“THIS I BELIEVE” is the name of a segment frequently aired on National Public Radio , which invites listeners to submit their personal essays under this title. If I were to send in an entry I would have to say, “This I believe about Creationism vs. Evolution, it’s not either one or the other – it’s both!”
To me the debate over Creationism vs. Evolution seems useless, since nobody really knows how the One God came into existence – Big Bang or String theory notwithstanding. So why does it have to be either/or?
I’m no philosopher, but it seems quite simple and obvious that when that Intelligence or Consciousness or whatever you want to call it — some people call it G-O-D -- that which Generates, Organizes and Delivers (or Destroys all creation), when GOD created the creation, He/She/It/ did so out of its own Self, thus infusing the creation with the living ability to EVOLVE.
So to me, both Creationism and Evolution seem valid, though individually incomplete, theories. Those enlightened people who’ve had a direct experience of the reality of God have accepted both premises. They accept the paradox that all is God’s will, and yet man has Free Will! There’s something else to wrap your intellect around! The solution is that comprehending this apparent contradiction requires getting beyond the intellect, beyond three-dimensional thinking, into the realm of higher, or what Dr. Richard Bucke calls Cosmic Consciousness .
As we know, all of creation is vibrating; even inanimate objects have a measurable vibratory frequency (even such things as rocks, which look and feel solid, are vibrating – very slowly, of course). Vibration can be measured.
HELPFUL ANALOGIES
So, God created everything out of Him/Her/It Self, just as the ocean has waves of many sizes, and though icebergs seem like separate entities that interact with each other rising and falling, freezing and melting, but they still remain H2O (with salt thrown in, of course). In his book, There is a River, Edgar Cayce enlarges upon this analogy, pointing out that God is like a huge ocean with no shores, no bottom and no surface. God created everything, all the creatures, out of His/Her/Its own Being and these creatures can evolve and change size and appearance, but their basic essence never varies. We humans are all essentially divine beings, made out of the “stuff” of God (“in His image”) taking on different forms.
In the bible, which is the scripture with which most westerners are familiar, it is said, “In the beginning the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What is “Word” but sound: vibration.
Many sections in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib discuss the origin of life on Earth. The one I remember best is the quote from Japji Sahib by Guru Nanak: “One Word of His and the whole universe came into being, and millions of rivers of life came gushing… ” When I read that phrase, I thought it should definitely be put to music!
You may recall that as Sikhs, our main spiritual practice is chanting (vibrating) the Name of God. We sing a lot.
Here’s a passage from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib quoting the words of Nam Dev Ji, who was one of several non-Sikh contributors. The words he spoke came from his personal experience of Ultimate Truth.
First of all, there was only the Primal Being. From that Primal Being, Maya was produced. All that is, is His (i.e. God’s). In this Garden of the Lord, we all dance, like water in the pots of the Persian wheel.
Women and men both dance. There is no other than the Lord. Don’t dispute this, and don’t doubt this. The Lord says, “This creation and I are one and the same.”
Like the pots on the Persian wheel, sometimes the world is high, and sometimes it is low. Wandering and roaming around, I have come at last to Your Door.
“Who are you?” “I am Nam Dev, Sir. O Lord, please save me from illusion, the real cause of death (of awareness.)
(Ang 693 SGGS Ji)