No. 165 EVOLUTION AND THE NEW AGE

By Henry M. Morris'

A strange religion has been coming into prominence in recent

years. Sometimes mis-called the "New Age Movement," this

phenomenon is in reality a complex of modern science and ancient

paganism, featuring systems theory, computer science, and

mathematical physics along vath astrology, occultism, religious

mysticism and nature worship. Ostensibly offered as a reaction

against the sterile materialism of Western thought, this

influential system appeals both to man's religious nature and his

intellectual pride. Its goal is to become the world's one

religion.

Although New-Agers have a form of religion, their "god" is

Evolution, not the true God of creation. Many of them regard the

controversial priest, Teilhard de Chardin, as their spiritual

father. His famous statement of faith was as follows:

"(Evolution) is a general postulate to which all theories, all

hypotheses, all systems must henceforward bow and which they must

satisfy in order to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light

which illuminates all facts, a trajectory which all lines of

thought must follow."'

The ethnic religions of the East (Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism,

Confucianism, etc.), which in large measure continue the

polytheistic pantheism of the ancient pagan religions, have long

espoused evolutionary views of the universe and its living things,

and so merge naturally and easily into the evolutionary framework

of the New Age philosophy. It is surprising, however, to find

that Julian Huxley and Theodosius Dobzhansky, the two most

prominent of the western scientific neo-Darwinians, were really

early proponents of this modern evolutionary religion. In a

eulogy following Dobzhansky's death, geneticist Francisco Ayala

said:

"Dobzhansky was a religious man, although he apparently rejected

fundamental beliefs of traditional religion, such as the existence

of a personal God .... Dobzhansky held that in man, biological

evolution has transcended itself into the realm of self-awareness

and culture. He believed that mankind would eventually evolve

into higher levels of harmony and creativity. He was a

metaphysical optiMiSt."2 . Morris is Prsdent of the Institute for

Creation Research.

Dobzhansky himself penned the following typical New Age sentiment:

"In giving rise to man, the evolutionary process has, apparently for

the first and only time in the history of the Cosmos, become conscious

of itself."'

More recently, the socialist Jeremy Rifkin, expressed this concept

in picturesque language, as follows:

"Evolution is no longer viewed as a mindless affair, quite

the opposite. it is mind enlarging its domain up the chain of

species."' "In this way one eventually ends up with the idea

of the universe as a mind that oversees, orchestrates, and

gives order and structure to all things."5

Lest anyone misunderstand, this universal mind is not intended to

represent the God of the Bible at all. Harvard University's Nobel

prizewinning biologist, George Wald, who used to state that he

didn't even like to use the word "God" in a sentence, has come to

realize that the complex organization of the universe cannot be

due to chance, and so has become an advocate of this modernized

form of pantheism. He says:

"There are two major problems rooted in science, but

unassimilable as science, consciousness and cosmology ....

The universe wants to be known. Did the universe come about

to play its role to empty benches?"6

Modern physicists have played a key role in the recent

popularization of evolutionary pantheism, with what they have

called the "anthropic principle."

"At the least the anthropic principle suggests connections

between the existence of man and aspects of physics that one

might have thought would have little bearing on biology. In

its strongest form the principle might reveal that the

universe we live in is the only conceivable universe in which

intelligent life could exist."'

This remarkable compatibility of the universe to its human

occupants is not accepted as a testimony to divine design,

however, but as a deterministic outcome of the cosmic mind. The

anthropic principle is emphasized in a quasi-official "New Age"

publication, as follows:

"Given the facts, our existence seems quite improbable-more

miraculous, perhaps, than the seven-day wonder of Genesis.

As physicist Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced

Study in Princeton, New Jersey, once remarked, 'The universe

in some sense must have known we were coming.' "I

Prior to these modern developments, Sir Julian Huxley, arguably

the leading architect of the neo-Darvanian system, had written an

influential book called Religion without Revelation, and had

become, with John Dewey, a chief founder of the American Humanist

Association. As first Director-General of UNESCO, he formulated

the principles of what he hoped would soon become the official

religion of the world.

"Thus the general philosophy of UNESCO should, it seems, be a

scientific world humanism, global in extent and evolutionary

in back-ground."9

"The unifying of traditions into a single common pool of experience,

awareness and purpose is the necessary prerequisite for

further major progress in human evolution. Accordingly,

although political unification in some sort of world

government will be required for the definitive attainment of

this state, unification in the things of the mind is not

only necessary also, but it can pave the way for other types

of unification."10

The neo-Darwinian religionists (Huxley, Dobzhansky, Dewey, etc.)

thought that evolutionary gradualism would become the basis for

the coming world humanistic religion. Evolutionists of the new

generation, on the other hand, have increasingly turned to

punctuationism-or revolutionary evolutionism-as the favored

rationale, largely because of the scientific fallacies in

gradualism increasingly exposed by creationists. This development

has facilitated the amalgamation of Western scientism with Eastern

mysticism.

"The new systems biology shows that fluctuations are crucial

in the dynamics of self-organization. They are the basis of

order in the living world: ordered structures arise from

rhythmic patterns .... The idea of fluctuations as the basis

of order ... is one of the major themes in all Taoist texts.

The mutual interdependence of all aspects of reality and the

nonlinear nature of its interconnections are emphasized

throughout Eastern mysticism.""

The author quoted, Dr. Fritjof Capra, at the University of

California (Berkeley), is one of the New Age Movement's main

scientific theoreticians, particularly in the application of

modern computerized networking and systems analysis to the study

of past and future evolution, also appropriating the unscientific

idea of "order through chaos," an ancient pagan notion

reintroduced to modern thought by Ilya Prigogine.

The incorporation of Eastern religious evolutionism into

Western evolutionary thought was greatly facilitated also by the

"Aquarian Age" emphasis of the student revolution of the sixties.

Not all of the scientific "New-Agers" accept the astrological and

occult aspects of the movement, but even these features are

becoming more prominent and intellectually acceptable with the

growth of its pantheistic dimensions. John Allegro makes the

following ominous prediction:

"It may be that, despite our rightly prized rationality,

religion still offers man his best chance of survival,. . . .

If so, it must be a faith that offers something more than a

formal assent to highly speculative dogma about the nature of

a god and his divine purpose in creation; it must promise its

adherents a living relationship that answers man's indi-

vidual needs within a formal structure of communal

worship.... Historically, the cult of the Earth Mother, the

ancient religion of the witches, has probably come nearest to

fulfilling this role, and being sexually oriented has been

especially concerned with this most disturbing and

potentially disruptive element in man's biological

constitution."12 "Gala," the religion of the Earth

Mother-Mother Nature-is essentially ancient pantheism. It is

now returning, even in "Christian lands," in all its demonic

power. When combined with the pervasive controls made

possible by modern computerized systems technology, the

global goals of evolutionary humanism seem very imminent

indeed. Jeremy Rifkin considers them to be inevitable.

"We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone else's home

and therefore obliged to make our behavior conform with a set of

preexisting cosmic rules. It is our creation now. We make the

rules. We establish the parameters of reality. We create the

world, and because we do, we no longer feel beholden to outside

forces. We no longer have to justify our behavior, for we are now

the architects of the universe. We are responsible to nothing

outside ourselves, for we are the kingdom, the power, and the

glory forever and ever."13 Rifkin, though certain this is the

world's future, is despondent. He closes his book with these

words of despair:

"Our future is secured. The cosmos wails.""

New Age evolutionism is not so new, after all, and Mother Nature

is really nothing but one of the many faces of ancient Babylon,

the "Mother of Harlots" (Revelation 17:5), the age-old religion of

God's ancient enemy, "which deceiveth the whole world" (Revelation

12:9).

Scientifically speaking, New Age evolutionism, with its absurd

ideas of order through chaos and quantum speciations, is even less

defensible than Darwinian gradualism. Biblically speaking,

evolutionism in any form is false. "For in six days the Lord made

heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is. . ." (Exodus

20:11). Instead of a wailing cosmos, "the heavens declare the

glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handiwork" (Psalm

19:1). The real "new-age" will come when Christ returns!

REFERENCES

1. Cited in "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light

of Evolution: Theodosius Dobzhansky, 1900-1975," by Francisco

Ayala, in Journal of Heredity (Vol. 68, No. 3, 1977), P. 3.

2. Ibid, p. 9

3. Theodosius Dobzhansky, "Changing Man , Science (Vol. 155,

January 27, 1967),

p. 409.

4. Jeremy Rifkin, Algeny (New York, Viking Press, 1983), p. 188.

5. Ibid, p. 195.

6. George Wald, as reported in "A Knowing Universe Seeking to be

Known," by Districk

E. Thomsen, Science News (Vol. 123- February 19, 1983), p.

124.

7. George Gale, "The Anthropic Principle," Scientific American

(Vol. 245, DecerTiber 1981), p. 154.

8. Judith Hooper, "Perfect Timing," New Age Journal (Vol. 11,

D(2cernber 1985), P. 18.

9. Julian Huxley, "A New World Vision," The Humanist (Vol.

XXXIX, Mdrch/April 1979),

p. 35.

10. Ibid. This paper was kept "in-house" by UNESCO for about 30

years, before The Humanist was allowed to publish it.

11. Fritjof Capra, "The Dance of Life," Science Digest (Vol. 90,

April 1982), p. 33.

12. John M. Allegro, "Divine Discontent," Americari Atheist (Vol.

28, September 1986),

p. 30.

13. Jeremy Rifkin, op cit, p. 244.

14. Ibid, p. 255.