Does Hinduism believe in Evolution ??

Question

or they think world was created a few thousands years before all of a sudden?

Demonus - your answer shows you neither know about hinduism nor evolution.. u try to be funny but sounded ....

Answer 1

Hinduism does believe in evolution. not only does it believe in evolution,it takes it a step further and says that even "souls" evolve,


when we generate good karma by doing good deeds, on our next life we would be born as a better being (hinduism does not claim that humans are the best&last of the living beings (there are quite a lot more listed in hinduism as being above humans,).they dont have direct english translation for those being-names but i can classify them as
"beings from other worlds"
"being that rule over worlds"
"being that rule over the beings that rule over worlds"
...the list goes all the way up
to the gods and goddesses,

there were humans-according to Hinduism who became gods themselves. and that is not the ultimate end, in Hinduism, cos to pass-beyond god/goddesses is the goal, one of enlightenment

even brahma, who by humans standards has almost an infinite lifetimes, Does have a finite lifetime (the hindu texts put this number at around 32000 trillion human-years-Im not sure of the exact amount though)

and a humans, by virture of good deeds and meditation can one day be brrahma (the creator of this universe)

but the catch is, that the universe retracts into itself and is born again and again, its all a big cycle in Hinduism. life-death-life is a cycle, the universe is a cycle..and the life of brahma(his life is like...im not sure..but the lifetimes of millions of universal life cycles)

so what im trying to say is that Hinduism does have the concept of evolution as a vital part of itself

there is this wonderful Ancient (far predating darvin.lol)Tamil Hindu-hymn that explains the knowledge of physical(darvinian evolution) amongst beings

it goes like
"pullaki-poodaki-puluvai-maramaki-
palvirukamai-paravayaip-pampaki
-kalla-manitharai-
thevarai-ellamumahi"

the english translation is

became grass-became little shoots of plants-became huge trees-became little worms-became birds-became snakes-became-illiterate-humans-became humans-became godlings/heavenly beings-became everything.

this, i dare say is VERY good example of evolution as per believed by Hindus,

another quote -
from the famous hindu sage swami Vivekananda
"
The secret of evolution is in the organism itself. The Vedantic concept of evolution is much deeper. Swami Vivekananda observes:

From the lowest protoplasm to the most perfect human being there is really but one life. Just as in one life we have so many various phases of expression, the protoplasm developing into the baby, the child, the young man, the old man, so, from that protoplasm up to the most perfect man we get one continuous life, one chain. This is evolution, but we have seen that each evolution presupposes an involution. The whole of this life which slowly manifests itself evolves itself from the protoplasm to the perfected human being---the Incarnation of God on earth the whole of this series is but one life, and the whole of this manifestation must have been involved in that very protoplasm. This whole life, this very God on earth, was involved in it and slowly came out, manifesting itself slowly, slowly, slowly. (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. II, p. 228)
"

According to the Hindu tradition, 'a jiva (from the stage of a protozoan, perhaps) attains competence for a human body after undergoing 8,400,000 births.'

It may be interesting to note that some ancient Puranas of the Hindus record in detail this evolutionary journey. For example, the Brihad Vishnu Purana states that there are a total of 8,400,000 species in the following order:

20,000 species of non-mobile plants etc. Sthavara); 900,000 species of aquatic creatures; 900,000 species of amphibian and reptiles, 1,000,000 species of birds, etc.; 3,000,000 species of other creatures such as animals, etc.; 400,000 species of anthropoids (Vanaras), after which the human species (Manushya) of 200,000 varieties come into being, and Man then engages in purposeful activity to attain perfection.

the 10 incarnations of vishnu, and also that of other gods are a natural outgrowth of the above-mentioned belief in evolution

hope this answer is adequate:)

Answer 2

Evolution Hinduism

Answer 3

Hinduism, a misconception to lot of people, is the way of living and not a religion, originated over 5000 years ago (probably 10000 years ago much before Indus valley civilization) in North India and present Pakistan, Afghanistan areas. During those days the people in India had different religious beliefs as they worshipped different Gods, which is happening even to this date. Like all other beliefs, Hinduism has their version of creation of the world. There is an equilibrium of 3 Gods who maintain this universe. Brahma is the almighty creator of this world, Vishnu the almighty preserver of this world and Shiva, the almighty destroyer of the world. Evolution has probably not been sited explicitly in any of the religious books (which I know of). The religion is so old and Vedas, the official bible of Hindu religion, is not available in full, difficult to read and understand or conceived. If it was available and understandable in full, one could easily answer the above question.
Here is one instance which might keep you wondering about the evolution and when Hinduism came into existence. In one of the two famous epics, Ramayan, it is told that an army of "monkeys" helped Rama in order to retain his wife from the enemy. These "monkeys" told in the epic unlike the monkeys we know could talk, think and walk on two legs, (probably some form of apes). This might mean that these "monkeys" were semi-evolved ones and this also means that during evolution there was co-existence of two different species and evolution is clearly evident. So, Hinduism beliefs show that they actually saw evolution happen.
There has been some geographical evidence that this epic might have really happened, the bridge in the sea which was built by Rama and the monkeys between India and Sri Lanka which could be viewed from satellite pictures. It is hard to back this theory, as it should have happened at least 10,000 years ago. It is hard to believe the authenticity of the epic because of various reasons and also that it is hard to imagine that human beings were so intelligent, values were so high, technology was so advanced as depicted in the epic. There were various incidents within this epic on how humans actually built vehicles which could actually fly.
Though it is probably not mentioned clearly, Hinduism probably saw the evolution of man from apes or monkeys.

Answer 4

The first thing I remember about Hinduism went more or less like this:

In the beginning there was a field of consciousness. It just was there.
Then the consciousness felt: oho, I'm here. And it started to move and feel, then to create from itself. And thus, everything was born.
I mean, if that is not evolution then I really don't know what is.

(But I'm not sure I got it right ... just my impression)

Answer 5

Hinduism too believe in Evolution. It is the evolution of humans that take several lives. Perfection is not attained in a life. Secondly God is never in a hurry. Slow and steady win the race. Sai Baba has also said ' Start early, Drive slowly and reach safely. while advising the spiritual aspirants. Nothing is created with a magic band. nagarajan.

Answer 6

I don't believe Hinduism speaks about evolution one way or another. Given that Hinduism has way too many sacred scriptures to keep count of, I'm sure one of them has something in there that could be interpreted as evolution, if one wanted to. On the other hand, there is also sure to be stuff that can be interpreted to mean there is a creator God at the beginning of it all - but whether He (or She) created Man (and Woman) as well, is unclear to me.

The monkey's and demons in the Ramayana are not really relevant to this question, IMO. They just show that the different people in the region weren't seen as people by the authors of the epic. This is obviously ignorant, but to see it as a sign that there is awareness of our evolutionary link to monkeys is stretching it, I think.

Answer 7

Hinduism accepts evolution. In fact Lord Vishnu`s 10 incarnations are in the order of evolution. 1)Fish or marine incarnation 2)Tortoise incarnation as amphibian 3) Hog incarnation- primitive slow terrestrial animal 4) Half lion & half human incarnation 5)Short VAMANA 6)Bhargava the ferocious human 7)Sriram- full civilised human 8) Krishna more evolved powerful ruler 9) Budha the most enlihgtened and 10)Kaki the future incarnation.
From Fish to Kaki is full evolution.

Answer 8

I have not seen any theories on it.

There are a lots of religions that do not go there, they deal with good living and salvation through good healthy deeds.

Most of the people are Hindu in India, but the school there do teach both the theories, exception been some christen denomination schools.

Answer 9

Of'course they believe in Evolution. All the way down to the last piece of bone marrow.