opinion of atheists and agnostics? others welcome but please no disrespect?

Question

concepts of hinduism
"Here to mock are conceit, our apprehensions, and our despair, we may read what Manu said, perhaps 10,000 years before the birth of Christ about Evolution:
'The first germ of life was developed by water and heat.' (Book I, sloka 8,9 )
'Water ascends towards the sky in vapors; from the sun it descends in rain, from the rains are born the plants, and from the plants, animals.' (Book III, sloka 76).
(source: Philosophy of Hinduism - By T C Galav p 17).
"Ages before Lamarck and Darwin it was held in India that man has passed through 84 lakhs (8,400,000) of birth as plants, animals, as an "inferior species of man" and then as the ancestor of the developed type existing to-day"

evolution, what do you think of the presence of this in something considered to be a religion?

Answer 1

There are a lot of religions in the world, one was bound to guess near to the mark sooner or later. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, let me give you another example of what i mean: the idea that matter consisted of atoms, extremely small indivisible particles which were the building blocks of all other substances was first proposed by an ancient Indian philosophers, (now we know you can divide atoms but this still seems a remarkably accurate theory , based on no scientific evidencee at all). The questions of human origins,the nature of the universe etc have spawned so many answers over the ages that sooner or later, someone would come up with an idea which would later tally with evidenc uncovered later on.

Answer 2

Let me add the Hindu Cosmology to the above question.

[edit] Carl Sagan on Hindu cosmology
Carl Sagan was a distinguished Cornell University astronomer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

"The main reason that we oriented this episode of Cosmos towards India is because of that wonderful aspect of Hindu cosmology which first of all gives a time-scale for the Earth and the universe -- a time-scale which is consonant with that of modern scientific cosmology. We know that the Earth is about 4.6 billion years old, and the cosmos, or at least its present incarnation, is something like 10 or 20 billion years old. The Hindu tradition has a day and night of Brahma in this range, somewhere in the region of 8.4 billion years."

"As far as I know. It is the only ancient religious tradition on the Earth which talks about the right time-scale. We want to get across the concept of the right time-scale, and to show that it is not unnatural. In the West, people have the sense that what is natural is for the universe to be a few thousand years old, and that billions is indwelling, and no one can understand it. The Hindu concept is very clear. Here is a great world culture which has always talked about billions of years."

"Finally, the many billion year time-scale of Hindu cosmology is not the entire history of the universe, but just the day and night of Brahma, and there is the idea of an infinite cycle of births and deaths and an infinite number of universes, each with its own gods."

Answer 3

evolution is the purpose 4 our being present on the Earth, and the reason 4 the Earth's existence along with the rest of physical reality. we evolve 4rm concepts such as:"stealing is a gain" and "evil intentions towards someone doesnt affect them if i dont say or do anything to them" and so on.

this evolution is centered around our soul and thus is a continuation of earlier learnings which involve us having been beings that were not as evolved as we are now, and may have included being plants and/or other animals. this could have involved us being beings in a reality with a totally different set of parameters as well.

the concept of evolution in a religion is reassuring as long as an evolution of the concept if necessary will be accomodated for. it is reassuring because it indicates individuals are not just forming theories too adhere 2 but are actually observing the deeper Substance of Existence.

Answer 4

The first quote doesn't really say anything at all about the form of life, so I don't know what we're supposed to get out of it.

To me, the second quote says that plants need water to live and that animals need plants to live. It seems like a stretch to call that a statement about evolution.

I'd be interested in seeing more original sources for the third point, but I can't judge based on only that.

Answer 5

Hinduism has a number of features that align it well with the modern scientific observations. It certainly does not have a young Earth. If anything, it has a universe older than the observed universe, although it could be interpreted as successive universes. What cannot be proven is if it was known by supernatural means or a lucky guess (no disrespect intended). It is certainly more optimistic than Western religion as is sees Man rising, not perpetually descending.

Answer 6

It is interesting. The hindus had many deep insights into the nature of reality. They also expounded on many concepts now being revealed by quantum mechanics. Obviously they understood things through meditation that the world is now just catching up with.
The one way that stuff differs from evolution is if when they talk about passing through plants and animals before becoming human they are talking about the reincarnation of and individual. If so, that is much different form science obviously.

Answer 7

There is nothing inherent in religion that requires it to eschew science- even though that's the way that most religions are practiced.

As an athiest- I find quite a few of the teachings of religion to be correct. Normally not the stuff on evolution- but in christianity, for instance, the benefits of forgiveness.

Sounds like hinduism is much closer to reality on this subject than other religions. good for them.

Answer 8

Religion and science are not incompatible. After all, even Genesis could be an allegory for evolution from a certain perspective.

The Hindus are very bright about a lot of things ;-)

Answer 9

10,000 years BC?
I don't think anything was written then. It what language was this written?
You said, ''The first germ of life was developed by water and heat.'
My question is, where did the water and heat come from?
Then, water plus heat= plant?
Can science create new plants with the water and heat theory?
Then again, did animal and human life spring from plants?

Evolution is unfinished.
Life as we know it cannot be explained by science.
There is a living creator; there always was and always will be.

Answer 10

Interesting.May be Darwin had been influenced by the Hindus culture since India was British colony at that time.