WARNING! BELIEF OF ANY KIND IS
DANGEROUS TO INTELLIGENCE
Evolution vs. Creationism in the Public Schools
Following the recent decision by the Kansas Board of Education in
the US to delete any mention of Darwin's theory of evolution in the public
school science curriculum, SINS has learned of a counter-proposal by an
underground group calling itself the Ad Hoc Committee to Preserve the
Intelligence of the Species Regardless of How it Got Here.
"It's perfectly okay to insist that Charles Darwin's theory of
evolution is only a theory," says a Committee spokesperson. "But true
scientific inquiry demands that belief as such be set aside in favor of
direct personal experiment and experience. If we're really concerned about
supporting the intelligence of children, then we should make it clear that the
point is neither to believe in Darwin's theory nor in the world's creation by a
Supreme Being. The point is to sharpen their own capacity to inquire, to
investigate, and to come to conclusions based on their own intelligence and
experience."
Members of the Ad Hoc Committee have taken a clue from the Alabama
Board of Education, which has resolved its own creationism-versus-evolution
debate by posting a kind of "evolution disclaimer" sticker on their biology
textbooks. With a slight change in wording, the Committee proposes that Kansas
churches post a similar notice in all copies of the Holy Bible.
"The Alabama notice states that evolution is a 'controversial
theory' that some scientists propose as a scientific explanation for the origin
of living things. A simple substitution of references to 'science' with
references to 'theology' should do the trick," says the Ad Hoc Committee
spokesperson. "And the rest of the wording on the Alabama sticker is perfect as
it is: 'No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any
statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact.'"
PERSPECTIVE:
Evolution and Creation ?
An Uncommon View
Osho:
Charles Darwin propounded a theory of evolution. Most of it is
relevant, but he has missed something very basic. He only thought of the
evolution of the human skeleton. He was continually comparing the skeletons of
other animals with human skeletons. The ape, the chimpanzee, certain species of
monkeys, have a similar skeleton; that's why he finally concluded that man has
come either from apes or from chimpanzees or from monkeys.
Of course he was laughed at all over the
world, particularly by the Christians, because Christianity has a very
stubborn, fanatic attitude, which was never so clear before Charles Darwin's
proposing the theory of evolution. Even today, most people are not clear what
the problem is, why Christians are so much against Charles Darwin.
Christians believe that God created the world in its completion in
six days. Obviously, when God creates something it is bound to be complete and
perfect; hence the question of evolution does not arise. Evolution means things
are evolving, becoming better, more perfect, reaching to higher levels. This
was against the idea of a fixed creation; hence Charles Darwin was criticized,
condemned.
I remember... There was a small school and the teacher was
explaining to the students how God created the world. One small boy, whose
father was a scientist and had been teaching him about the theory of evolution,
stood up and said, "But my father says something else. He says we are born out
of the monkeys."
And the Christian teacher said, "As far as your family is
concerned, he may be right. We are not discussing your family here. You can see
me later after the class."
But that was the attitude all over the world? not only of
Christians but of Hindus and of Mohammedans. They thought that Charles Darwin
had taken away their dignity as the greatest and the most superior creation of
God. He has destroyed their ego trip, that God created man in his own image.
Now this fellow is saying God that created man in the image of a monkey. Nobody
was ready to accept it.
I am also not ready to accept it, but my grounds are different. It
is not a question of comparing skeletons; the evolution is in the
consciousness, not in the body. Man has a body, monkeys have their own bodies,
chimpanzees have their own bodies.
Even Charles Darwin was very much puzzled: How can a monkey
suddenly become a man? As far as we know, at least since ten thousand years,
there has not been a single case when suddenly a monkey jumped out of a tree
and became a man. If it has not happened in ten thousand years, it is
inconceivable that it could ever have happened.
His whole life he was looking for some missing links: the gap
between the monkey and man seems to be too big. He wanted to find a few missing
links so he could make smaller gaps: the monkey becomes something else, then
something else becomes something else, and then finally a small difference...
and the animal becomes man.
But he could not find any missing link. Because he was born in the
West and had the attitude of a materialist, that caused the whole trouble.
Otherwise he was saying something of immense importance.
Evolution needs to be not of the body but of consciousness; then it
becomes a spiritual progress. But Darwin had no idea of any spirit in man. To
him, man was just the body and nothing more.
I propound a theory of spiritual evolution, and that has been the
basic understanding of all mysticism in the world.
Man is born as a seed. To accept the seed as your life is the
greatest mistake one can commit. Millions of people are born as seeds, fresh,
young, with tremendous potential of growth. But because they accept the seed as
their very life, they die as a rotten seed; nothing happens in their life.
If man takes care of the seed that he is born with ? gives it the
right soil, gives it the right atmosphere and the right vibrations, moves on a
right path where the seed can start growing then the ultimate growth is when
your being blossoms and opens all its petals and releases the beautiful
fragrance.
Unless you blossom, your life is nothing but an exercise in utter
futility. You are born unnecessarily, you are living unnecessarily, and you
will die unnecessarily. Your whole biography can be reduced to a single word:
unnecessary.
But if you can blossom and release that which is hidden in you, you
have fulfilled the longing of existence. You have given back to existence the
fragrance that was hidden in your seed.
You have come to fulfill your destiny. The mystics have never
accepted man as the ultimate product. Man is only a beginning and one should
not die as a beginning; that is ugly, insulting, damaging to your dignity. Man
should reach to the absolute fulfillment ? not only for his own contentment,
but for the contentment of the cosmos.
You have never dreamed that you contain so much, that your
potential is so valuable, that your interiority is a treasure inexhaustible,
that you need not be in debt to existence forever. You can return to existence
a millionfold what existence has given to you.
Osho
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