Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge
There is no reason to
suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a
beginning is really due to the poverty of our thoughts.’ - Bertrand Russell
The origin of life has been a subject
of speculation in all known cultures. In the modern era, this question has been
considered in terms of a scientific framework. Lord Buddha’s’ explanation of
the origin of the Universe, compatible with the modern scientific explanation.
Buddha described the origin of the Universe and life in the Aganna Sutta 2500
years ago. According to Buddha’s explanation the universe being destroyed and
then re-evolving into its present form over a period of millions of years. The
Buddha did not believe in the existence of a supreme god or creator of the
universe. The Lord Buddha presented a model of cosmology wherein the universe
expands and contracts over extremely long periods of time, this description has
been found by some to be consistent with the expanding universe model and Big
Bang. The Buddha explained that the universe expands outward, reaches a
stabilizing point, and then reverts its motion back toward a central point
resulting in its destruction, this process again to be repeated infinitely.
The Big Bang Theory
Sir Fred Hoyle – a renowned British
astronomer coined the term “Big Bang. Big Bang Theory explains the beginning of
the universe. The big bang theory proposes that the universe was once extremely
compact, dense, and hot. Some original event, a cosmic explosion called the big
bang, occurred about 13.7 billion years ago, and the universe has since been
expanding and cooling. The theory is based on the mathematical equations, known
as the field equations, of the general theory of relativity set forth in 1915
by Albert Einstein.
The Aggañña Sutta, found in the Pali
Canon, in which the Buddha, speaking to the monk Vasettha, a former Brahmin,
states the following:
“Now there comes a time, Vasettha, when
after a long period of time this world expands.
In this stanza the term world has a
wider understanding. Here the Buddha refers to the Universe. The Buddha said
“Space has no end, and there are endless numbers of worlds.” This means that
the universe has no limit, and has an endless number of stars and planets.
The big bang was initially suggested
because it explains why distant galaxies are traveling away from us at great
speeds. The theory also predicts the existence of cosmic background radiation.
The Big Bang Theory received its strongest confirmation when this radiation was
discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who later won the Nobel
Prize for this discovery.
Origin of Species
Aggañña Sutta is in complete agreement
with scientific evolution. The Aggañña Sutta presents water as pre-existent to
earthlike planets, with the planet forming with water and the life moving from
the water onto the earth. The first life formed on the surface of the water and
again, over countless millions of years, evolved from simple into complex
organisms. . According to Buddhism, world systems always appear and disappear
in the universe.
The Buddha further says, there comes a
time, Vasettha, when, after the lapse of a long, long period, this world died.
And when this happens, beings have mostly been reborn into the Realm of
Radiance [as devas]; and there they dwell, made of mind, feeding on rapture,
self-luminous, traversing the air, continuing in glory; and thus they remain
for a long, long period of time. There comes also a time, Vasettha, when sooner
or later this world begins to re-evolve. When this happens, beings who had
deceased from the World of Radiance usually come to life as humans…now at that
time, all had become one world of water, dark, and of darkness that makes
blind. No moon nor sun appeared, no stars were seen, nor constellations,
neither was night manifest nor day, neither months nor half-months, neither
years nor seasons, neither female nor male.
Beings were reckoned just as beings
only. And to those beings, Vasettha, sooner or later after a long time, earth
with its savours was spread out in the waters, even as a scum forms on the
surface of boiled milky rice that is cooling, so did the earth appear.”
“Now there comes a time, Vasettha, when
after a long period of time this world expands. When the world expands beings
for the most part fall from the realm of Radiance and come here; and they exist
made of mind, feeding on joy, self-luminous, moving through the air, constantly
beautiful; thus they remain for a long, long time. Now at that time, all had
become one world of water dark, and of darkness that makes blind. No moon nor
sun appeared no stars were seen, nor constellations, neither was night manifest
nor day, neither months nor half-months, neither years nor seasons, neither
female nor male.
Beings were reckoned just as beings
only. And to those beings, Vasettha, sooner or later after a long time, earth
with its savors was spread out in the waters. Even as a scum forms on the
surface of boiled milky rice that is cooling, so did the earth appear. ~
The “beings” that The Buddha he
described in this sutra are attached to an earth like planet, get reborn there,
and remain there for the duration of the life. As a result of this, physical
characteristics change and evolutionary changes take place. This is could be
interpreted as a form of evolution.
Modern science says that some millions
of years ago, life originated in the ocean which evolved from simple into
complex organisms. All these processes are without beginning or end, and are
set in motion by natural causes. World came into existence by nature and that
nature is not an intelligent force.
For centuries the origin of Life was
thought to be the result of Abiogenesis .The doctrine of Spontaneous Generation
holds that organic life could and does arise from inorganic matter. Louis
Pasteur disproved Spontaneous Generation. Buddhism never claimed that the
world, life, sun, moon, stars, wind, water, days and nights were created by a
powerful god.
The Theory of Evolution
Darwin believed all the life on Earth
developed gradually over millions of years from a few common ancestors.
Darwin’s general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and
stresses a purely naturalistic (undirected) “descent with modification”. That
is, complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over
time. In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism’s
genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival
— a process known as “natural selection.”
These beneficial mutations are passed
on to the next generation.
Primordial Soup Theory
Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin developed
one of the first modern theories about the origin of life on Earth. The theory
which in 1924 made Oparin famous concerns abiogenesis, the spontaneous
generation of life from non-living chemical substances. Oparin believed that
conditions on primitive Earth were different to those of the present. He
suggested that the ancient seas were like a ‘primeval soup’ which contained
many organic compounds. These were created when sunlight, a virtually limitless
source of energy, reacted with chemicals in the water. These organic compounds
formed the basis of life. They combined, becoming increasingly complex, until
living cells were formed. The Primordial Soup Theory suggest that life began in
a pond or ocean as a result of the combination of chemicals from the atmosphere
and some form of energy to make amino acids, the building blocks of proteins,
which would then evolve into all the species. The Primordial Soup Theory states
that Life began in a warm pond/ocean from a combination of chemicals that forms
amino acids, which then make proteins. This is supposed to happen at least 3.8
billion to 3.55 billion years ago.
Definition of life
Living beings are protein-made bodies
formed by one or more cells that communicate with the environment through
information transfer carried out by electric impulses or chemical substances,
and capable of morpholigical evolution and metabolism, growth and reproduction.
Life is a chemical system able to
replicate itself through autocatalysis and to make mistakes that gradually
increase the efficiency of the autocatalysis.
DNA and Life
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the
hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell
in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus.
DNA is the genetic material of all cells, containing coded information about
cellular molecules and processes. DNA consists of two polynucleotide strands
twisted around each other in a double helix.
Dr. Ponnamperuma’s Research
Dr.Cyril Ponnamperuma, an eminent researcher at the
University of Maryland, whose career focused on explorations into the origin of
life and the “primordial soup” that contained the precursors of
life.
Dr. Ponnamperuma began to delve into this
primordial soup and set up variations of Miller and Urey’s original experiment.
The classic experiment was conducted in
1953 by Dr. Harold C. Urey and Dr. Stanley L. Miller. They assumed the early
atmosphere was rich in hydrogen, as that is the most abundant element in the
universe. And so they mixed methane and ammonia, which contain hydrogen atoms,
with molecular hydrogen and water vapor in a flask. They introduced a
continuous electric spark, to provide the energy that might have come from
lightning. Out of the resulting chemical reactions came a residue of more
complex molecules, including some amino acids. These molecules collected in the
water in a lower flask, which simulated the early oceans, and suggested what
might have been the hypothetical primordial soup in which living molecules came
together.
Having changed the proportions of the
elements from the original Miller-Urey specifications slightly, Ponnamperuma
and his team sent first high-energy electrons, then ultraviolet light through
the mixture, attempting to recreate the original conditions of the earth before
life. They succeeded in creating large amounts of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),
an amino acid that fuels cells. In later experiments with the same concoction
of primordial soup, the team was able to create the nucleotides that make up
nucleic acid—the building blocks of DNA and ribonucleic acid (RNA).
Theory of Panspermia
Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe – Professor
of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy, School of Mathematics, Cardiff
University, UK asserted:
“Life did not start here on earth but
in space.
Theory known as panspermia- the science
that teaches earth and other planets in the universe may have been seeded for
life by microorganisms carrying comets. Life did not start in a primordial soup
spontaneously here on earth as believed earlier but it started 4000 million
years ago on comets and traveled through space to earth and countless other
planets. He played a key role in establishing a connection between astronomy
and biology. His work in the 1980′s showed for the first time that cosmic dust
had properties that resembled the properties of living material and their
degradation products. The concept of life being a cosmic phenomenon supported
by space science, geology and biology. In this context life on Earth resulted
from the introduction of bacteria from comets, and the subsequent evolution of
life required the continuing input of genes from comets. Viable bacteria are of
cosmic origin. They were present already in the material from which the solar
system condensed and their number was then topped up substantially by
replication in cometary material. Thus the impacts of cometary material would
have brought them to Earth.The idea of life being a cosmic phenomenon is fully
in tune with Buddhist as well as Vedic philosophy.
Conclusion
Buddhism teaches that every man in the
universe is his own lord, controls his own destiny, and is not controlled by
any other man or any supernatural God. In Malunkyaputta’s story the Buddha explained
the debate of origin of the universe is a waste of time.
According to the Lord Buddha man’s
instantaneous problem is his own suffering and his task is to liberate himself
from the Sansara. To exemplify this, the Buddha explains the tale of a man who
was shot by a poisoned arrow. This unwise man refused to have the arrow removed
until he was told who shot the arrow, what he looks like, his cast , names of
his parents ,the kind of wood the arrow was made of and so forth. The Buddha
said that before the man could achieve complete information, he would be dead.
Likewise, our immediate mission is to be enlightened, not to speculate about
the metaphysical.
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