Teaching alternatives to evolution: How to distinguish the Buddhist "Infinite Causes" and Christian "Intelligent Design" theories
ID vs. IC: what is the distinction?
Simply put, Intelligent Design posits that the universe needs a cause, but that the cause is a creature who designs and plans like a limited human being (but with supernatural powers), and this creature appeared from nowhere (by accident?) and needs no cause or creator of its own (the “first cause” idea). Infinite Causes, on the other hand, is so named because of the belief that there are an infinite number of causes and conditions that made the world the way it is. There is no ‘first cause’ or ‘one cause’ because all things are intertwined in an endless web of causality with no beginning and no end. Both natural and supernatural forces may be involved.
Physics: Cosmology and the nature of the universe
Intelligent Design: There is only one universe, and since it was designed by Jehovah, a great and powerful god, the universe we are in must be the BEST UNIVERSE POSSIBLE for physical human life. A divinely Designed universe by definition cannot fall apart or decay for any reason. (This means that entropy, not evolution, is the real threat to the Creationist ideology. )
Infinite Causes: There are many universes, of many possible types. We happen to be in one. There may be both natural and supernatural causes that set the physical conditions of our universe the way they are and allowed life of our type to come into being. However, there is no need to believe that this is the best possible universe, since the Buddha does not design or build worlds. (In Buddhism the Savior is not the Creator.)
Evaluation: Although there is no way to travel between universes or prove they exist, we can prove that the universe we are in now is not the BEST UNIVERSE POSSIBLE for our form of life. Even creationists admit this, and all say the universe WAS ‘perfect’ and then fell apart due to the imperfections of beings within it (who were also Perfectly Designed).
Verdict:
Intelligent Design fails when faced with reality
Infinite Causes is consistent with the facts
Notes: Some have claimed that a Buddhist ‘cycle of life’ worldview is linked to the outdated theory that the universe we are in will shrink and collapse into a “big crunch” before the next universe is created. This is not true. Buddhist writings assume many universes exist at any moment, and Buddhist accounts of creation clearly describe how a new universe _gradually_ gains beings reborn from other universes. There are some Buddhist accounts that have disasters destroy the world (as the Bible claims) but others in which universes fade away. Buddhists also consider our own human lives a ‘cycle of life and death’ but do not mean that old people shrink back into babies before their children are born.
Physics: The ever-changing universe and our interaction with it
Intelligent Design: There is a divine plan, set “in stone” by the all-seeing, all-knowing god Jehovah. All that happens is according to the plan. No mere human could ever affect the divine plan, or cause something to occur that was not already predestined. When stuff happens to you, good or bad, you just have to accept your fate and praise your supernatural master either way. (The bad stuff is supposed to be a ‘message‘, except when it kills you, in which case it was probably a message to someone else).
Infinite Causes: An infinite web of causes and conditions affects the development of every instant in our lives and the world we live in. This includes our own actions. Karmic theory is based on the unseen bonds between living sentient beings, whereby every action we take has consequences. These consequences have an impact not only on all around us but also, through stress on the interconnections between us and everything else, reflect back on ourselves as well (either in this lifetime or in the future). However, this is not fate, because you can change your own karma, or by acts of compassion and mercy, alleviate the negative karma of those you help. In a Buddhist worldview, we help create our own reality. The discoveries of quantum physics do not trouble Buddhists the way they do members of ‘divine plan’ based faiths, because the transitory nature of each moment was well understood by the Buddha, as was the interconnected condition of our existence.
Evaluation: Quantum physics theory reveals a universe of constant change, where events are only probabilities until there is an interaction with an observer. This effect of an observing mind on the future of the universe is consistent with Buddhist concepts that we are all interconnected and our actions and even presence can affect everyone and everything around us. Creationist religionists on the other hand have to constantly debate how a pre-planned universe and all-knowing god could be compatible with free will or independent actions (after all, such a god would have created all of us with every thought and action predestined to the last molecule). They cannot use quantum physics as an out without denying the power of their god.
Verdict:
Intelligent Design fails when faced with reality
Infinite Causes is consistent with the facts
Astronomy/Geology: the age of the universe and our solar system
Intelligent Design: The Christian basis for Creationism demands a universe less than 6000 years old, based upon Biblical timelines. Jehovah’s genocidal Flood occurs about 1650 years after the Creation, supposedly using extra water that had been held above the atmosphere by a magical barrier.
Infinite Causes: The Buddhist view of the world allows changes that occur over eons measured in millions of years or even billions of years.
Evaluation: The great age of the universe (and our own planet) has been verified by completely different techniques in the fields of astronomy and geology. Even the diehard “young-Earth” Creationists fudge their numbers and say that the Earth is up to 20,000 years old (as if tripling the age of the world is not already deviating from the Bible). Even they recognize a problem with having to believe a mass murder of almost all life on Earth could occur AFTER the invention of writing, the building of cities and pyramids, and within the lifespan of the oldest living trees, without leaving behind any (real) evidence. Other Intelligent Design advocates bend even further, allowing for various “interpretations” of the timing in the Seven Days Creation myth to allow for a more realistic age for the world. [The reason for this flexibility is political, as ID leaders try to pander to the largest possible pool of donors.]
Verdict:
Intelligent Design fails when faced with reality
Infinite Causes is consistent with the facts
Biology: Extinction of species
Intelligent Design: Creationists predicted that all life forms that were created in their god’s plan could not go extinct (after all, the ark of Noah was meant to preserve species while humans drowned). When fossils of unknown prehistoric species were discovered, Christian naturalists assumed that these species would eventually be found alive in some jungle-darkened corner of the Earth.
Infinite Causes: The Buddhist view of the world is that nothing that arises is permanent; all things are temporary and transitory. Because there is no design or plan, there is no objection to the idea that the world’s ecosystems have changed so dramatically that whole species have died out.
Evaluation: The extinction of species (and entire orders and classes of life forms) is, of course, an unarguable fact.
Verdict:
Intelligent Design fails when faced with reality
Infinite Causes is consistent with the facts
Notes: Why bring up a debate that was settled so long ago? Because we cannot forget that the contest between establishment Creationism and its new rival for explaining the nature of the world, materialist theory, resulted in a string of failed predictions and refutations of the Creationist ‘theory’. If materialism is shown to have flaws, the logical step is clearly not to revive the corpse of an already-failed Christian worldview, but to turn to an unconsidered alternative, namely, the theory of Infinite Causes.
Biology: Evolution in the fossil record
Intelligent Design: Since all species were formed according to a divine plan, there is no reason for any change in morphology to occur for any life form. All needs and requirements for each organism would have been set at the beginning by the mighty Jehovah. The fossil record would not show any organism that combines features of recognized taxonomic groups because there were no instances of one group diversifying and having species change in a way that would cause them to be classified in another group.
Infinite Causes: The Buddhist view of the world is that nothing that arises is permanent; all things are temporary and transitory. Because there is no design or plan, there is no objection to the idea that biological forms are mutable. Because the world is harsh, it is probable that life forms that were once well-adapted could find themselves in a changing environment causing increased death and favoring individuals that, through accidental or non-accidental (karmic or other metaforce related) causes, were born with physical forms better suited for survival.
Evaluation: The evolution of life is, of course, the aspect of science that is causing the most vicious debate in theological and philosophical circles (since it deals with our direct ancestry, not obscure math like quantum theory or the theory of relativity). However, the fossil record clearly shows organisms existed that mix characteristics of fish and amphibians, amphibians and reptiles, reptiles and mammals, reptiles and birds, and so on, none of which would exist in a Creationist universe.
Verdict:
Intelligent Design fails when faced with reality
Infinite Causes is consistent with the facts
Notes: The fossil record does not show other ‘intermediates’ such as extinct amphibian-birds, dragonfly-turtles, squid-rabbits, and so on--which some argued would exist in a world where a “creative god” made many more types of life at the beginning than were necessary and let some go extinct. The distribution of fossils found instead does indicate a pattern of ancestry of particular groups by others. Actually, even "young-Earth Creationist" books and websites resort to using evolutionary explanations by defining the Biblical "kinds" on the Ark as a set of vague generic types saved from the genocidal Flood and then saying the current species are derived from them through a process of speciation (that you should not call evolution for some inane reason).
Biology: Common ancestry in our DNA
Intelligent Design: Because of their belief that only humans were made in the image of their god Jehovah, Creationists do not believe that any other species can have a soul, or any common ancestry with the divinely-designed greatness that is the human race. When DNA was first discovered, Creationists predicted that the molecular evidence would show that each species was, at a molecular level, so distinct that there would be no question they were created separately, for their own roles, and could have no common genes or evidence of common ancestry.
Infinite Causes: The Buddhist view that many beings in many universes would be capable of sentient thought and potentially capable of being affected by karmic bonds means they do not consider life forms to be mere ‘designed robots’ the way Christians do. There is no objection to common ancestry with other species on Earth and no belief that such ancestry ‘lowers’ the value of human life at all.
Evaluation: The idea of the evolution of life has been tested with two completely independent sources of information. One is the fossil record. The other is the DNA sequence evidence that all life known on Earth has common roots. Again, there would be no similarity between molecules in a human body and an ape, let alone a mouse, if these organisms had been built uniquely for their specific niches and tasks in a divine plan. Instead, each is clearly a modification of a common set of parts, stretched by expanding gene families and altering gene regulation and development.
Verdict:
Intelligent Design fails when faced with reality (the 99% similarity between human and chimp DNA is harsh)
Infinite Causes is consistent with the facts
Notes:
The Creationist view that humans were created in the image of God often went along with the belief that some humans were closer to the image God intended and others were degenerate forms or otherwise cursed with inferiority for Biblical reasons. There were pseudoscientific “theories” about how races formed and changed long before evolution was discovered--the change being ‘down from a perfect creation’ not ‘up from the apes’. Thus followed the Segregationist and Apartheid beliefs that have lasted into modern times and certainly would have been opposed by the Buddha--and likely by the Christ as well.
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