From Adam or ape?

[1]

Francis Gonsalves [1]

The Bible has been used — and misused — in various ways. For over a billion bhakts worldwide it is sacred scripture providing sustenance and strength for their pilgrim path. Yet, even among these, one often finds fundamentalists whose methods of reading and interpreting scripture are, at best, naive, at worst, suicidal. Consider this case.
A fanatic sought God’s will by randomly reading scripture. He pledged to strictly follow the first three verses he read in the Bible. The first verse his eyes fell upon read: “Judas went and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:5). The second was: “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37), and the third: “Do quickly what you are going to do!” (John 13:27). I know not what the guy did, but I’m wary of cut-and-paste approaches to the Bible.
Scripture is the expression of a faith-community based on human experience. Though primarily not focusing on the historic and scientific, it is, nonetheless, not inimical to these. Science, by contrast, functions through analysis and experimentation. Sadly, some believers fear science and label it as a “foe of faith”. These get elated when godmen claim to have “proved” God’s existence and get deflated when scientists brag that scripture has been “disproved”. It’s sheer nonsense to claim to “prove” God or “disprove” scripture.
The Bible says: “Great are the works of God, studied by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2). Many eminent scientists were devoted to scientific research and simultaneously are firm believers in God — Kepler, Newton, Faraday, Pasteur, Planck and Mendel, among others. For them, religion and science did not uneasily coexist as foes but complemented the truths and corrected the extremes of each other. God has gifted us with astute vision and sharp intellect to marry science and religion and beget truth, no matter how finite and faraway it is from the Absolute Truth.
Attempting to wed science and religion, Pope John Paul II said: “I don’t think that science should become religion or religion science; both, religion and science, must preserve their autonomy and distinctiveness. But, science can purify religion from error and superstition; while religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes”.
The hostility between science and religion was fuelled in 1859 by Darwin’s Origin of Species that seemed to undermine the creation myths in the Book of Genesis. Today, too, many seek an “either-or” answer to the questions: Have we descended from Adam or from apes? Should we trust genetics or the Book of Genesis? I believe that a “both-and” answer is nearer the truth than an “either-or” one. In other words, believing that human beings (Homo sapiens) evolved over eons from less complex organisms up to our immediate ancestors, the apes, does not necessitate dismantling a Creator-God theory.
The scientist normally explains the “what” and “how” of things, while the religionist explores the “why” and “whence-whither”. Both these must realise that there are “gaps” in their knowledge since human beings are limited and can only express reality “as they see it” and not “as it really is”.
While evolution might account for the physiological and genetic progression in animal species, it fails to account for the development of self-reflection, freedom and morality that marks out wo/man as far superior to apes. This is not to say that apes aren’t clever. But, one certainly can’t prosecute an ape for rape, much as one can’t expect a dog to assume brahmacharya or a cat to undertake Friday fasting.
In India, Sri Aurobindo Ghose’s great contribution to the evolution debate was to introduce the concept of evolution into Vedantic thought. He spoke of “involution” as the primal energy of creation that emerged from a timeless, spaceless, ineffable, immutable reality and of “evolution” as an ongoing process by which man continues to undergo mutations until “supramental transformation” is achieved.
Common to Ghose’s vision and the Genesis stories is the truth that Creation is a perennial process in which wo/man is not a mere spectator, but a participant with all other creatures. Genesis further stresses that human beings are partners with God. So, we will have to live with the humble acknowledgement well worded by Thomas Carlyle: “I don’t pretend to understand the universe; it’s a great deal bigger than I am”.

— Francis Gonsalves is the principal of the
Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi. He is involved in interfaith dialogue and peoples’ initiatives
for fostering justice, harmony and peace. He can be
contacted at fragons@gmail.com [2]