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The Roots of Evolution

Charles Darwin

When I was introduced to Evolution in my biology lessons at school I was under the impression that Charles Darwin had first proposed this theory. Over the last 25 years I have been tracing the origin of Evolution, which goes back over 3,000 years. Even Charles Darwin himself had to admit in his sixth edition of Origin of the Species (1888, preface) that others before him wrote, or spoke, about this subject. He lists 21 of them, including Aristotle, whom he quotes. There were, however, many more. He sadly brushes them aside with the following statement:

"Until recently the great majority of naturalists believed that species were immutable productions, and had been separately created. This view has been ably maintained by many authors. Some few naturalists, on the other hand, have believed that species undergo modification, and that the existing forms of life are the descendants by true generation of pre-existing forms. Passing over the allusions to the subject in classical writers, the first author who in modern times has treated it in a scientific spirit was Buffon."
(Buffon: Natural History, 1749)

So, just who were these "classical writers" and what were their allusions to Evolution? And whence did their ideas originate?

Early Pagan Understanding: Pantheistic Evolution

My investigation of the roots of Evolution led me to the ancient pagan religious philosophers, particularly in India and Greece. The Greeks themselves seem to have been influenced by the Hindu Brahmin philosophers. Sir M. Monier-Williams, the famous Sanskrit scholar from Oxford University, said in 1894:

"Indeed, the Hindus were Spinozists 2,000 years before the birth of Spinoza, Darwinians centuries before the birth of Darwin, and evolutionists many centuries before the doctrine of evolution had been accepted by the Huxleys of our time, and before any word like evolution existed in any language of the world."1

It is reckoned by most scholars that the dates of the Hindu writings are the following:

Let us now put together some key Hindu scriptures (including cosmology) and then compare them later with Evolutionary philosophy.

Hindu Big Bang Cosmology

"At first all was dark and indistinguishable, then the eternal one thought "I will create worlds" and at once water came into existence and water contained the germ of all life. This light came and the water gradually became a wonderful egg in which Brahman (i.e. the Universe) created himself. After hundreds of millions of years he split the egg into parts making heaven out of one and the earth out of the other."
(Vedas, c.1400 BC)

"The sun is Brahman," so runs the teaching. Now follows an amplification of this:

In the beginning this (universe) was Not-Being: (Yet) it was Being (too). It developed. It turned into an egg. For the measure of a year (i.e. Hindu cosmic years are counted in millions) it lay (there). It was split (in two). These two egg shells became (the one) silver (the other) gold. The silver one is this earth, the golden one the sky up there."
(Chandogya Upanishad 3:19: 1 – 2)

"The god of creation, who in the beginning was born from the fire of thought before the waters were; who appeared in the elements ..."
(Katha Upanishad: 4)

"By Tapas (i.e. heat) the power of meditation, Brahman (i.e. the Universe) attains expansion and then comes primeval matter. And from this comes life and mind, the elements and the world and the immortality of ritual action."
(Mundaka Upanishad 1:1)

"He (i.e. the creative principle called Brahma) becomes the size of an atomic particle and enters into the seed of what moves and of what is still; and when he has united (with that) he leaves his (former) physical form. Thus by means of waking and sleeping the imperishable one brings to life this whole (universe), moving and unmoving, and tirelessly destroys it."
(Laws of Manu: 1:56 – 57)

"Brahma (i.e. the creative principle) is the effulgent seed from which existing as it does by itself, has originated the entire Universe ..."
(Mahabharata: Vol.8: Chapter 232, p .179)

"God is in truth the whole Universe ... He is the sun, the moon, and the stars. He is the fire, the waters, and the wind ... Beyond beginning, thou art in thy infinity, and all the worlds had their beginning in thee ... Some sages speak of the nature of things as the cause of the world, and others, in their delusion, speak of time. But it is by the glory of God that the wheel of Brahman revolves in the Universe."
(Svetasvatara Upanishad: 4 – 6)

"Driven by the desire to create, heart and mind (i.e. Brahma, the creative principle) transforms creation; the ether is produced from that, and sound is known as the quality of the ether. From the ether as it transforms itself comes the unpolluted and powerful wind ... From the wind, as it also transforms itself, comes light, shining and brilliant and dispelling darkness, and said to have the quality of form. And from light as it transforms itself comes the waters ... and from the waters comes the earth. This is the creation in the beginning."
(Laws of Manu: 1: 75 -78)

"These (i.e. creative processes) in succession acquire the attributes of the immediately preceding ones from which they have originated. Each has not only its own special attribute but each succeeding one has the attributes of all the previous ones."
(Mahabharata: Mokshadharma Parva 8: 232: 179)

Although there are variations in the theme of the origin of the Universe in Hindu cosmology, several ideas emerged, which grew over thousands of years to form what we now know as Evolutionary Cosmology.

Consider the following:

  1. Although atheism/naturalism is rejected (Svetasvatara Upanishad 4 – 6), Brahman/God, or the Universe, brings itself into being via a stirring or movement, which sets off an evolutionary process (Laws of Manu: 1:75 – 76).
  2. This process, taking billions of years eventually causes an "egg" or "atomic particle" (Laws of Manu: 1:56 – 57) to appear, which contains the entire Universe.
  3. The "egg" expands (Mundaka Upanishad: 1:1) and explodes/splits (Chandogya Upanishad 3:19: 1 – 2). Out of this comes our Universe.

There are obvious parallels with our modern cosmology. However, the Hindu concept was of a Cyclic Universe, rather than a singular event accepted by most scientists today. Modern day attempts at revising the "Hindu" concept have been with the Oscillating Universe Theory and Sir Fred Hoyle's Steady State Theory. The Big Bang Theory is increasingly being challenged today by a growing number of cosmologists, and other theories are being raised, including a revival of the Cyclic Universe (Big Bang, Big Crash, Big Bang, Big Crash ... for eternity). Watch this space!

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Notes

  1. M.L. Burke, Swami Vivekananda in the West, vol. 2, 3rd edition, mayavati, advaita Ashrama, 1984, p. 128, also the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, vol. ix, p. 25