I’ve come to the realization that, as a Buddhist, I have nothing to gain from believing in the mainstream theory of evolution. Buddhist teaching and natural science follow two radically different perspectives which they bring in evaluating the physical evidence.
Buddhism, like Hinduism, traditionally teaches that, rather than evolving from lower life forms, we instead devolved from higher beings. In the Agganna Sutta, the Buddha describes how the first humans who appeared on earth were originally beings of light from a higher realm, who came down to this world because they were tempted by its sensual pleasures like food:
http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/AggannaSutta.pdf
Originally, the people in this world still had their god-like powers, like the ability to fly, and they were still of a non-material form, but over time, as humans became more and more attached to sensuality, we became more and more physical, until we lost our spiritual abilities, and assumed the human form we have today.
This Buddhist understanding is sort of a middle ground between Biblical creationism, which says that a God created everything in the universe 6,000 years ago, and Darwinian evolution, which says that everything originated due to chance chemical processes. In the Buddhist perspective, it’s the outworking of karma which explains the origin of life:
http://ddmbachicago.org/where-did-the-universe-and-life-come-from/
If humans devolved from higher beings, rather than evolving from lower species, then we should expect to find the remains of humans from millions of years before they are supposed to have existed under the evolutionary timeline, just as a reading of the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures would predict.
In Forbidden Archeology, Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson documented dozens of archeological discoveries, human fossils and tools found millions of years lower in the fossil record than expected. The book explains that, because these evidences challenged the current paradigm, they were either explained away or suppressed:
http://www.krishnapath.org/library/vedic-science/hidden-history-of-the-human-race-free-download/
Here is one example of an archaeological discovery which challenges the Darwinian view, instead fitting the ancient Buddhist and Hindu interpretations:
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-oldest-known-stone-tools-pre-date-homo.html
If we devolved from higher beings, as the Buddha taught, then our purpose on this earth is clear, to find the enlightenment which rescues us from this degenerated state. We are amnesiac spiritual beings having a human experience, in need of re-connecting with the higher consciousness from which we came.
The traditional Buddhist understanding may conflict with modern science, but a committed Buddhist might decide to believe the Buddha’s words over modern science, especially when dealing with prehistory, before any of us were around to witness what really happened.
As the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn explained, scientists are not purely objective, instead they interpret the data based on whatever prevailing theories will allow. Everyone must evaluate the evidence for themselves and arrive at their own conclusions:
Buddhism, like Hinduism, traditionally teaches that, rather than evolving from lower life forms, we instead devolved from higher beings. In the Agganna Sutta, the Buddha describes how the first humans who appeared on earth were originally beings of light from a higher realm, who came down to this world because they were tempted by its sensual pleasures like food:
http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/AggannaSutta.pdf
Originally, the people in this world still had their god-like powers, like the ability to fly, and they were still of a non-material form, but over time, as humans became more and more attached to sensuality, we became more and more physical, until we lost our spiritual abilities, and assumed the human form we have today.
This Buddhist understanding is sort of a middle ground between Biblical creationism, which says that a God created everything in the universe 6,000 years ago, and Darwinian evolution, which says that everything originated due to chance chemical processes. In the Buddhist perspective, it’s the outworking of karma which explains the origin of life:
http://ddmbachicago.org/where-did-the-universe-and-life-come-from/
If humans devolved from higher beings, rather than evolving from lower species, then we should expect to find the remains of humans from millions of years before they are supposed to have existed under the evolutionary timeline, just as a reading of the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures would predict.
In Forbidden Archeology, Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson documented dozens of archeological discoveries, human fossils and tools found millions of years lower in the fossil record than expected. The book explains that, because these evidences challenged the current paradigm, they were either explained away or suppressed:
http://www.krishnapath.org/library/vedic-science/hidden-history-of-the-human-race-free-download/
Here is one example of an archaeological discovery which challenges the Darwinian view, instead fitting the ancient Buddhist and Hindu interpretations:
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-oldest-known-stone-tools-pre-date-homo.html
If we devolved from higher beings, as the Buddha taught, then our purpose on this earth is clear, to find the enlightenment which rescues us from this degenerated state. We are amnesiac spiritual beings having a human experience, in need of re-connecting with the higher consciousness from which we came.
The traditional Buddhist understanding may conflict with modern science, but a committed Buddhist might decide to believe the Buddha’s words over modern science, especially when dealing with prehistory, before any of us were around to witness what really happened.
As the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn explained, scientists are not purely objective, instead they interpret the data based on whatever prevailing theories will allow. Everyone must evaluate the evidence for themselves and arrive at their own conclusions:
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