Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and Hinduism agree with each other
In this article, I will explain to you why Darwin’s theory of evolution and Hinduism are consistent, with Hindu teachings being in complete agreement with theory of natural selection. Let’s first start with the theory of evolution, what it says and why do people have issues with it.
Darwin’s theory of Evolution
Darwin’s theory of evolution was proposed by a 19 thcentury English naturalist Charles Darwin. This theory is based on natural selection, which tries to explain why there is so much diversity amongst living beings. Why do we have different types of plants and animals coexisting on this planet. Since the beginning of mankind people have asked this question that why does a particular thing exist and what is its purpose. In the same league one may ask why do some living beings are birds, others are reptiles and yet others are mammals. Why this diversity. The best explanation for this has been provided by the Darwin’s theory of evolution.
It says that at any point of time all the living beings present on the planet are fighting for their survival. In order any particular type of animal which we call a specie to survive that specie needs to be able to gather food and reproduce. All the species who can effectively do it survive, while those who are not able to do it go extinct. Now if the environmental conditions remains the same then each species can continue to live its lifestyle and the eco system remains in balance. However, when the environmental situation changes the animals need to adapt. This leads to the development of characteristics of animals best suited for their environment.
Generally, it takes a huge period of time for evolution to occur such that one organism cannot see it in its lifetime. However, you can still see some of the initial signal of changes. For example, let’s look at the color of human skin, we see that the people living in the regions near the poles have lighter skins, while the humans who live near the equator has darker skin. This is a natural adaptation of humans to deal with the amount of sunlight humans are exposed to. We humans need sunlight to make vitamin D, however a large dose of sunlight can cause skin cancer. So those humans who have lived near the equator where sunlight is more abundant have developed darker skin as a protection from it while those living farther from equator have developed lighter skin to absorb more sunlight for vitamin D production. Although all of us are homo sapiens, this difference in color can be described as a difference of phenotype in a species. Now if these two phenotypes would have remained separated for a very long time then they would have morphed into different species because each phenotype would have further adapted to other environmental changes. As an example, Humans and Chimpanzees have a common ancestor named Hominine from who broke chimpanzees and Australopithecus. The environmental changes that cause this split is generally considered to be the turning of the forests into grasslands. Wherever such a change happened, the primates who used to live on the trees were forced to come down on the ground. Walking on four legs created serious danger in such an environment as you could not see far due to your lower height. This drove them to become bipedal, so that they could stand erect and look far so that they could be better aware of their surroundings.
Here a lot of people object that they have never seen any animal transform into other, then how does this happen. Think of it like this, lets a farmer grows fruits. Initially he receives a crop with some sweet and some sour fruits. If he keeps the seeds of only the sweet fruits with him for sowing in the next season. Then in the nest season he will reap more sweet fruits and if in this crop also he again selects the seeds of only sweet fruits for the next time, then over many years he will get a crop with only sweet fruits. This is the way by which natural selection happens. All the living beings have genes, which is a code that determines the characteristic of that being. As an example, some of us have black eyes, other have brown eyes and yet others have blue eyes. This difference is because we have difference in our genes. Some of us have genes for black eyes while others have genes for blue eyes. When we reproduce, we pass these genes to next generation, this is why children have traits of their parents.
Let’s imagine the situation in Africa when the landscape changed from forest to grasslands. This forced our ancestors to come down from the trees and live in the grasslands. Initially the primary characteristic in apes that made them more successful was the ability to climb over trees. In this new environment the animals who could climb well on the trees did not have the advantage as there are no trees, however there were some apes who had the genes in them that allowed them to rise on their two rear feet for some time and look around. This ability provided them an advantage as now they can look far and search for food easily and spot a predator approaching them. Those apes who could not do this either got hunted and died prematurely. So just like how the farmer was only selecting sweet fruits in his crop, here also in a natural way only those apes who could rise on their two rear feet were the ones who could live and breed. This way in the next generation there were larger number of apes who could rise on their two rear feet. Now amongst these those who could stay on their two feet for longer time had an advantage over those who could only do this for short period of time. This meant that this ability to stand on your two feet became a characteristic which ensure that you will be more successful and so will be able to reproduce. This created a loop where this trait of standing on your two feet for longer and longer time allowed to reproduce more and so more and more apes in the next generation had this trait. When repeated of many generations all the apes in the grassland were the ones who could walk on two feet.
This is the entire concept of the theory of evolution. It is a beautiful theory that explains why there is so much diversity of life around us and why all the animals have just the right tools for their environment.
Why People have Problem with Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
In the Abrahamic religions Darwin’s theory creates a lot of problem, because it goes directly against their teachings. These religions believe in the theory of creationism, which says that this world is just 6000-year-old and that all the living beings have been created by God. The argument is based on the theory of Aristotelian thinking that all the creatures have fixed trait based on their form. This thought was picked up by Christianity, which says that an external agent called God created all the beings and that without a creator how could all these animals develop the characteristics which are best suited for their environment.
The first human being that God created was Adam and from his rib he created Eve and all the 7 billion humans living right now are their descendants. As you can see that Darwin’s theory is in direct conflict with this story and therefore it creates a huge problem for Abrahamic religions. Because if this theory is true then Bible and Quran are false. But these books are the word of God, how can God be false. So, either Bible and Quran is not the word of God or Darwin’s theory is false. Since it’s easy to blindly believe in God and difficult to understand the theory of Evolution, many people rather than questioning their faith just say that Darwin’s theory is false and that is ok, this is what we would expect from weak people.
What surprised me the most was when a lot of Hindus on my channel started saying that they do not believe that Humans have evolved from monkeys. This denial of the agreement between Darwin’s theory of evolution and Hinduism was a shock to me. This just shows how much bad influence the Abrahamic religion have had on Dharmic beliefs. Hindus already had present notion of common ancestry between humans and animals. Moreover, we have so many avatars of our Gods that have born as animal, showing that animals also have soul just like humans. In fact, the avatars of Vishnu even show the gradual evolution from Fish to Tortoise to Boar to Lion which is consistent with the gradual evolution to more complex life form.
The time scales of the existence of universe in Dharmic thought is also consistent with the timescales needed for the evolution of the beings. And the most important thing, Dharmic system has the provision to include new scientific thoughts into its fold, as in there is no dogma in the Vedas to say that things happened a certain way and not the other. So, let us have a look the theory of evolution from Dharmic standpoint and see how it is absolutely a non-issue in our system.
Theory of Evolution in Hinduism
For the creation myth in Hinduism, you must refer to the Nasadiya Sukta of Rigveda. Nasadiya sukta is one of the most brilliant thoughts of Hinduism. When you read it you are just blown away with the advanced understanding of our sages had. Maybe I will do a full video on Nasadiya Sukta someday. Here we will just focus on the sixth mantra of Nasadiya Sukta, which says
को अद्धा वेद क इह प्र वोचत्कुत आजाता कुत इयं विसृष्टिः |
अर्वाग्देवा अस्य विसर्जनेनाथा को वेद यत आबभूव ॥
Translation: But, after all, who knows, and who can say Whence it all came, and how creation happened? the gods themselves are later than creation, so who knows truly whence it has arisen?
You can see it clearly mentions that the origin of this creation is unknowable. Even the Gods came after creation. This is far more sophisticated understanding of truth over saying than God created this world and that if God wishes a thing to be then it becomes. Later on, in the Upanishads we see an idea repeating again and again where its mentioned that the world goes through the cycle of creation and destruction. However, though out these changes, there is an underlying reality which is always there. Hindus call it Brahman and say that when Brahman desires to experience himself, he creates this universe.
To understand our existence, imagine a field full of pots which are filled with water and Sun is shining on them in the sky. In this picture think of Brahman to be the sun who lights up this whole creation. Our body is the pot and the water inside the pot is the jeeva. If the water inside the pot is dirty then the sun is not reflected very well in the water. However, when the water inside the pot is calm and clean, then the Sun is reflected very well in the water. Same thing applies to us. We are all Brahman who is experiencing this world in these individual pots. In those pots who do not have clean water we are not able to understand who we truly are, and think that we are inside the pot. Only when the water is cleaned thoroughly that we realize that what we are seeing is just a reflection inside the pot. Our true nature is completely independent of the pot
Let us now look at this condition from the point of view of evolution. Let’s start with the origin of life. If we go to science the origin of life on this planet is not very well understood, however the general theory is that some chemical reactions lead to the coming together of molecules to form amino acids, which then gradually evolved into single cell organisms and then they evolved into multicellular organisms, and slowly complex life evolved from it.
In our tradition, we have the idea of Shareer Traya, which is that we have three bodies associated with us. Going back to our description of the water pots and the Sun. As I mentioned previously Brahman is the sun who looks for his reflection in the pot and thinking that he is inside the pot.
First is the Sthool Shareera which is the pot in our description. Then we have Shookshma Shareera which is our mind and its function. This is the water inside the pot. Finally, we have the Kaaran Shareera, which is the seed of the Shareera, you can say the very first pot and its water.
The initial water that is poured into the pot is completely opaque and is not capable of reflecting Brahman at all. This is the state of non-sentience or original ignorance with which each being starts. When life begins, the creatures start to become aware of their environment. This is the start of the cleaning of that initial water. Brahman then starts reflecting, however since the water still not completely clean, Brahman thinks that he is inside the pot. This is the Maya that we experience, where we think we are this body and mind. The process of evolution continues over millions and billions of years and the water goes through many pots through the process of reincarnation. A gradual process of cleaning of the water inside the pot also goes on as the creature learns more and more from experiences in life. This is how creatures evolve to become more and more complex and more and more self-aware. The process continues until in some pots water becomes so clean that Brahman can see things clearly and realize that he is not inside the pot but is completely independent of it. The pot and water are no longer needed because Brahman realizes that he has nothing to do with the pot, he is completely independent of it. The reflection that he was seeing inside the pot was just a delusion. So, Brahman destroys that pot and stays satisfied in his own glory. This is the whole divine play of Brahman.
As you can see the basic ideas of Darwin’s theory of Evolution and Hinduism are in complete harmony with each other. There is absolutely no conflict between Hindu world view and the theory of evolution. Hinduism does not require you to say that all humans have existed since the starting of this universe. Hinduism does not require you to believe that we are children of Adam and Eve and Hinduism does not require you to believe that the world started 6000 years ago. Hinduism does not require you to believe in an all-powerful God who designs this whole world according to his need. The theory of evolution in no way makes the beliefs of Hinduism false. You can believe in the theory of evolution and it will have no effect on your Hindu beliefs.
Originally published at https://stoicsadhu.com on August 15, 2020.
