Page 152 - Islam and Buddhism

Islam and Buddhism

between Buddhism and evolution:

Buddhism. . . is quite happy with
the theory of evolution. In fact,
Buddhist philosophy actually re-
quires evolution to take place—
all things are seen as being
transient, constantly becoming,
existing for a while, and then
fading. The idea of unchang-
ing species would not be
compatible with Buddhist
ontology. 6
For this reason,
Darwinists have felt
sympathetic toward

Buddhism and pro-
moted it ever since the
19th century.
The first to express
A carica-
Darwinist admiration for ture of
Thomas H.
Buddhism was Thomas H. Huxley
Huxley
who, after Darwin himself pro-
posed his theory, played the next
most important role in the

spread of Darwinism. Huxley
appeared on the scene as
Darwin's most passionate sup-
porter and became known as
"Darwin's bulldog." His de-
bates with scientists and

150