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