From where does life come? Does an external God quicken creation into existence or is there a life potential abiding within creation itself? Traditionally, theologians tell us that an external God is the source of all this vitality. In some mysterious way, God creates the universe out of nothing. The scientific response to these unscientific ideas is evolution. Nature has a potential existing within itself that's causing higher and higher life forms to manifest. The Vedic position interjects a spiritual dimension into it, adding that a primary involution always has to precede an evolution. As Swami Vivekananda puts it: The seed is the father of the tree, but another tree was itself the father of the seed. This larger model says that the seed in the material world is spiritual potential. The whole evolutionary process isn't driven by the material world of external stimuli and everyday experiences, but by the presence of an infinite, undivided and unchanging Reality that resides within and behind the surface of everything. This is what is gradually expressing and ultimately manifesting as our Christs, Buddhas, sages and saints.