[Advaita-l] creationist And evolutionist

[Siva Senani Nori]

Kalyanji
   
  srishTikramam (agnerApah etc.) is clearly mentioned in both TaittirIya and chAndogya upanishats. For an advaitin, Sruti is paramount, and Sruti specifies a certain creation. That being the case, how can a confirmist subscribe to evolutionism, which at the core says that evolution is an accident?
   
  Actually, these two cents of mine are more related to the literal acceptance of Sruti and the problems thereof. If you were to press me, I would not be against teaching evolution, though I believe in a Creator, or more accurately Brahman and hence intelligent design. That said, I don't think Sat became many - including man, animal, plant, and inanimate at once. My own interpretation of Sruti would be that the 'many' more likely included amoeba or whatever was the first animate being.
   
  Regards
  Senani

Raghavendra N Kalyan <kalyan7429 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
  Namaste,


> Can an advaitin recognize creationism And (not or) evolutionism ?


Since evolution is based on pratyaksha and anumAna (direct observation/experiment and logical inference), an advaitin should have no problem in accepting it.


But creationism can create some problems. There are some creationists who claim that the world was created in 4000 BC or something like that. These are directly against observation and needless to say an advaitin would reject them.


Of course there are some theories of creation in Sruti which "appear" to contradict evolution. But then, the standard advaitic position is that the (mutually) contradictory nature of some creation theories in Sruti, is meant to drive home the point that creation falls under the realms of mAyA. (I may not be exactly correct here, but this is the gist anyway). Note that this is not a modern day cooked-up reinterpretation of the Sruti but it has its basis in the mANDukya upanishad bhAshya + gauDapAda's kArikAs. The "ajAti vAda" (no creation in the ultimate sense) is derived from this. From this point of view, neither Sruti nor advaita vedAnta (which is based on Sruti) should have any problem with evolution.


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