Has Darwin Evolved?

Has Darwin evolved?

There has been a strange, almost surreal debate about evolution vs intelligent design in recent years. That debate needs to be taken up a notch or two, to bring it into the realm of logic, and past simple minded expressions of faith. The first step is defining what intelligent design does not mean. It does not mean that the world was created 7000 years ago with Adam, Eve, a snake, an apple and wild sex in a garden.

Darwin's theory makes immense sense as far as it goes. The thing is, it doesn't go far enough. It begins with the onset of life on just one planet. Our planet. That is but one short paragraph in the evolution of the universe, and even that paragraph is not quite complete. What happened between the Big Bang and the onset of life? What is it which brought the explosively white hot point of energy into existence, what led to the unreal big bang  which in 0.008th of a second filled up space close to the present size of the universe, what led the energy to congeal into particles and different forms of energy and forces, and then to atoms, molecules, matter, planets and stars, galaxies and solar systems, inorganic matter, organic matter, and finally the emergence of life which then allowed the mechanism of natural selection to set in? Darwin's theory covers an infinitesimal fraction of the billions of years of's the world existence. What determined the emergence of the universe into a shape that allowed for Darwin's theory to operate - surely there was no question of survival and natural selection in the pre-life formations described above? What drove that development?

Physicists have finally discovered the 'God' particle, which they claim determines the 'DNA' of atoms and molecules - tell which particles to become, say steel and which to become, say oxygen. Most of matter isn't understood at all. What about different forms of energy? What about gravity? There is the whole area of dark matter and dark energy which are a complete mystery and could contain the answers to how an undifferentiated beginning in the big bang became a myriad different things. Once we understand matter - still a long distance away, we then need to begin to understand what 'life' truly is, and after that we have the huge task of figuring out how 'consciousness' came about. From the big bang to consciousness - that is the true journey of evolution.

Taking a completely different tack, where did 'time' come from? That was surely present in the big bang, no evidence of evolution. And finally, there is the whole question of different dimensions beyond the three we know, to take reality as we know it all the way to infinity. "String theory' which Stephen Hawking claimed would answer all possible questions in physics in a few years (my!) believes there are at least 7 or 8 dimensions. That is mathematical modeling for you, and do remember that mathematical modeling in a different form is what gave us the sure bet of derivatives which brought the financial world to its knees. Think 'Black Scholes". But I digress.

Getting down to it, it is entirely possible that there could well be a grand design or at least set of rules which is causing the universe to unfold as it is doing. Remember, if just one element, time were to vanish, everything would coalesce into a single instant. No natural selection, no evolution. Is there chance in evolution? Probably, but how much? Tell me how do you go from immeasurably whiter than white heat to matter to life to a sperm and an egg to and the complexity of human life, its organs, functions, nervous system and brain, and on to Einstein and the theory of relativity? Is all of that truly just natural selection?

Unless we understand where all of existence came from, we cannot get at definitive answers. And who knows that? As the Nasadiya (hymn of creation) says in the Rig Veda (the Sanskrit Hindu book which is the oldest known religious/spiritual text)

" There was neither non-existence nor existence then.....

There was neither death nor immortality then.....

Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning....

The life force that was covered by emptiness, that one arose through the power of heat.....

Whence this creation has arisen - perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not - the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows - or perhaps he does not know."

"or perhaps he knows not"!

In a sense, all of evolution, from the big bang to now, has moved from a pretty undifferentiated exploding energy through a lot of complexity to life, and finally life conscious of itself and capable of having such a discussion as we are having. And from a number of accounts starting with the Rig Veda, a consciousness capable of merging with the single true underlying, unchanging reality behind all this change, the first cause uncaused, the prime mover unmoved. God?

If Charles Darwin were still alive, he would have probably added to the theory of evolution, without in any way detracting from the validity of his theory of natural selection. Evolution of life is just one part of a much grander, much bigger process, of which we have so far caught just a little glimpse. Perhaps there is no conflict between intelligent design and evolution. Perhaps evolution moves within preset boundaries, and to that extent is backed by intelligent design. It need not be either-or.