We were planning to reply to our recent correspondent on evolution, but as fate would have it, the even more recent contributions, while on a different subject, anticipate and illustrate much of what we have to say. And that is that tradition certainly tends to be opposed to Darwinistic transformist evolutionism (as we have explained before there are circumstances under which the two can be reconciled, though it is unclear why one should wish to do so). But what any legitimate tradition is quite definitely and unequivocally impelled to oppose are such notions as the "evolution of consciousness". Whether or not the human "shell", the animal vehicle, "evolved" from some lower life form (which we consider preposterous, but not inherently incompatible with tradition), what is quite certain is that human consciousness is not becoming more complex. It is becoming simpler. That is why simpler approaches to spirituality are required in the latter age. That is why language - as every linguistic historian is forced to admit - has become progressively simpler over time. That is what is taught by every tradition. However the human body became what it is, the human consciousness became what it is through a process of simplification and reduction. As every authentic tradition attests, "we are less wise than our mothers." That is why we have greater facility with physical and material "science" and less with spiritual wisdom. And that is why a majority of people are even simple enough to treat an exclusively materially-oriented civilization and science as a sign of "progress".