Namaste Awaiting,
thank you for the post.
well... Darwinism is rather old and, as we know, a bit incomplete. i take from this term that you are asking about the Modern Synthesis of Evolution, correct?
so... bearing that in mind... here's my view
Buddhism, as a whole, in my view, has no issues with the Modern Synthesis of evolution nor its' postulates. Evolution of the physical is implicit in the Buddhist teachings, especially when we have a deep understanding of impermenance and the selfless nature of phenomena.
there are two ways that we can approach this subject, as such, i shall adopt the Buddhist view and leave aside the science for the nonce.
within the context of Buddhism mental states or consciouness preceed form, however, we need to understand that this is a way of speaking, not a statement of reality... the Relative, as it were. Interdependent Co-Arising and all of that.
in any event... as consciousness, unbound, became aware of its isolation, the feelings of seperation and loneliness (see the creation myths of Sanatana Dharma for a more indepth discussion of this) were experienced. as a consequence of feeling seperate and alone, the consciousness began the process of craving which led to the formation of the crude and progressively more advanced physical forms. the highest of which is humanity, as it were. for example, an insect can only experience a limited amount of sensations, a mammal can experience a broader array whilst the human has the faculties to experience the full array. so.. in the religious sense, our craving consciousness has continually developed the physical forms so that the consciousness could have access to progressively more experience.
the speaking of Bodies as illusions and not really existing is actually a technical term within Buddhism. what they mean to indicate is that these physical forms, in the case, bodies, do not exist in the way that we normally perceive them to be existing, as independent, self-sufficient entities that exist from their own side. thus, bodies and fossils exist in a relative way, not an absolute way.
HH the Dalai Lama once remarked that if a finding of science were to contradict a Buddhist teaching, we, as Buddhists, would be obligated to drop our teaching and adopt the scientific view towards the object.
