The origin of man is the cornerstone of every view of the world. Any discussion about how man should live takes us back to the question of man's origin. The answers given by science and religion contradict each other, as is the case with many other issues. 

Science looks upon man's origin as the result of a long process of evolution from the lower forms of life where there is no clear distinction between animal and human. The point at which science considers man a human being is determined by external material facts: walking upright, making tools, or communicating through articulate speech. Here, man is a child of nature and remains a part of it.

           On the other hand, religion and art talk about the creation of man. It is not a process but an act of God - not something continuous but an abrupt, painful, and catastrophic act. All religions and all art have created the visions of man thrown into matter, of his fall to earth, and of the antagonism between man and nature, of man’s clash with a strange and unfriendly world. 

Whether man is a product of evolution or is “created” becomes the question: who is man? Is he part of the world or something different from it?