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Hinduism Portal |
Hinduism includes a range of viewpoints about the origin of life, creationism and evolution. The accounts of the emergence of life within the universe vary in description, but classically the god Brahma, from a Trimurti of three gods also including Vishnu and Shiva, is described as performing the act of 'creation', or more specifically of 'propagating life within the universe' with the other two deities being responsible for 'preservation' and 'destruction' (of the universe) respectively.[1] Some Hindu schools do not regard the scriptural creation myth as a literal truth, and often the creation stories themselves do not go into specific detail, thus leaving open the possibility of incorporating at least some theories in support of evolution. Some Hindus find support for, or foreshadowing of evolutionary ideas in scriptures, namely the Vedas.[2]
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According to the Vedas creation of the universe is shrouded in mystery. The Nasadiya Sukta, the 129th hymn of the 10th Mandala of the Rigveda questions the attribution of creation and the origins of the universe:
Then was not non-existence nor existence: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where?.... Who knows then whence it first came into being? He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not. -(Rig Veda 10.129.1-7)[3]
A Hindu creation account is recorded in the Upanishads, according to which the universe and the Earth, along with humans and other creatures undergo repeated cycles (pralaya) of creation and destruction. A variety of myths exist regarding the specifics of the process, but in general the Hindu view of the cosmos is as eternal and cyclic.
Swami Vivekananda, the Hindu revivalist of the 19th century interpreted the Advaita Vedantic understanding of evolution to be in harmony with Darwinian theory. In his commentary on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, he writes:[4]
There seems to be a great difference between modern science and all religions at this point. Every religion has the idea that the universe comes out of intelligence. The theory of God, taking it in its psychological significance, apart from all ideas of personality, is that intelligence is first in the order of creation, and that out of intelligence comes what we call gross matter. Modern philosophers say that intelligence is the last to come. They say that unintelligent things slowly evolve into animals, and from animals into men. They claim that instead of everything coming out of intelligence, intelligence itself is the last to come. Both the religious and the scientific statements, though seeming directly opposed to each other are true. Take an infinite series, A—B—A—B —A—B. etc. The question is — which is first, A or B? If you take the series as A—B. you will say that A is first, but if you take it as B—A, you will say that B is first. It depends upon the way we look at it. Intelligence undergoes modification and becomes the gross matter, this again merges into intelligence, and thus the process goes on. The Sankhyas, and other religionists, put intelligence first, and the series becomes intelligence, then matter. The scientific man puts his finger on matter, and says matter, then intelligence. They both indicate the same chain. Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both intelligence and matter, and finds a Purusha, or Self, which is beyond intelligence, of which intelligence is but the borrowed light.
The Rig Veda questions the origin of the cosmos in:
Neither being (sat) nor non-being was as yet. What was concealed? And where? And in whose protection?…Who really knows? Who can declare it? Whence was it born, and whence came this creation? The devas were born later than this world's creation, so who knows from where it came into existence? None can know from where creation has arisen, and whether he has or has not produced it. He who surveys it in the highest heavens, he alone knows-or perhaps does not know. (Rig Veda 10. 129)
The later puranic view asserts that the universe is created, destroyed, and re-created in an eternally repetitive series of cycles. In Hindu cosmology, a universe endures for about 4,320,000,000 years (one day of Brahma, the creator or kalpa)[5] and is then destroyed by fire or water elements. At this point, Brahma rests for one night, just as long as the day. This process, named pralaya (Cataclysm), repeats for 100 Brahma years (311 trillion, 40 billion human years) that represents Brahma's lifespan. It must be noted that Brahma is the creator but not necessarily regarded as God in Hinduism. He is mostly regarded as a demigod or devata.
Science writers Carl Sagan and Fritjof Capra have pointed out similarities between the latest scientific understanding of the age of the universe, and the Hindu concept of a "day and night of Brahma", which is much closer to the current known age of the universe than other creation myths. The days and nights of Brahma posit a view of the universe that is divinely created, and is not strictly evolutionary, but an ongoing cycle of birth, death, and rebirth of the universe. According to Sagan:
The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long, longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang.[6]
Capra, in his popular book The Tao of Physics, wrote that:
This idea of a periodically expanding and contracting universe, which involves a scale of time and space of vast proportions, has arisen not only in modern cosmology, but also in ancient Indian mythology. Experiencing the universe as an organic and rhythmically moving cosmos, the Hindus were able to develop evolutionary cosmologies which come very close to our modern scientific models.[7]
British geneticist and evolutionary biologist, J B S Haldane, observed that the Dasavataras (ten principal avatars of Lord Vishnu) are a true sequential depiction of the great unfolding of evolution.[8] The avatars of Vishnu show an uncanny similarity to the biological theory of evolution of life on earth.[9]
| Avatars | Explanation | Evolution |
|---|---|---|
| Matsya. | First avatar is a fish, one which is creature living in water. | If we compare it with biological evolution on different Geological Time Scale first developed life was also in the form of fish which originated during Cambrian period. |
| Kurma | Second avatar was in the form of Tortoise (reptiles). | In geology also first reptiles comes as second important evolution which originated in Mississippian period just after Amphibians. |
| Varaha | Third avatar was in the form of Boar. | Evolution of the amphibian to the land animal. |
| Narasimha | The Man-Lion (Nara= man, simha=lion) was the fourth avatar. | But in geology no such evidences are mentioned. It may have been related with Ape Man The term may sometimes refer to extinct early human ancestors, such as the undiscovered missing link between apes and humans. |
| Vamana | Fifth Avatar is the dwarf man. | It may be related with the first man originated during Pliocene. It may be related with Neanderthals. Neanderthals were generally only 12 to 14 cm (4½–5½ in) shorter than modern humans, contrary to a common view of them as "very short" or "just over 5 feet". |
| Parashurama, | The man with an axe was the sixth avatar. | It has the similarities with the first modern man originated during the Quaternary period or the man of Iron Age. |
According to Hindu creationism all species on earth including humans have "devolved" or come down from a highly state of pure consciousness. Hindu creationists claim that species of plants and animals are material forms adopted by pure consciousness which live an endless cycle of births and rebirths.[10] Ronald Numbers says that: "Hindu Creationists have insisted on the antiquity of humans, who they believe appeared fully formed as long, perhaps, as trillions of years ago."[11] Hindu creationism is a form of old earth creationism, according to Hindu creationists the universe may even be older than billions of years. These views are based on the Vedas which depict an extreme antiquity of the universe and history of the earth.[12][13]
The Sanskrit writings of India mention creatures with apelike bodies and humanlike intelligence.[14] The Ramayana speaks of the Vanaras, a species of an apelike army of men that existed millions of years ago. According to the Ramayana alongside these ape-men existed modern humans.[15] Thus according to these ancient writings the status was a state of coexistence rather than evolution, this is in opposition to common descent which is accepted by most scientists.
Members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) have expressed their belief that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is false, but do not necessarily reject evolution altogether. The views of the founder of ISKCON, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, on Darwin and evolution are found in his book Life comes from life.[16][17]
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) take a literal reading of Puranas which teach that time and space are cyclical, and that the earth goes through a cyclic model of yugas that says that life on earth devolves through four stages, or cosmic epochs, with each one becoming increasingly dark, alienated than the previous.[18][19][20]
History therefore to ISKCON is a succession of four epics called yugas, the first being the best a Golden age, then devolving to the present degenerate age, the Kali Yuga. After the Kali Yuga, the process repeats itself, with the earth entering a stage of sleep and then being reborn.[21] According to the teachings of ISKCON the current age we are now in, which began approximately 5000 years ago, is called Kali yuga. Kali-yuga is a 432000 year-long devolution, a stage of degeneration on earth and for the human being.[22]
ISKCON also teach another process of devolution. Michael Cremo defines this process of devolution as "The process by which conscious selves descend to the realm of the material energy, and are placed in material bodily vehicles."[23] Cremo proposes that human beings have not evolved from other animals, but they have devolved down from a spiritual world.[24] This process of devolution is routed is the Hindu teaching of Sat Desh, (translated "True Home") which teaches that a spiritual homeland exists eternally which is the location where spirits dwell before they enter material bodies on earth.[25]
According to the Vedic texts the remedy to free oneself from the evil of devolution, is to cast off materialism, and realize one's real spiritual nature, which is that of Sat Desh, the homeland of spirits.[26] Vishal Mangalwadi describes Sat Desh as "The highest region, made purely of spirit substance and inhabited by pure spirits — pure because they are uncontaminated by matter or mind. There are countless spirits and they enjoy the greatest conceivable happiness".[27]
Cremo is a member of ISKCON and the author of Human Devolution: A Vedic alternative to Darwin's theory, published by ISKCON's Bhaktivedanta Book Publishing,[28] which holds that man has existed on the earth in modern form far longer than that offered by the currently accepted fossil evidence and genetic evidence. Cremo suggests that Darwinian evolution should be replaced with "devolution" from the original unity with Brahman. His books have been met with considerable skepticism by the scientific community which charges that Cremo's theories are pseudoscience.[29][30] Author Meera Nanda has dubbed these beliefs a form of "Vedic creationism."[31]
As the cosmological theory of Hinduism teaches the four successively declining 'ages' of the yugas,[32] ISKCON teaches that we should expect to see evidence for devolution in biology and other sciences due to the "reality of the past Vedic curse of decay and degeneration on the world of nature, as stated in the Puranas", ISKCON members claim that genes are being lost in animals and humans and this is evidence for devolution.[33]
In 2010 the ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Book Trust published an intelligent design book titled Rethinking Darwin: A Vedic Study of Darwinism and Intelligent Design chapters included contributions from Intelligent design advocates William Dembski, Jonathan Wells and Michael Behe as well as from Hindu creationists Leif A. Jansen and Michael Cremo.[34]
While the Creation-evolution controversy has seen much debate in the US and other countries, it has not been a significant issue in India, with its majority-Hindu population.[35][36] Hindus are among many faiths that have expressed apprehension about efforts to teach Christian creationism in public schools in the US.[37] One objection to the teaching of creationism based on the religious texts of a particular faith is that in a pluralistic society this can result in the imposition of one religion.[38]
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