Editing Robert Broom (section)

== Spiritual evolution ==

Broom was a [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] and was deeply interested in the [[paranormal]] and [[Spiritualism (beliefs)|spiritualism]]; he was a critic of [[Darwinism]] and [[materialism]]. Broom was a believer in [[spiritual evolution]]. In his book ''The Coming of Man: Was it Accident or Design?'' (1933) he claimed that "spiritual agencies" had guided [[evolution]] as animals and plants were too complex to have arisen by chance. According to Broom, there were at least two different kinds of spiritual forces, and psychics are capable of seeing them.<ref name="Bowler2001">{{cite book|title=Reconciling science and religion: the debate in the early-twentieth-century Britain|author-link=Peter J. Bowler|first=Peter J.|last= Bowler|date= 2001| pages= 133–134}}</ref> Broom claimed there was a plan and purpose in evolution and that the origin of ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' is the ultimate purpose behind evolution. According to Broom "Much of evolution looks as if it had been planned to result in man, and in other animals and plants to make the world a suitable place for him to dwell in."<ref name="Lewin1997">{{cite book|title=Bones of contention: controversies in the search for human origins|author-link=Roger Lewin|first=Roger |last=Lewin|date= 1997|page= 311|publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0226476510}}</ref>

After discovering the skull of Mrs. Ples, Broom was asked if he excavated at random, Broom replied that spirits had told him where to find his discoveries.<ref name="Dreyer2006">{{cite book|title=A century of Sundays: 100 years of breaking news in the Sunday times, 1906–2006|first= Nadine|last= Dreyer|date= 2006|page= 119}}</ref>