Big Think

Question: What is your position on intelligent design and evolution?

Deepak Chopra:    I think those words have been hijacked by fundamentalists.  So when people say “intelligent design”, they think in terms of Christian theology.  When people say “evolution,” they think strictly in terms of random mutations and natural selection. 

And in a sense, therefore, both those terms are misleading.  I think for evolution includes, among other things, random mutations and natural selection.  But in evolution we also find quantum leaps of creativity.  And for me, therefore, evolution, in order to be understood, has to include the creative process which implies that consciousness is an inherent property of nature; that our consciousness is not just something that expresses itself through the human nervous system, but it’s all pervasive.  It transcends space and time. 

Therefore I think that none of the theories of intelligent design or evolution address the big picture.  And our understanding of evolution is in evolution at the moment.

Recorded on: Aug 17, 2007