The way of the serpent

 

Why are so many religious believers opposed to the very notion of evolution? I mean, look around you, shit changin´ all the time!

Jokes aside, I´m sure there are a dozen different reasons. One is probably the misunderstanding (common among pop evolutionists themselves) that evolution means “progress” rather than simply change. This notion also pops up among the scientists themselves, probably because it´s difficult – though by no means impossible – not to talk about successful adaptation in terms of “progress”. The peculiar pseudo- or crypto-teleology of some sociobiological literature is an example of this. Of course, during the 19^th century, most scientists claimed that evolution *did* mean progress. The fear from the religious is presumably that progress can happen without God, even “against” God in a certain sense, if evolution is true.

Another reason to oppose evolution is the exact opposite: it´s a blind process leading nowhere, so if humans are the products of evolution, our lives are quite simply meaningless. We might as well jump into a lake or something. Conversely, one way to reconcile evolution and belief in God or the Divine is to claim that “God did it", that evolution is somehow directed by God or expresses the unfolding of a divine spirit or reality.

My take on evolution is roughly this: why *should* it be a purposeful, meaningful, goal-directed process in the first place? Maybe evolution is “the path of the snake”: slow, meandering, ultimately leading nowhere…like the Ouroboros biting its own tail (and yes, there was a certain serpentine denizen of Eden). Evolution is an expression of God´s material energy. If you are caught up in it, and have a blinkered one-eyed vision, the only thing you are going to see is the material cosmos in all its horrid indifference. For all we know, you´re really looking at God´s backside.

Evolution really has no particular “goal”. We are certainly not its goal. Neither is the Overman, who is really just a divinized or Satanized human (or Nietzsche´s inflated ego). Neither is the goal “God plus the salvation of Me, Me, Me” (or us, us, us). Same conceit in all three cases: we (Homo sapiens) are the goal of Reality itself. Even if the Christian message was true, that still wouldn´t be the goal of the universe, it would simply be a drama in one particular small village at the outskirts of the cosmos, one with a happy ending perhaps, but hardy worth more than a passing mention in the Cosmic Daily News (“bridge repaired in Smallville”…”so-called humans redeemed on a planet known as Tellus”).

Evolution is part of samsara, the fall of Sophia, or whatever you wish to call it. It´s perfectly real on the physical plane. I´m sure there are ways to learn how to ride it, but it´s not gonna take you anywhere in the long run, except maybe back to the same spot you started from. Wanna go places? Transcend evolution.