In Darwin’s book The Descent of Man, he famously claimed many of our anatomical features to be useless including the muscles of the ear, the tailbone, body hair, and the fold in the corner of our eye. People generally think of goosebumps, male nipples, and the appendix as also being unnecessary to our existence. They are often referred to as “vestigial organs”, which were once thought to be useful for survival, but are now mostly or completely non-functional. Kind of like advanced calculus.
To Darwin, this was strong evidence that man had evolved from primitive ancestors. He theorized that over time, many vestigial organs or appendages began shrinking as they were used less and less. For example, the tailbone is thought to have once been a longer tail used by our ancestors for everyday tasks and survival. Having shrunk over time as we began relying more on the use of our hands, the tailbone now forms a tiny bump in our spines. (Personally I’m glad, that’s one less body part to tone at the gym. I have enough flabby appendages already.)
On the other side it is thought that when an organ or physical part is needed or nourished, it grows instead. Humans may have grown taller in past centuries because we paid more attention to nutrition and medical cures, and because height gave humans a strength and power advantage over those possibly weaker. As we all know, Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest postulated that those who were stronger or more genetically advantaged were likelier to survive.
Darwin’s theory has always appealed to me as a logical explanation for how we evolve. It just makes alot of sense and of course it’s pretty much accepted science. And being agnostic for the most part, I’ve never been able to fully believe the idea of a God created universe. I normally need proof of a concept before I can consider it. In the war between Creationists and Evolutionists I take the side of our ancestors being hairy apes.
Despite my bias towards science, I often wonder if Darwin’s theory is in fact, compatible, with Eastern spiritual beliefs.
(Warning: the following is more my whimsical musings than logic, so if you are an eye-roller, feel free to jump out now or snort your way through the rest of the article. I won’t be offended. I eye-rolled my way through my teenage years.)
Eastern philosophy does not talk about Creationism in detail and where we came from, but rather seems more focused on the concept of moksha, or where we go next once we are liberated from reincarnation, or the cycle of rebirth. It is thought that humans were born into their current bodies because we had an attachment to sensory pleasures. Our desires caused us to manifest into physical forms which would enable us to experience these pleasures. (I’m pretty sure I exist because of foot rubs and pie.)
According to Eastern philosophy, human bodies and the material life are viewed as flawed and temporary, subject to the cruelties of time and old age. Living as a decaying human form in a suffering filled material world is not considered “survival” but rather a state to escape.
It is believed that we have the power to outgrow our attachment to the sense body. Once the soul desires moksha or release from the cycle of rebirth, it can eventually shed its physical form and simply continue as energy. It can be united with other energies in the universe and ride off into the sunset, having achieved eternal existence and survival in the non-temporary, non-changing form of the soul.
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It often appears to me that this philosophy fits right into Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and Survival of the Fittest. If a soul begins to place more importance on its inner energy and consciousness, and less on its external physical form, then it seems plausible that eventually the body will be shed because it is no longer needed, just like the vestigial organs we no longer use. Like the appendix, tailbone, or other useless appendages, the ENTIRE human form becomes unnecessary for survival. You heard that right, perhaps in the end we’re all just giant, walking, redundant male nipples!
Perhaps it can also be said that the eternal soul, if it truly exists, is inherently more successful in survival than a temporary, vulnerable physical form which can be injured and has a guaranteed death in every lifetime. It seems that survival of the fittest would apply to the soul triumphing over the body.
I wonder – is it possible that we can evolve to the point where our temporary, fragile bodies are no longer of concern to us, and we can shed the unwanted, no longer useful super-organ once we stop giving it so much importance?
And is it possible . . . (drumroll, not eye-roll) . . . that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is not contradictory to the idea of Enlightenment but instead, a fitting description of what happens on our final spiritual journey?
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