Some explanatory proposals about evolution have been brought forward.

The classic explanation of traditional Christianity is the creationist or fixist one, according to which humans, like other animals, are as they always have been, without any change. This view believes in a creator God, who would have originated the world as we see it today. No living being “comes” from any other, as there is no evolution. Nobody in the scientific community takes this theory seriously, as the evidence for biological evolution is indisputable.

The theory that prevails in the scientific community states that species evolved from other species, and the species that exist today probably did not exist at the beginning of the world, and that evolution takes place by a series of random genetic mutations and natural selection. The most scathing criticism of this official theory refers to the complexity of certain organs, such as the eyes of vertebrates, and systems, such as blood clotting. It is almost inconceivable that structures like this could have arisen by chance.

A third possibility seeks to reconcile the two previous ones, the theory of Intelligent Design. Proponents of Intelligent Design stress the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of explaining structures as complex as the human eye by means of random mutations and natural selection alone. They claim that complex structures and organs show a creative integration of many different components because they are intelligently designed. They leave the question of the designer open, but the obvious answer is God.

The major criticism of this theory is that things did not always work out. It is believed that more than 90% of the species that appeared on Earth have become extinct. Thus, this designer would not be as intelligent as is believed.

A fourth hypothesis presents itself: neither chance nor an external intelligence. Living organisms can have inner creativity, as human beings do. New ideas arise, nobody knows how or why. The human being has an inherent creativity, and all living organisms can also have an inherent creativity that manifests itself to a greater or lesser extent. According to this hypothesis, machines require external designers, organisms do not.

The theory of inner creativity goes back to very ancient thinkers like Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), the grandfather of Charles Darwin. He said that God endowed life or nature with an inherent creative capacity that later manifested itself without.

The need for divine guidance or intervention. Living beings were capable of improving themselves, and the results of the parents' efforts were inherited by their descendants.

Another proponent of this theory was Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829). According to him, animals acquired new habits in response to their environment and their adaptations were transmitted to their descendants. An inherent power of life produced more and more complex organisms, moving them up the animal scale.

The theory of creativity inherent in living organisms does not hold up in light of spiritist postulates. Even because creativity, intelligence and will are attributes not of the living organism, but of the spiritual principle, which is the seat of all this.

Accepting that the spiritual principle, in the evolutionary phase of plants and animals, and even in the human phase, is capable of solving problems as complex as those arising from its survival and growing specialization is illogical.

The solution to most of these evolutionary obstacles involves changes in the structure of DNA, located in chromosomes, in the nucleus of cells. They are structures that are inaccessible to the most gifted minds, let alone the intelligent principle that does not even have a mind for most of its evolution.

Let us look at an example when we look at HIV's acquired resistance to antivirals.

Let us imagine that a new antiviral drug is given to a certain patient. The medicine, after reaching the intimacy of the cell, will change the environment where the viruses are found. Thus, we will have a new environment, as that chemical substance never existed in the cell before.

A certain genetic change will be required so that the virus is not destroyed by the drug; it needs to acquire drug resistance. At the genetic level, a mutation needs to occur. Mutation consists of a set of specific changes in the sequence of the gene molecule.

For this to happen, the virus would have to recognize that the environment has changed, identify the necessary change to adapt to the new conditions and then cause the correct change in the DNA molecule, that is, promote a mutation. Moreover, the virus would have to do this in an environment it has never experienced before.

Even if it were possible to imagine the occurrence of mutations driven by a possible creativity of the organism in the case of vital resistance to drugs, evolutionary changes of a more complex organ (such as the brain or eye) would require practically a miracle.

The fifth proposal is spiritist. Without denying the proposal of official science, according to which evolution takes place through mutations and natural selection, Spiritism goes further and informs that the mutations that gave rise to new species and the gradual improvement of living organisms were often promoted by disembodied spirits linked to the evolution of the planet. In this regard, we have a vast literature.

According to Leon Denis, the theory of evolution must be completed by that of percussion, that is, by the action of invisible powers, which activate and direct this slow and prodigious upward march.¹

And yet, Denis: Chemical spirits, physicists, naturalists, astronomers act everywhere on subtle matter, which they make undergo preparations, modifications intended for works that the human imagination would have difficulty conceiving.²

The French physician doctor Gustavo Geley follows the same line; the evolution of species is guided, to some extent, by a superior and profound influence. The intermittent appearances of the main species and instincts are in accordance with environmental needs and vital needs, obeying the acquired purpose. However, there is still, everything like in the artist's work, alongside genius achievements, mistakes, imperfections, forgetfulness, exaggerations, attempts...³

In Chico Xavier's mediumistic literature, we find abundant information that confirms these concepts. Emmanuel states that just as the human chemist finds in hydrogen the simplest formula to establish the route of his substantial comparisons, the Spirits that cooperated with the Christ, in the beginnings of the planetary organization, found, in the protoplasm, the starting point for the activity director, taking it as the essential basis of all living cells of the terrestrial organism.⁴

Also, André Luiz:

The spiritual architects, mingled with celestial supervision, would spend long centuries preparing the cells that would serve as the basis for the plant kingdom, combining nucleoproteins with glucids and other primordial elements, in order to establish a safe level of constant forces, among the luggage of the nucleus and the cytoplasm.

With such realization, the intelligent principle begins to develop from the physio psychosomatic point of view. Not only the physical form of the future then promises to reveal itself, but also the spiritual form.

Slowly, under magnetic influence, the chromatin fragments are fixed, organizing the chromosomes in which the vital formulas of reproduction would be condensed. Multiple processes of division begin to be experienced.⁵

It also shows that plants and animals, after an internship in the spiritual plane, when they return to the physical plane, through the reincarnation mechanism, become elements of transformation:

Plants and animals domesticated by human intelligence for millennia can be acclimatized and improved there for certain periods of existence, at the end of which they return to their nuclei of origin in the terrestrial soil. Thus, they can advance in the evolutionary journey, compensated with valuable acquisitions of refinement, through which the Earth's usual flora and fauna help, with the benefits of so-called spontaneous mutations.⁶

In addition, he presents this illuminating thought:

The physical plane is the cradle of evolution that the extraphysical plane improves. The first breathes the breath of life, whose buildings the second perfects. Reincarnation multiplies experiences, adding them up little by little.⁷

We can deduce, from the above, that the interference of the Spirits accustomed to the evolution of the Earth took place in fundamental moments of the planetary evolution, where, using deep technical knowledge, they operated in the genome of the living beings, when in the due moment, so that the progress was satisfactory.

A criticism that could be made to the spiritist proposal refers to the disappearance of millions of species. If superior spirits directed the process, how can we understand the emergence of animal forms that should not prevail over the years?

It is necessary to understand that the evolution of the spiritual principle on Earth has been a process of creative construction, in which the intelligent principle itself participates, as an organizing field of form and storehouse of acquired conquests, and an innumerable phalanx of disembodied Spirits, certainly with specialties in different areas of knowledge, but also in the process of growth. The work of these Spirits must be considered as evolutionary experiences for them as well. They are probably at an advanced stage of progress, but still lacking development in specific sectors of evolution. This is how processes or situations that seem wrong to us are justified, but which are exercises and experiences of incomplete souls.

It is also necessary to consider the needs of the spiritual principle in evolutionary transit. Ready and complete structures would not be the substrate on which the necessary development would take place.

In addition, the limitations of the orb itself need to be considered. Emmanuel, examining the question of the monstrous tests that gave rise to the hideous animals of the primitive ages, remembers that the cellular machine was perfected, in the limit of the possible, in face of the physical laws of the globe.⁸

In summary:

- Planner spirits are not perfect and may have their limitations (competent scientists often make mistakes).

- The action takes place via still immature energy fields (incapable of fixing the most complex systems).

- The limits imposed by the physical, chemical and biological laws of the planet and planetary evolution

- The need for gradual elaboration of the intelligent principle.

___________________

1 The problem of the being, chap. IX, part 1

2 Thr problem of the being, chap. XII, part I

3 From Conscious to unconscious

4 The Comforter, item 6

5 Evolution in two worlds, part 1, chap VII. 8^th edition. Brasilia: FEB, 1958.

6 Evolution in two worlds, part I, chap. XIII. 8th. ed. Brasília: FEB,1958.

7 Idem

8 On the path to light, chap. 2.