Hinduism, Science and Christianity
by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
The Hindu scriptures state that the physical
universe came into existence because of a corruption of a part of God, the eternal
spiritual universe. And that the root of the physical universe is the [now]
corrupted spiritual universe. Hindus believe that the finite physical universe is a part of God
who is infinite. The Hindu scriptures teach that the physical universe
was to some extent corrupt from its origins, but that it is basically
good. Science teaches us that death and corruption are a part of the
evolution of live on earth and that it began around four billion
years ago.
In radical contrast, the Judeo-Christian-Islamic scriptures (old testament)
state that corruption entered the universe when the first human being ("Adam")
sinned in the "Garden of Eden." And that after Adam sinned, he and his wife (Eve),
who had sinned with him, were cast out of the Garden of Eden. And that after they left the Garden
they discovered that their sin had caused the "originally pure creation" to become
corrupted.
Romans 5:12-19 states that Adam's sin caused the whole creation to fall
into "the bondage to corruption." The scripture Genesis 3:18 says that
one of the effects of this man-made corruption is that some of the
plants became weeds and produced thorns and thistles. Romans 5:12
says that after the creation fell into the bondage to corruption
humans began to experience the debilitating effects of aging and
then eventually died. And the scripture Wisdom 1:13 says there
was no death before Adam sinned. According to this Wisdom scripture
there were no corpses for animals to eat until after
the creation fell into the bondage to corruption, as another
scripture (Isaiah 11:7) alludes to.
In radical contrast, science teaches us that the fossil evidence
shows that weeds, including weeds with thorns, have been around for at least 300,000,000
years and that the first Homo species developed around 2.3 million
years ago. And that modern humans, whom we are all descendants of, came into existence around
200,000 years ago. Weeds with thistles and thorns were on
earth for a long, long time before the first humans lived
on earth, so they could not have caused weeds to come
into existence, as stated in the Bible.
Science teaches that before humans existed there were
complex land animals that had lived on earth for over
300,000,000 years - and that they had life cycles.
They would be born, live a short while and then die.
There were animals that were carnivorous. There were
deceases. There were mass extinctions. There was a lot
of suffering. The earth was not pure or without death
and corruption. It was a dog eat dog world of death
and corruption for three hundred million years for
land animals, and even two hundred million years
longer for sea creature. And this was occurring
for a long, long time before the first humans ("Adam and Eve")
came into existence. Therefore, Adam's "original sin"
could not have caused this to occur, as stated in
Bible scriptures.
Science has revealed that the Hindu scriptures are correct
about when death and corruption entered the world and that
Bible scriptures are incorrect. Adam's sin did not cause the
world to fall into the bondage to corruption. Death and
corruption were here a long, long time before the first
humans came forth on earth through the evolutionary process.
When the U.S. Catholic Bishops wrote about the scriptures
that form the thesis of the Bible they wrote: "The whole
Bible is spanned by the narrative of the first creation (Gn 1:3)
and the vision of a restored creation at the end of history" -
RV. 21:1-4. When referring to the mission of Jesus Christ,
his mission associated with the thesis of the Bible, the
Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church says: "Jesus came
to restore creation to the purity of its origins" - CCC, n. 2336.
A Bible scripture states that "the creation itself", will
be "delivered from its bondage to corruption" - Romans 8:21.
Let us examine the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church
that describe the "original purity of the creation."
St. Symeon wrote: "Neither Eve nor Paradise were yet created,
but the whole world had been brought into being by God as one
thing, as a kind of paradise, at once incorruptible yet
material and perceptible."
St. John of Damascus wrote: "The creation of all things is due to
God, but corruption came in afterwards due to our wickedness...For
God did not make death, neither does He take delight in the destruction
of living things" (Wisdom 1:13). But death is the work rather of man,
that is, its origin is in Adam's transgression."
St. Ignatius Brianchaninov wrote: "Plants were not subjected
either to decay or to diseases; both decay and diseases and the
weeds themselves, appeared after the alteration of the earth
following the fall of man."
St. Basil the Great wrote: "...it is customary for vultures
to feed on corpses, but since there were not yet corpses, nor
yet their stench, so there was not yet such food for vultures.
But all followed the diet of swans and all grazed the meadows...
the wild beasts...were not yet carnivores...such was the first creation,
and such will be the restoration after this."
In respect to the
promised "restoration" a scripture says: "The lion shall eat straw
like the ox." - Isaiah 11:7
The creation was never pure, so it can not be "restored to the
purity of its origin."
In an Italian newspaper interview that occurred on Feb. 17, 2011, Reverend Matthew Fox, a
world renowned Episcopal ecotheologian and former Roman Catholic priest, contradicted the central,
foundational dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, he said: "Not original sin, not fallen
humanity, wounded and then redeemed by Jesus Christ. But a panentheistic (in everything
and in everybody), creative God. Death as natural factor, part of the vital cycle and
not a consequence of Adam's sin."
Thomas Berry, the late Catholic priest and world-renowned ecotheologian; who
was a colleague of Reverend Matthew Fox, claimed that the Christian story is no
longer the story of the Earth or the integral story of humankind. Evidently,
Berry believed that the Roman Catholic Church should now be disestablished and
its members supplanted into a new post-Christian church. This is what I believe
should and will occur.
Al Gore wrote in his book Earth In The Balance: "The religious ethic of
stewardship is indeed harder to accept if one believes the world is in danger
of being destroyed - by either God or humankind. This point was made by the
Catholic theologian, Teilhard de Chardin when he said, 'The fate of mankind,
as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future.'
Armed with such a faith, we might find it possible to resanctify the earth."
The old and new testament scriptures, together, teach that because of
one man's disobedience (Adam's disobedience) the creation fell into
the bondage to corruption and that because of one man's obedience (Jesus Christ's obedience)
the creation will be restored to the purity of its origins.
The scriptures teach, in the book of Revelations and in other
bible books, that after Jesus Christ returns to earth, the wicked
will be sent to Hell to burn/suffer, body and soul, for eternity. And
that Christians will then reach a sinless realm of holiness, enter
into the Garden of Eden and then eat from the Tree of Life. A scripture
calls this the "revealing of the Sons of God." This is when, according
to scripture, "the creation itself also will be set free from its bondage
to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." - Romans 8: 21
Romans 8:19-21 says: "For the anxious longing of the creation
waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. (20) For the creation
was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who
subjected it, in hope (21) that the creation itself also will be set
free from its bondage to corruption into the freedom of the glory
of the children of God."
Scientific discovery has revealed that these Bible scripture
passages, along with the scripture passage that says "the earth
is standing still and shall not be moved," are untruthful or lies.
The corruption of the creation that Adam's "original sin" supposedly
caused did not actually happen, so the creation can not (in this context)
"be set free from its bondage to corruption." Hindu scriptures state
that if the physical universe was to be set free from corruption it
would cease to exist, and that all that would exist after the end
of the physical universe would be the original pure spiritual
universe. In other words, the spiritual root of the physical
universe would be restored to its pure state of existence.
Science has proven that the Bible scriptures' promise to Christians of an
earthly physical paradise is a lie and that it is very deceptive. The
Hindu scriptures teach that we abandoned our heavenly spiritual home
and that is why we are here. And the Hindu scriptures teach that
there is a way for all of us to return to our heavenly spiritual
home. Some Hindu saints have taught that Jesus Christ was an
enlightened master and that he is able to lead his followers,
those who are not deceived by false Christian doctrines, back
to their heavenly spiritual home. I am following Jesus to our
heavenly spiritual home.
Modern-day science has discovered through human DNA research that
all people living on earth today are descended from a group of
ancient African people who lived around 200,000 years ago. And
that this group was made up of no less than 10,000 people.
Science has discovered that we are
not descendants of a single
couple (or "Adam and Eve"), there are too many genetic variables
in our DNA to be descendants of a single couple. So the Bible
scripture that states that we are all descendants of "Adam
and Eve" who lived together in the "Garden of Eden" is not true.
There was a papal encyclical called Humani Generic in 1950, which addressed evolution specifically:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humani_generis#Evolution
couple
It says that:
- Adam was a real person
- he committed original sin
- no human lived after Adam who wasn't directly descended from him
- Adam was an individual and must not be taken to mean a number of human
ancestors in an allegorical sense
- if scientific evolutionary evidence contradicts any of this the Catholics are not permitted
to believe in the truth revealing evolutionary discovery.
The Bible scriptures teach that because an ancestor of ours (Adam)
committed a sin that therefore everyone born into this world is
guilty of his sin, a sin that we did not commit. And that Adam's sin
was so grave that everyone needs to accept Jesus Christ's "penal substitution,
sacrifice on the cross" in order to receive forgiveness for a sin
that we did not commit. And that if we do not do so we will burn,
body and soul, in Hell forever. Many children are indoctrinated
into this believe. They are told to believe in Christian
doctrines that radically contradict scientific truth or
"burn in Hell forever." This defies reason and is psychological torture.
The Vatican signed an United Nations treaty against torture.
It is already in trouble with the UN over the torture
associated with the child sex abuse cover up. I recommend
that the UN bring the Vatican to justice over its anti-science,
psychological torture [crime] against childern and adults.
If people are selective in respect to which Bible
scriptures they choose to believe they can find a
loving God (the true God) in the scriptures. They can
then love, serve and become one with the true God.
However, some of the Bible scriptures make "God" into an
evil monster who throws people who believe in the truth (including
modern-day people who believe what science says) into Hell forever.
This is why Christianity has such a radicall
evil history.
People who serve an evil God do evil things to people,
animals and the Earth's life supporting ecosystem.
William Shannon (biographer of Catholic monk and mystic Thomas Merton) said: This is
a typical patriarchal notion of God. He is the God of Noah who sees people deep in sin,
repents that He made them and resolves to destroy them. He is the God of the desert
who sends snakes to bite His people because they murmured against Him. He is
the God of David who practically decimates a people. He is the God who exacts the
last drop of blood from His Son, so that His just anger, evoked by sin, may be
appeased. This God whose moods alternate between graciousness and fierce anger...
This God does not exist. This is not the God whom Jesus Christ reveals to us.
This is not the God whom Jesus called "Abba."
Putting an end to the evil traditional Christian doctrines of
substitutionary atonement (the cross) and eternal Hell: The next
six paragraphs are excerpts about this topic. They are from Lighthouse
Trails
articles.
The contemplative prayer movement and the new emerging spirituality continue
to wreak havoc on the body of Christ and on the preaching of the Gospel to
the lost. For eight years, Lighthouse Trails has shown through one report
after the next the teachings by many that outright or indirectly deny the
substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ (the basic essence of the salvation
for the believer). And yet today many Christian leaders, professors, and
pastors continue to promote atonement deniers or those who resonate with them.
Brian McLaren is of the emerging church movement and was named one of the
top 25 most influential Evangelicals in America today by TIME magazine (Feb. 7, 2005).
In an interview, Brian McLaren said: "[T]his is one of the huge problems with
the traditional understanding of hell, because if
the Cross is in line with Jesus' teaching, then I won't say the only and I
certainly won't say ... or even the primary or a
primary meaning of the Cross ... is that the Kingdom of God doesn't
come like the kingdoms of this world by inflicting violence and coercing
people. But that the kingdom of God comes thru suffering and willing
voluntary sacrifice right? But in an ironic way the doctrine of hell
basically says no, that's not really true. At the end God get's his way
thru coercion and violence and intimidation and uh domination just like
every other kingdom does. The Cross isn't the center then, the Cross is almost
a distraction and false advertising for God."
McLaren wrote: And I heard one well-known Christian leader, who I won't mention
his name, just to protect his reputation. Cause some people would use this against
him. But I heard him say it like this: The traditional understanding says that
God asks of us something that God is incapable of Himself. God asks us to
forgive people. But God is incapable of forgiving. God can't forgive
unless He punishes somebody in place of the person He was going to forgive.
God doesn't say things to you...Forgive your wife, and then go kick the dog to
vent your anger. God asks you to actually forgive. And there's a certain
sense that, a common understanding of the atonement presents a God
who is incapable of forgiving. Unless He kicks somebody else.
Liberal theologian and pastor of the Riverside Church in New York City, Harry
Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), believed that the doctrine of the atonement, where "Jesus
suffered as a substitute for us" because of our sins, is a "precivilized barbarity.
Fosdick wrote: Were you to talk to that fundamentalist preacher,
he doubtless would insist that you must believe in the "substitutionary" theory
of atonement... namely, that Jesus suffered as a substitute for us the punishment
due us for our sins. But can you imagine a modern courtroom in a civilized
country where an innocent man would be deliberately punished for another man's crime? ...
[S]ubstitutionary atonement ... came a long way down in history in many a
penal system. But now it is a precivilized barbarity; no secular court
would tolerate the idea for a moment; only in certain belated theologies
is it retained as an explanation of our Lord's death ... Christ's sacrificial
life and death are too sacred to be so misrepresented.
Fosdick considered the idea that God would actually send
His Son to die on a Cross to take our place to be the basis for a
violent and bloody religion. He rejected the biblical message of
an atonement and substitutionary sacrifice.
In a convocation in honor of their former pastor, Harry Fosdick, two of the
emerging church's most influential teachers were there as speakers in honor
of Fosdick - Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo.
We are being moved, as a community, beyond theories about atonement, to enter
into atonement itself, or at-one-ment ... the new reality and new relationship of
oneness with God which Christ incarnated (in life, cross, and resurrection)
and into which we are all invited "for all time." (Karen Ward, emerging
church leader, Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Churches, Webber, p. 163
In the United States of America there are a lot of
Christians who can not believe in evolution because it proves
that their religion is false or fundamentally deceptive. This
causes them to be very disrespectful of scientists.
Our climate scientists are warning the world that the earth's
climate is warming and that this is a serious global crisis. And
that the United States and China are the biggest contributors to
this crisis and that the people of these two nations, along with
the people of many other nations, need to radically change
their life styles in order to solve this crisis problem.
One big obstacle that stands in the way of solving this
problem is associated with the fact that many Christians in
America do not believe in evolution and are therefore very distrustful
of scientists. Therefore many of these multitudes of U.S. Christians
do not believe scientists when they present the scientific true about the global
warming crisis. These multitudes of anti-science Christians
pose a great threat to the survival of the human race
and all life on earth
