Expert: Justin Choo - 5/16/2006

Question
I'm doing a paper for school about Intelligent Design and part of my research is to ask different religions what they think about evolution.  I wanted to ask

What do buddhists believe about evolution?
If you had a child that asked you how old the universe was, how would you respond?

Thanks
    jacob

Answer
Hi Jacob,

Thank you for asking me.

What is "Intelligent Design" in the first place?  Buddhists do not "believe" in anything.  The Buddha advised his followers not to believe in anything without investigation and analyzes. In other words, we do not believe blindly, just because some "gurus", "saints", "holy books" or anyone for that matter said so.  The Buddha's explaination of the universe 2500 years ago can be verified by modern scientific knowledge today. Please remember when the Buddha explained during his time, modern science did not yet exist.  His knowledge was based on his supreme cultivation of his mind power; being able to penetrate into the "unknown" through the power of his mind; not by using the limited 5 sense faculties.  His first explaination of the universe was that it was everchanging and not permanent.  The universe is in perpetual motion and perpetual change.  Nothing in this world is static and permanent.  The universe is also subject to this evolution.  There are 4 stages in the evolution of the universe.  The state of formation, the state of evolution, the state of degeneration, and the state of destruction.  Following the state of destruction, the state of formation begins again.  Thus goes the cycle of creation, evolution, degeneration and destruction.  This goes on ad infinitum.  The beginning and end of this process cannot be known, as there is no beginning and no end.  This is the natural phenomenon of existence.  The vastness of the universe has no limit, and the number of universes cannot be known.  Science today has proven the Buddha's explaination of the universe.

"If you had a child that asked you how old the universe was, how would you respond?"
If you mean "child" as a very young person, then my answer would be "very very old".
If he is an intelligent adult, then based on the Buddha's explaination and modern science, he will realize that the question is very naive.

Smile from justinchoo :-)