Monday, February 16, 2009

Pralaya Payodhi Jale........

Among the tons of trees and ink (and electrons) being spent to mark the 200th birthday of Darwin, I found this interesting nugget... that Hindus and Buddhists are the most accepting of evolutionary science, with an impressive 80% likelihood. Here is the full article.


Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan


I often wonder about the progression in the Dashavatara, which roughly traces the progression of species from the acquatic to the amphibious to the land-based, to half-man-half-animal and finally to humankind. What a great way to teach evolution....


(From the Left - Doorkeeper Matshya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vaman, Parashurama, Rama, Balarama, Krishna, Kalki and Doorkeepers)

2 comments:

Ram said...

Some years ago my brother and I were visiting Shri Shankaracharya. One thing He mentioned struck us both as very revealing. He said (in Tamil)"We don't have a problem with science" as he discussed his efforts at promoting women's training in computer science. What he meant was that unlike in other religions Hindu orthodoxy was open to scientific findings since they would not violate the essential ideas of One Being from which the whole universe came. AND that Being is mysterious, emphasizing the need for science not so much to solve the mystery as to allow us additional insights into It. Evolution certainly does that.

Unknown said...

very very interesting stats indeed... u should write a bit more about this... particularly the avatars and evolution...