Q&A: The Soul, Evolution, and What Lies Between
The Soul, Evolution, and What Lies Between
Question
Hello Rabbi, and have a good week,
Following an argument with a materialist…
- How, in your opinion, does the appearance of the soul fit into evolution? Was it a process of divine choice and will at a certain moment for a certain human species (Homo sapiens), or a natural evolutionary process, in which case the various human types like Homo habilis / Homo erectus / Neanderthal would also have had it?
- The practical implication is whether it is passed on genetically from the parents in a natural way (in which case it is presumably physical?), or whether it is some Platonic dualistic thing that enters from above through a special divine choice each time, at some moment in the coming-into-being of a human being? (Something like individual providence?)
- Do you think there is another, additional possibility for explaining the appearance of the dualistic soul — today and then?
Thank you very much!
Answer
It is unlikely that this is part of the evolutionary process, because if so the soul would be part of our biology. Evolution describes our biological development. Of course, it is possible that the Holy One, blessed be He, introduced souls at different levels throughout the process.
Discussion on Answer
Throughout the evolutionary process, until the soul entered our bodies, there was involvement. In creation too there was involvement. This has nothing to do with the question of whether events around us today occur through the Holy One, blessed be He, or not.
Yes indeed, that is exactly the question.
How does a newborn baby have a soul?
Does it pass from the parents through genes? Or by the Holy One, blessed be He?
What is your view on the matter?
I have no idea. It doesn’t seem to me that this is only a matter of genes and heredity, as I wrote.
It is important to me to clarify that the assumption that God causes the soul implies, regarding every soul and every human birth, a personal and individual act. That is why I wrote that there is a revelation every 3 minutes, because every 3 minutes a child is born.
At the base of my question stands the assumption that if God is the source of the soul, then everything is from God and it is personal and volitional, not automatic, physical, and natural (at least as long as we do not accept the Buddhist doctrine of reincarnation).
That is one possibility. The other is that there are laws of nature governing the entry of souls into prepared bodies. Why is it important that the Holy One, blessed be He, acts volitionally rather than automatically?
Okay. But is there no likelihood?
If the claim is that the question of the soul’s origin is beyond the laws of physics and biology, is there a plausible case for personal divine immanence in every process of birth?
That does not mean that we will certainly replace the Western Wall with the Wellsprings of Salvation as the place of divine revelation, but is there some degree of plausibility to some particular claim here, in your opinion?
Sent late
It matters because if the claim is that we live in a world in which there is a rational inertia of divine planning, and not immanent revelation operating in the world, based on the claim that the reality we see does not change and we do not see revelation, then the divine immanence of granting a soul would undermine that assumption; or alternatively, the reality lacking immanence would undermine the assumption of a dualistic soul.
(That is basically the dead end I reached in my discussion with him.)
Indeed. Both possibilities exist, and each has the conclusions that follow from it.
What does “throughout the process” mean? Because from your words one could understand that there is divine intervention in creation almost every 3 minutes, as a kind of “miracle” (anti-physical, anti-natural) of a soul in a body. Does that fit with the idea of the natural functioning of a world devoid of divine immanence (and awash in rational inertia)?