar system, earth, plants, animals, and human beings, says esoteric tradition, has at one time originated from the divine spiritual. High angels ceded substance of themselves and step by step developed and formed the creation from it. This primal substance of these high divine-spiritual beings, from which later the earth, the human beings, the animals and the plants were built up, was in the very beginning pure spirit. The first thing that was created from this spirit was warmth. Then air and light. Subsequently the creation lived, in addition to warmth, air, and light, also in watery/fluid substance. Eventually it condensed into solid matter, physical matter, as we know it today.

Both approaches, that of Darwin and the one from esoteric tradition, are extremes. The one views things from the earth, the other from the spirit. In this article I bring both points of view closer together, so close that—with goodwill—they can connect with each other. First I will show in broad outline how the ideas about the way the creation came about have continued in different directions even today. In the process, we will discover interesting, new points of view. I will begin with a general review of various theories about the development of the human being and the earth.

Creationism

The oldest view of the origin of humanity and the earth is called “creationism.” In brief, creationism says that God or a higher divine power created all natural forms we know on earth: the universe, the earth, but also the plants, animals, and human beings, each species separately. Among creationists, mostly orthodox Christians, there are many people who take the creation story in the Book of Genesis in the Bible literally. They assume that the creation of heaven and earth happened in six days of twenty-four hours. Although this view no longer has many adherents, in orthodox Christian circles it is still taken to be true. In Darwin's time, about the middle of the 19th century, this literal interpretation of the Bible was the conventional view. A few centuries earlier, Archbishop James Ussher of the Church of England and scholar Dr. John Lightfoot had, based on information they found in the Bible, calculated that the earth was at most 6000 years old. In Darwin's time this was still dogma in the Church.

Darwin's theory of evolution

During his travels on the Beagle and his research in nature in the southern hemisphere, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) discovered through fossils in different layers high in the Andes mountains that the world has to be much, much older than 6000 years, and that therefore that idea did not add up. In addition, he found that not only layers in the earth, but also plants and animals are subject to changes. In other words, they are subject to local conditions, they develop over time. Out of his observations he gradually formulated his famous theory of evolution.

Briefly this says that a plant or animal species continually goes through small changes, and that the changes that best adapt the organism to the environment or conditions make it possible that a plant or animal survives and procreates. The characteristics that produce the best adaptation are then inherited by the next generation. Darwin emphasized that those characteristics are selected by nature and are not the result of some plan, preference, or direction. This, in a certain sense automatic, selection by nature itself takes place because it makes survival possible. Darwin publicized his findings in his famous book The Origin of Species.

This book was a shocker in Church circles of the time. Darwin reduced the creation, which to that time had always been viewed as the work of God, to no more than a consequence of accidental changes that happen without direction. It was therefore no surprise that many of his colleague scientists, members of the Church of England as well as creationists, rejected his theories out of hand. Yet, quite soon afterward, he was acknowledged in the scientific world and his theories accepted.

Darwin himself initially viewed the development of the various species in nature, such as the great variety in plant- and animal forms, as a mixture of divine design and coincidence. In his book he wrote: “I think that all living beings that have ever lived on the earth descended from a primal form that received life from a Creator.”

In his books The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex he goes a step further than in his first book. In The Descent of Man Darwin makes clear that he views not only plants and animals, but also human beings as biological organisms that are, both in body and in spirit, descended from animal predecessors. Human beings prove to be so closely related to apes, the primates, that they cannot be a separately created species on their own. The absence of bodily hair, so characteristic of the human being, must have come about through natural selection.

In Selection in Relation to Sex Darwin shows that in the animal world, and therefore also in the human world, members of one sex (most often the females) select members of the other sex based on certain desirable characteristics. The purpose is to procreate a strong organism and thus maintain the species.

Neo-Darwinism

In the course of the 20th century, scientists discovered that the laws of heredity that Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) had described in the late 19th century, provided strong evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution. They made a connection between Darwinism and modern genetics and thus created what is now called the Neo-Darwinist theory of evolution. Fervent adherents of this theory are Thomas Huxley (1825-1895), Jacques Monod (1910-1976), and Richard Dawkins (1941). The Neo-Darwinists are completely convinced that evolution needs no other explanation than natural selection. They say that evolution is based on coincidence and on accidental mutations (spontaneous changes) in DNA. No more than that. It has no purpose at all, no meaning, and its only goal is the preservation of the species.

In their opinion it makes no sense at all to go looking for essential principles such as a creative god or a higher purpose. Anyone who does that acts unscientifically and is in fantasy land. The material universe, in other words, that which we can observe with our earthly senses, is the only reality. That is the only thing science should occupy itself with.

Among the Neo-Darwinists it is especially Richard Dawkins who spreads this theory with fire and sword and defends it against criticism from both scientific and non-scientific sources. He is an outspoken materialist and atheist. In his book The God Delusion he shows that traditional belief in a creation by a supernatural God has no basis.

Whereas Darwin still held the door to a higher power open a crack, the Neo-Darwinists have firmly closed it. There is no God. Everything to do with religion or spirituality cannot be scientifically proved and is therefore untrue.

The theory of evolution of Darwin and the Neo-Darwinists has had a profound influence on people's thinking about the human being and society in the past few decades. Characteristic views are: “The human being is an animal,” “We are descended from the apes,” “The relationship between the sexes is only about procreation,” “God does not exist,” “Science has proven that life has no meaning,” “Only the material world is real; whoever denies this is not scientific.”

Many people get confused by these new ideas, especially the adherents of creationism. On the one hand, they don't want to completely give up their faith in the Bible but, on the other hand, they agree with Darwin that the creation story in Genesis cannot be literally true. This causes them to have doubts about the credibility of the Bible as a whole. Many have for this reason eventually turned away from the Church, not because they are no longer religious, but because they can no longer simply accept its dogmas and interpretation of the Bible.

Intelligent design

In the late 20th century the concept of Intelligent Design was born. The Intelligent Design idea was developed by pious American scientists in reaction to the dominant materialistic and atheistic worldviews of the Neo-Darwinists. The adherents of Intelligent Design are not at all convinced that the Neo-Darwinist theory of evolution can explain everything. Yet, they do not totally reject it. Of course it isn't true that all the animal species fit in Noah's ark, and of course the earth is much older than six thousand years. But there exist facets in life, such as the biochemistry taking place in living cells and the interaction among genes, that are so complex that it is inconceivable that these systems came into being exclusively as a coincidence through variation and natural selection.

At crucial moments—for instance, at the beginning of life, the development of new species, and therefore also the beginning of the human being—Darwinist evolution theory, according to Intelligent Design scientists, badly falls short. The only way to get out of this dead end, they say, is to accept that at those crucial moments an “intelligent power,” an “intelligent designer,” intervened and steered the process in the right direction. Who might this “designer” be? An important adherent, William Dembski, writes in his collection Signs of Intelligence: “ If there is a designer hiding behind biology and cosmology, the possibilities as to who that might be are very limited, with God as the most obvious choice.”

In this connection it is interesting to remember that Darwin initially spoke of an “invisible hand,” that at certain crucial moments influenced and guided evolution.

The Intelligent Design idea is vehemently opposed by the Neo-Darwinists, most of whom are atheists. They say that via Intelligent Design, Creationism and God are sneaking into science again through the back door, and that is unacceptable. For them, Intelligent Design is a pseudo-science that cannot be taken seriously.

Matter and consciousness – toward a new theory of evolution

It is interesting that in and just before the Darwin Year 2009 there appeared two studies of scientists that add something entirely new to the theory of evolution, namely the element of consciousness or spirit. What I am referring to are the book What Darwin could not know. A journey to the spiritual interior of evolution by Gerrit Teule1, Dutch informatician, and the book How matter got spirit by Arie Bos2, Dutch science philosopher and anthroposophist.

Both of them think it is completely implausible to assume that, in all its beauty and complexity, the world is based on coincidence or plain luck. Even though they subscribe to most of Darwin's views, they also agree with Albert Einstein when he says: “If this universe in its infinite complexity and precision were the result of blind coincidence, it would be just as believable as that there would be an explosion in a printing shop and all the little letters would end up on the ground in the perfect, faultless form of a dictionary.”

In other words, there has to be a factor that creates order, that directs the development of each organism on earth in plants, animal, and human beings. Both Teule and Bos went in search of this factor.

Gerrit Teule started from the views of the French paleontologist and priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) and of the French quantum physicist Jean Emile Charon (1920-1998). Teilhard de Chardin and Charon saw that—in contrast to what Neo-Darwinists assert—evolution shows a direction, a purpose. The direction shows in the fact that we can observe increasing complexity and order. That which begins very simply, such as a single cell organism, eventually ends up as the self-conscious human being, a being of incredible complexity.

In matter works an order creating power

Another important aspect that Teule points out is that a law of thermodynamics says that out of chaos no increasing and lasting order can come forth. This is only possible if a continuous and stimulating influence or force works on it. If such a force is not there, everything falls apart again and the original chaos comes back.

If we apply this law to the earth evolution that has lasted billions of years, and in which the complexity and order of living matter has unceasingly increased, says Teule, there has to be an ordering, non-material creativity that works in matter, a creativity that you could also call a spiritual, conscious, creative force. He sees this creativity everywhere. You can also observe it in yourself, he says. You find it when you turn inward, when you reflect on things and become conscious of yourself.

Because the developing cells, molecules, atoms, plants, and animals would fall apart and turn to chaos again without this inward working force, this stimulating, spiritual power of consciousness must already have existed at the time of the Big Bang.

In other words, says Teule, consciousness and matter were both there at the Big Bang. Spirit (consciousness and spirit are identical) and matter therefore prove to have been inextricably connected with each other from the very beginning.

Consciousness is the spiritual side of matter, and matter the physical side of consciousness. The one lives in the other.

Arie Bos arrives at a similar conclusion, namely that consciousness (spirit) not only plays a fundamental role in evolution, but the lead role. If you take a good look at evolution, he says, you see that many processes proceed purposefully, as if there were a preconceived plan. “In all animal species there is evident development in the direction of increasing complexity, autonomy and brain development. This development takes place because, according to him—in agreement with quantum physics—in every part of matter, be it photons, neutrons, atoms, molecules, organs or whatever else, consciousness, spirit is working.

It is this consciousness, this “information” present in matter, that has not only generated matter, but continues to further direct and develop it, and has done so from the very beginning. As Bos says: “Like a silent, patient force this consciousness is working there. It molds, forms, and guides matter purposefully to ever higher forms of evolution.” “Purposefully” means that this consciousness “knows” down to the finest details where evolution should be heading.

Conscious creative work of high spiritual beings

Let us now go back to my contribution The Angelic Hierarchies – Creators of the Human Being and Earth. In it I related that high creative spiritual beings, the Seraphim who belong to the highest rank of the angelic hierarchies, received the creative thoughts for the new solar system, the earth, and human beings from the highest Godhead, the Trinity. The Cherubim, high spiritual beings also from the first hierarchy, worked with their high wisdom the goals and ideas the Seraphim had received into feasible plans. In their turn, the Thrones had the task to make the lofty cosmic thoughts real that the Seraphim had received from the highest Godhead, and which the Cherubim with their high wisdom had further worked out, to make them concrete.

Thus, by means of intensive collaboration among the different spiritual beings from the first, second, and third hierarchies the creation unceasingly developed to the point where we are in our time. The Elohim or Spirits of Form (from the second hierarchy) saw to it that what had been built up continued to exist as long as it was needed. This prevented what had been created from perishing prematurely. Because of this the Elohim are also called the “Preservers.”

Spiritual beings and consciousness

As a result of the divine thoughts or intentions underlying the process of creation, everywhere in nature exist order, beauty, and purposefulness, even today. And not only that, but also “information” or consciousness. Where does this come from?

At one time, high divine-spiritual beings gave their own substance, and let it stream into the creation. In this way arose at the physical level corporeality, at the etheric level the element of life, and on the astral level the soul element. And finally, as "I", it became the bearer of the spirit in the human being.

This spiritual substance that streamed out of the high spiritual beings consisted, and continues to consist of a power of consciousness emanating from these beings. It is this intrinsic power of consciousness that not only, as “information,” has generated physical matter, but it also maintains, directs, and further develops it from inside out.

Hence Arie Bos' wonderful words: “Like a silent, patient force this consciousness is working there. It molds, forms, and guides matter purposefully to ever higher forms of evolution.”

Out of this high creative, ordering power of consciousness, purposefulness in the areas of body, life, soul, and human spirit finds expression in ever more complex forms. In this process it “knows” down to the finest details what the next step has to be in evolution.

In the beginning was the Word

At the end of his book Arie Bos makes a brief excursion into the Gospel of John in the Bible. In his words, you could say that in the beginning, therefore before anything began, there was “information.” You could substitute “information” for “the Word”: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Bos: “Word” is the translation of the Greek logos, which means number, account, word, thought (content), and Spirit (as creative power). Thus you might also call the information principle of quantum physics the Word, the creative power of the Spirit, which was in the beginning and from which everything has come into being.

In other words, it was already there before the Big Bang happened.

With their work, Gerrit Teule, Arie Bos, and others are making contributions so that thanks to the newest discoveries in science the element of the Spirit can still find its way into Darwin's theory of evolution.

[1] Gerrit Teule, Wat Darwin niet kon weten. Een reis naar de spirituele binnenkant van de evolutie.

[2] Arie Bos, Hoe de stof de geest kreeg.

 
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