Haribol to all devotees!
PAMHO!! AGSTP!!
I'm a Neophyte who is just up to 8 rounds of chanting. I am off meat and onion/garlic for the last 8 months and I'm feeling absolutely great. I regularly visit IDT just to read through the wonderful answers from senior devotees. There is no ISKCON temple near my place, but thankfully I live alone and don't have many friends - so I can go about my sadhana without distraction.
I think that in one of the myriad questions/responses on this forum, I read that the theory of evolution as propounded by modern science is nothing but a sham, and doesn't adhere to scriptures. However, I'm unable to understand why it is considered a lie, and seek guidance from someone who can enlighten me.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Replies
Hare Krishna! Dandavat Pranam!
The experience of the world is through gross and subtle bodies. And mind plays a larger role in projecting the world. As the mind matures/evolves, the perception of the world changes. One's own experience is the evidence. At times, the mind thinks, 'I'm qualified now to understand the design (of the world or itself)' and makes sincere attempts. Then it realizes its 'limited' capacity and surrenders to the supreme lord.
Without understanding the self, it would not be possible to understand the world. And understanding self requires shutting down the ego/mind & intelligence and its too far from discussion/reality.
SB 1.3.33 — Whenever a person experiences, by self-realization, that both the gross and subtle bodies have nothing to do with the pure self, at that time he sees himself as well as the Lord.
Small correction - Hanuman's monkeys were not from Lanka. THey crossed to Lanka on the Ram Setu to fulfill the desire of the lord.
Lanka was the land where demons led by Ravana stayed.
& (HDG) Knew better, having tasted/experienced the connection & presence & compaseion ofothe God Krishna! Following the Hi's spiritual instructions of Hi's own Guru & the desire of
"The H3ad God He (HDG) risking life & limbs travaled to us & around the world to inform & remind us of the nature of the tempory nature of this flesh & the irretrievable value of time
He informed us that our bodies house an eternal aspect of our being called the Spirit or Soul, which is imprisoned at the moment within this daul gross week vulnerable deteriorating carcus. Which is being directed by the influence of an eggnorent/ uninformed mind! ? Hence in Hi's effort to "antidote" this illness. Of eignorance, He presented an intellectual methud of exposing the minds of people to a process of "JumpStarting" our mind's evolution, tword a proper understandins(s) and an even- better/bin
nafishel bettmore enjoyable pastime . And by the practice of employing Hi's prescription our Spitits became better nurtured & better natuered, our mind's become better informed by becoming better regulated & As this all-engaging prosess is a service to the greaterGood & God Himself, all other aspects of our lives & future life are thereby karmically improved.
That's Hi's Thery anyway. God's Love & Love for God are the resultent Side effects.Which when applied thrugh consistent practice
I also find it hard to believe the scriptures on word alone, and not science with their evidence.
There are many fields in science, and all of them lead to the same conclusions.
Science theories are actually groups of found facts that together form a theory.
a theory in science is the highest achievement and is considered a fact.
We know the age of the universe not by guessing, but studying and investigating.
And we already see that the universe is so much larger than 4 billion miles,
in fact in 1977 we sent Voyager 1 into space, and as of June 2015 it's 19.5 billion kilomers away from earth (and still going), and it's still communicating with earth.
Sure, you can say NASA are lairs and believe only our scriptures... but you still not providing evidence while NASA and the scientists do.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji pamho,
The evidence !!!
that's the concrete proof , or is it !
Say for example about 100 yrs before all the scientiests knew that the electron,
protons and neutrons are the fundamental particles of matter. There were also some sub atomic particles whose prescence were felt.
The final conclusion from all the evidence was that the foundation of matter was some very tiny particles.
But after the advent of quantum physics, all those concepts got shattered.
It is seen that an electron actually exist everywhere simultaniously and behaves like an wave untill someone observes it.
Whenever there is an attempt to measure the movement of the electron, it changes it's natural charecteristic
and start behaving like a perticle. How amazing this is - as if the electron is aware of the fact that it is being
observed. Does it have conciousness ? How is that possible !! But this is the thing that is happenning. So in actuality
an electron as a single particle of matter does not exist. That brings to the conclusion that matter does not actually exist.
Because all the matter that we are seeing or touching are made of those atomic particles which has no material existance.
But we can not deny the fact that we can touch something, such as i am typing these words by touching the keys in the
keyboard.
There is another issue of qunatum entanglement. Say if two particles are related to each other and when one of the particle
are being worked upon , immidiately it affects the other particle. This relationship does not depend
on the distance between the two particles. If the two particles are kept billions of light years away
- it acts the same way - the other particle gets affected immediately. how is this possible !
How the two particles are able to maintain a relationship even if they are kept an universe apart !!
What do we know about the architecture of the universe and how it works !!
If we see a spacecraft is travelling billions of miles away from us - does it actually travelling in
that fashion - or it is appearing to us like that. The unlimited sky that we see may be a hoax.
The same way we are believing that this material world is made up of matters.
This world is an illussion. Lord's illusiory energy is at work - it makes us believe- that which is not.
The way it appeares to us, in actuality it is not so. We are not designed to understand the reality.
He Who have designed the cosmos, is also the Designer of our brains.
How can we expect to get a real picture of an illusiory world with imperfect senses and instruments.
Even if the instrument may be as big as the large hadron collider - the outcome evidence will only be a more
sophisticated illusion.
-yas
Prabhuji, it is correct to question. I often think about what would happen if a new scripture is discovered now in the 21st century. It will be dispelled as bogus, because it was not spoken of before by spiritual masters. That is not the right approach is it?
Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
It is the right approach. Scriptures is not like our technology, which becomes obsolete the moment it hits the market. It is timeless. Considering that Srimad Bhagawatam has details about Chanakya and even Kalki avatar, there doesnt appear to be any need for updation.
If a scripture is discovered in the 21st century, it will be bogus. Unless if the scripture was lost in time and certified by an authority. For eg: Brahma Samhita was discovered by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in one of the temples in South India during His tour. That too, the Brahma Samhita we know is only 1 chapter of the entire rendition. We accept it because it was brought out by God Himself, in the incarnation of a devotee.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
Hare Krsna PRabhuji,
PAMHO.
The theory of evolution, as accepted by modern science, is propounded by Darwin. In his theory of evolution, man came from apes and different species evolve to form other different species. So logically, ape and man should not exist at the same time - ape already evolved to man right? But both co exist. Now, on the other side of the argument, if both co exist, what about the in between stage - half ape half man - why no species exist like that today? In fact, why no such species existed ever? Thats why its a lie. Even Darwin says, that is how it may have been - he is himself not sure, just giving a theory.
Our scriptures also give the story of evolution - how what was created. It is vividly described in Srimad Bhagawatam. As per that theory, the world is created and destroyed as per time cycle - there are 4 yugas - Satya Yuga, Treta, Dwapar & Kaliyuga. The duration of each yuga is phenomenal - Kaliyuga is the smallest - 4,32,000 years, Dwapar is double of Kaliyuga - 432000 * 2 = 864000 years, Treta is 3 times and Satya is 4 times. So total no of years in one chaturyuga cycle is 43,20,000 years. Our science cannot trace back time to that level.
In fact, this chatur yuga is only one - there are 1000 such chaturyugas in one day of Brahma. The lifetime of one Brahma is 100 years. So imagine the vast expanse of time!!! Our science is not equipped to handle this expanse.
I hope I have been able to explain. Apologies for the delay in responding.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
PAMHO Mataji, AGSTP.
I believe that you are mistaken in your understanding of evolution. Evolution doesn't say that monkeys are evolving into human beings. Monkeys and Humans share a common ancestor. Modern Humans - Homo sapiens - are a specific species of the genus Homo, who were equipped with faculties that helped them survive into the modern time.
Other species of Homo - for eg. H. erectus, H. habilis, H. ergaster, H. neanderthalensis etc. have been unable to survive due to the lack of important faculties necessary for survival into the modern age - they suffered from drawbacks like inability to make swift movements, keep an upright posture, smaller brain capacity, susceptibility to certain diseases etc. It is also a fact that some of these species predate H. sapiens, whereas some of them had lived side by side. It has been speculated that modern humans hunted H. neanderthalensis to extinction.
H. sapiens share almost 97% of the DNA that Neanderthal man had - but the other 3% made all the difference.
Monkeys too have branched out from the same ape-like ancestor (primate) of modern humans. There have been thousands of primate species, but those who have had the evolutionary edge were naturally selected to survive.
All creatures are still evolving - but it is imperceptible due to the vast scale of planetary time and the tiny footprint of human lifespan. One example of evolution can be easily seen nowadays in India - people in general nowadays are taller than people from previous generations. This is basically an adaptation to help people breathe better - as polluted air is heavier, it tends to come near the ground - so the taller you are the better you will breathe. I'm not sure if there are any scientific studies done on other animals as well, but as with everything - if you cannot evolve or adapt, you will be wiped out. So humans are evolving to become better humans, monkeys are evolving to better monkeys - so on and so forth.
Most creatures on this earth have several species mataji. Some species can be visually identified as similar to each other but with subtle changes - eg. the Indian elephant (Elephus maximus indicus) and the African elephant (Elephus maximus) where they are sub-species of each other. There are trace chances of other surviving species of humans as well - but unfortunately till now, whatever has been found have been long dead. Homo sapiens idaltu is one subspecies of modern humans that survived till about 100,000 years ago.
Even tulasi rani has several species - eg. Ocimum basillicum, O. americanum, O. minimum etc.
Haribol
Scientists Confirm: Darwinism Is Broken
Darwinian theory is broken and may not be fixable. That was the takeaway from a meeting last month organized by the world's most distinguished and historic scientific organization, which went mostly unreported by the media.
The three-day conference at the Royal Society in London was remarkable in confirming something that advocates of intelligent design (ID), a controversial scientific alternative to evolution, have said for years. ID proponents point to a chasm that divides how evolution and its evidence are presented to the public, and how scientists themselves discuss it behind closed doors and in technical publications. This chasm has been well hidden from laypeople, yet it was clear to anyone who attended the Royal Society conference, as did a number of ID-friendly scientists.
Maybe that secrecy helps explain why the meeting was so muffled in mainstream coverage.
Oh, there were a few reports. In the Huffington Post, science journalist Suzan Mazur complained of a lack of momentousness: "[J]ust what was the point of attracting a distinguished international gathering if the speakers had little new science to present? Why waste everyone's time and money?" On the other hand, a write-up in The Atlantic by Carl Zimmer acknowledged a sense of strain between rival cliques of evolutionists: "Both sides offered their arguments and critiques in a civil way, but sometimes you could sense the tension in the room – the punctuations of tsk-tsks, eye-rolling, and partisan bursts of applause."
Mild drama notwithstanding, why should anyone care?
For one thing, the Royal Society, dating back to 1660, is a legend in the science world. Its founders included the great chemist Robert Boyle, and it was later headed for 24 years (1703-1727) by Isaac Newton – a fact that is hard to forget with Newton's death mask on prominent display in a glass case. Portraits of Boyle and Newton look down from the walls above. So the historical connections lend a certain weight by themselves.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji pamho,
Sooner or later , its just a matter of time that all these scientific theories will proved to be broken.
All the parameters and terminologies and evidences on the basis of which today's scientists prove their point will be negated by future researchers with the proof of their rock solid evidences which will also be considered as truth at that point of time, only to be outruled again in future. so i think we should not be overwhelmed by these highly impressive technical data's and just trust our scriptures which are the ultimate revelation - even if apparently they appear contradictory to our day to day experience or seems irrational to our intelligence.
Kindly forgive me if i have hurt someone with my comments. Yas
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