Involution and Evolution

In some of the Asian cultures there is a concept that couples Involution with Evolution. It marries the spiritual with the scientific for it accepts the science of evolution as reliable but then speculates upon the unanswerable question of evolution being formed out of nothing. This remains unconvincingly addressed by the religious traditions of the world. Even the Christian tradition remains unconvinced that it is an adequately addressed answer. An answer is by nature a speculatively answer, just as I would answer that ‘out of nothing’ is speculative.

The clearest attempt in the scriptures is found in John some 19 hundred years before Darwin cracked the egg of evolution. Even going back to the beginning of the Old Testament you would need to add at least speculative another 2 thousand years to this story to make a total of 4 and a half thousand years. It reports ‘In the beginning God said.’ This is elaborated upon by John who claims,

‘In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and was God. All things were made by him and without him nothing was made that was made.

In him was life and the life was the light of man, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.’ Jn1:1-2

This does not really disagree with anything that evolution speaks of, even thought it may speak a different language. It attempts to address the conception of ‘out of nothing’ with an alternative solution. It might be considered to be a spiritual solution. It speaks of the equivalent of evolution, involution.

So, what does involution suggest?  It picks up the words of John and implies that the beginning was not, ‘out of nothing, but out of something’ and that something was what we call God. The tradition of John refers to God as the ‘Word.’ Many other names have been used. The connection with evolution is that what is the conversion of God to the ‘Big Bang or fragmentation.’ It is the transfer of energy in the form of life and light, it is thought to be in the infinitesimal compact notion of singularity of energy. The concept of the Christian faith is the humbling of God, from the majestic to the all but nothing. The concept of involution replicates the imaginary but forcefully dropping of a tennis ball on the ground which then explodes all around to replicate the story of evolution. The collision is the big bang, then travelling from humble nothing to the advanced state toward today. This story only differs from the scientific story of evolution by adding to the story from ‘out of something.’