The Buddha taught about dependent origination. Is this a precursor to evolutionary theory?

Question

According to the Buddha, "All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else."

This doctrine of dependent origination was a component of the Buddha's enlightenment. It's an oversimplification, but it has been formulated as "With condition A, B will occur. Without condition A, B will not occur."

This sounds like an early opening to the study of conditions that lead to change, and by extrapolation, evolutionary processes.

What role could Buddhism play in helping those who seek a spiritual life but feel pushed away by those who insist on creationist interpretations of the Bible? Is there rationality in Buddhism that Christianity lacks?

Answer 1

Interestingly enough if you check into exactly who Guatama Buddha was in his life time you will find that among other things he was a very well educated scientific thinker and observer .
He also wrote in Dharma-Parda:
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. It is founded upon our thoughts. It is made up of our thoughts."

This concept is the most senior in relation to ANY materialistic theories.

Also if you really research what Darwin actually wrote about his research and theories you will find that even he was simply putting forward a possible theory and knew he did not have absolute proof.
He also had unanswered questions.

The other interesting point is that during Darwins lifetime the "genetic theory" boys and those with vested interests, (who paid them), were looking for a way to justify slavery of the blacks or ***** races and used his theories to degrade these people as "lower" on the "evolutionary" chain. i.e. closer to monkeys. (smaller brains....etc)
So his "theories" of man from monkey were broadly "supported" and promoted as scientific fact.
Darwin actually never proved this scientifically, it was speculation only.

There is an observable interrelationship to existence. There is cause and effect. There are viewpoints and dimension points
and communication between these.
This is what Buddha observed.

Survival is the apparent primary common denominator of all life forms, plants, insects, fish, animals, homo sapiens....
Given this you can extrapolate certain appearances and disappearances of certain life forms, which Darwin did observe.
But man from monkey............. even Darwin knew it was a bit of a stretch........ to say the least.

The fundemental knowledge of life that we call Buddhism here in the West is part of a long history of religious sacred lore that goes back more than 10,000 years. This is about our true spiritual nature and our relationship to the Material Universe.

If you are looking for spiritual answers in terms of material universe rationalization you are going down the wrong road no matter what "religion" you look into.
All religious philosophy, Messiahs (teachers, messengers) try to teach us the fact that mankind , life itself... is something more than the material universe.

Answer 2

It sounds more like Newton's third law.

I'd say Buddhism is a good alternative to Christianity for people who feel the need to be told how to live.

Answer 3

It seems like it's based more on thought than dogma, unlike the theists faiths and that can only be a good thing.

Answer 4

yes it can be proved by scientific way .

and more like philosophy.