The origin of life and how modern science is based on faith
By definition, modern science tries to explain all natural phenomena without having to accept the existence of God. Does it really make sense? It depends on how much faith one has.
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The modern scientific view of the Universe is quite different from what is described in the Vedas. There is some agreement in the structure of the solar system, as well as in the age of the universe and the dates of certain extinction events (as I mention in my book The Intriguing Vedic Universe), but there is a profound dichotomy when we speak about the origin of life.
By definition, modern science tries to explain all natural phenomena without having to accept the existence of God (an approach that appeared, in turn, as a reaction to centuries of repression based on fundamentalist beliefs by the church). Since modern science starts from the conclusion that there is no God, life is explained as a result of a series of progressive chemical reactions over a period of hundreds of millions of years. It’s believed that the natural conditions on our planet billions of years ago led to the formation of simple amino acids, which eventually combined into the first unicellular organisms, which gradually evolved into all the current species. According to this line of thinking, the history of all life forms can be traced back to some simple organism that appeared from dead matter.
Does it really make sense? It depends on how much faith one has.
In 1952, Stanley Miller, a graduate student of the University of Chicago, injected ammonia, methane, and water vapor into a hermetically closed glass container to simulate what was then believed to be the conditions of Earth’s early atmosphere. They then passed electrical sparks through the container to simulate lightning. This led to the creation of amino acids, the basic building blocks of proteins, which in turn led to the theory of the primordial soup, in which it is believed that a soup of amino acids in the ocean eventually led to the creation of the first molecules of DNA or RNA and eventually to the creation of life.
The problem with this theory is that it is extremely improbable. Amino acids are to DNA molecules what bricks are to the ToVP. A big temple like the ToVP is made out of bricks, but we are speaking about millions of bricks perfectly positioned, combined with other materials, and millions of hours of work. It’s not because one is able to make a few bricks that he will automatically be able to build a temple like the ToVP.
Certain natural processes can result in rocks and other materials being cut in relatively symmetrical shapes, just like a brick. In certain conditions, a few such “bricks” may end up on top of one another, but it would be extremely improbable that any natural process would result in a temple like the ToVP. We instinctively understand that a complex structure like this must be done by human beings or other intelligent creatures. Thunder and wind will not do, even if we imagine a period of hundreds of millions of years.
Even the simplest living organisms are composed of an extremely complex DNA (or RNA) molecule, together with a cell membrane, cytoplasm, and organelles. All of this needs to exist together for the cell to be viable. Just like a cell can’t exist without DNA/RNA, it can’t exist without a cell membrane and different organelles. All of these elements must have appeared together for the first microorganism to be viable.
In other words, the conditions that created the first DNA or RNA must have also created the nuclear membrane that protects it, as well as an outer cell membrane, the cytoplasm, and the basic organelles that would allow the cell to function. In our analogy, it would correspond to the thunder and wind creating not just the ToVP, but also Prabhupada’s Samadhi, the long building, the Govinda’s restaurant, and the gardens around it. It demands a lot of faith to believe in such an explanation.
Researchers try to counter this with the idea of a gradual assembly of membranes and genetic or biochemical systems over time, arguing that very simple organisms can be viable without all the components present in modern microorganisms. This is, however, also a leap of faith, because we don’t observe new species of microorganisms appearing by this process. This is one more theory to path the roles in the previous one.
How do the Vedas explain it?
The Vedas explain that life starts from the opposite idea. Instead of coming from matter, life is the result of a careful and organized process conducted by superior beings. In other words, instead of starting with unicellular organisms and gradually progressing to more complex beings, life in our universe starts with the most advanced living entity and from him goes progressively to the less advanced.
According to the Vedas, this happens because life is a combination of matter and consciousness. In his form of Mahā-Viṣṇu, Krsna impregnates the material energy with numerous souls, thus creating the material universes. In each universe, the most qualified soul becomes Brahmā, the architect of this particular universe, and the others assume different positions, from celestial beings to plants and insects according to their qualification and desires, and from there they move up or down following the cycle of saṃsāra.
Brahma creates the Prajāpatis, powerful beings that are capable of creating the millions of different life forms that populate the universe. These different species include human beings, animals, and plants, as well as more evolved beings, such as demigods.
One could counter this explanation with the argument that, according to modern science, human beings share about 97.5% of their DNA with mice, and 99% with chimpanzees. According to this argument, such similarity could be explained only on the basis of evolution theory. However, if we think about it, considering the explanation given in the Vedas, such similarities are no wonder, since the DNA of all different species was coded by the same class of superior beings. The same way a software developer reuses blocks of code in different applications, changing only what is necessary according to the functionalities added, the same way the Prajāpatis don’t start from scratch for every creature they create.
In fact, their creation is so ingenious that every creature is given tools to be able to adapt and survive in its environment. Different creatures can even change their form over time to adapt to changes in the environment, becoming bigger, smaller, or developing other adaptations, as can be observed through paleontological evidence. The changing nature of different organisms, which is the main argument used to support the evolution theory, is thus, according to the Vedas, just a natural characteristic of every living being on our planet to respond to changes in the environment. According to the Vedas, however, these changes lead to an eventual degradation (and not evolution) of the species, including human beings, and thus our planet needs to be regularly repopulated by the same higher beings.
Similarly, the Prajāpatis create other species of intelligent beings that live on other planets. Some are more evolved than human beings, others are at a similar level, while others are less developed.
Does this explanation require a certain faith to be believed? Certainly. However, I found it requires much less faith than believing in the modern theory that life comes from matter, especially once we accept the existence of the soul.
To accept that inanimate matter could give birth to the first unicellular beings, and that such beings could spontaneously evolve into all sorts of complex organisms, culminating in human beings, without the interference of any superior force, actually demands much more faith. Even when we consider that this process is believed to have happened over a span of hundreds of millions of years, it still sounds quite implausible.
The explanation given in the Vedas makes more sense since it’s logical that an advanced being can create lesser beings, while the opposite is much less believable.
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