Stephen Phelps, who would probably declare his hometown as Tualatin, and a one-time member of the staff at the Baha’i World Center in Haifa, has just written an amazing perspective piece detailing a Baha’i view of evolution. It was published to the Baha’i newsletter, One Country, today (at least, as best as I can tell…)
I love this quote, as Mr. Phelps sets up the scope of his discussion:
“These ideas prepare the ground for addressing a central issue that lies behind the debate about evolution, and that indeed extends to every front in the conflict between science and religion: how can the idea of an active Creator, who continually cares for and occasionally intervenes in His creation, be reconciled with the idea of a world whose workings can be traced in every detail to the operation of fixed mathematical laws?”
And, toward the end, Phelps give us this gem of a sentence:
“It does predict that, throughout the universe, and wherever conditions permit, life and consciousness will be emergent tendencies of matter.”
1 comment:
Here is the key point of the article:
Such an organic conception of the emergence of human life need not imply - as in some versions of so-called "intelligent design" theory - that the blueprint of life was fixed at the beginning. It does predict that, throughout the universe, and wherever conditions permit, life and consciousness will be emergent tendencies of matter.
I would like to add that Abdul Baha has said that whenever the Prophets speak they are speaking of spiritual rather than physical reality. To say that consciousness emerged from matter is not correct. Consciousness as it relates to man means a spiritual awareness of himself. Spiritual awareness does NOT emerge from matter. Rather, as Abdul Baha again says, matter was arranged in such a combination so as to 'attract' the spirit. Or in evolutionary terms, random mutation provided the correct combination to attract the spirit of man. It was inevitable that this happen because the Spirit is the cause material existence. But this is an assertion that cannot be proven even as the existence of God cannot be logically proven.
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