Hare Krishna creationism

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The Hare Krishna view of the creation of the universe takes a selection of the Vedic texts as literal truth.

Its advocates call it Hindu Creationism, although Hindu creation mythology, cosmology and legends are considerably more varied. The Krishna version is quite specific, detailed and coherent.[1]

It is a form of old earth creationism - in fact, it proposes an age for Earth and the universe older than that accepted by science.

Contents

[edit] Beliefs

The main belief is that all species on earth including humans have devolved from a higher state of consciousness (the spirit world). Proponents believe that all organisms were originally immaterial and exist in a spirit world before they become covered in matter to enter the material universe. They believe that human beings are really spirits who have become covered and trapped in matter but by doing meditation, spirituality, and reading the Vedic writings can cast off materialism, raise their consciousness to a higher plane of existence and become the spiritual beings that they really are.[2]

The only modern day supporters of Hindu creationism are with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). The founder of ISKCON, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada rejected natural selection but accepted a form of evolution. According to Prabhupada humans have always existed in a spiritual form.[3] In one publication he accepted that "species of life evolved from aquatics to plants, vegetables, trees; thereafter insects, reptiles, flies, birds, then beasts, and then human kind".[4]

Two theories which advocated similar views were proposed by William Fix in 1984 and John Davidson in 1992.

Krishna creationism, labelled "Hindu" or "Vedic creationism", was explained in detail by Michael Cremo in his book Human Devolution: A Vedic alternative to Darwin's theory (2003). In 2011 Leif A. Jensen and Cremo wrote Rethinking Darwin: A Vedic Study of Darwinism and Intelligent Design.

Hare Krishna devotee Stephen Knapp has written:

The Vedic texts say that the source of humanity, and all life, is a matter of devolving from higher dimensions, namely from the spiritual dimension. All living beings are not only physical, but also the subtle body of mind, intelligence, ego, and, ultimately, the spiritual soul which is beyond everything else. Therefore, living beings have not evolved out of matter, or evolved up from the apes, but are only traveling through matter and the various forms that nature provides, each form or species based on our level of consciousness. This is to acquire all the experiences that this three-dimensional world can provide, and that our consciousness deems necessary for our own growth. Then, once we are finished with this material realm of existence by regaining our spiritual identity and acting on that level, we make our way back to the spiritual domain.

This view rejects the out of Africa theory of human origins and endorses a model of "simultaneous multi-species", the view that different species of human-like beings exist at the same time.[5] ISKCON members such as Michael Cremo take a literal reading of the Hindu religious writings such as the Puranas which teach that time and space are cyclical. They also believe that the earth goes through a cyclic model of yugas which says that life on earth devolves through epochs, with each one becoming progressively darker, more alienated and degenerated than the previous.[6][7]

[edit] Hindu creationism and Christianity

Hindu creationists share an opposite view of life from Biblical creationists on many topics. For example they accept an old earth and even believe the universe is older than modern science claims it is; this is the opposite of young earth creationists. Hindu creationists also accept the Big Bang and merge it into a cyclical model. They also believe humanity is two billion years old, whilst most, but not all, Christian creationists only believe it is about 6,000-10,000.

A similarity in Hindu creationism is it teaches that devolution occurs in biology due to a past "Vedic curse" of decay and degeneration on the world of nature which is mentioned in the Puranas.[8] This is very similar to the curse and belief in "sin" which is advocated by Christian creationists such as Ken Ham.

Hindu creationists similar to the Christian creationists also deny macroevolution and only support microevolution. Yet they also embrace paranormal and occult topics such as out of body experiences, aliens and reincarnation which most Christians say is "heretical." However both Christian and Hindu creationists are religious fundamentalists who read their religious writings as literal.

Hindu creationists also accept that "ape men" have existed and that humans have coexisted with them, this view is opposed by Christian creationists.

[edit] Hindu creationism and science

Though modern Hindu creationists accept evidence for an old earth and an old universe, they also accept the evidences of evolution. The theory of Dashavatara can be seen as having some similarities with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.[9][10][11][12]

According to Hindu creationists modern day humans have existed in present form for 2 billion years. Michael Cremo has attempted to document old skeletons and artefacts which he thinks proves this idea, but his books have been rejected as pseodohistorical and pseodoarchaeological pseudoscience by the archaeological, historical and scientific communities.[13]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. A loose analogy: imagine taking the novel, detailed cosmologies of American evangelical fundamentalist Christians and calling them "Jewish creationism".
  2. Michael Cremo (2003). Human Devolution: A Vedic alternative to Darwin's theory. Bhaktivedanta Book Publishing
  3. See Life Comes from Life - written by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (founder of ISKCON)
  4. We Accept Evolution, but Not Darwin's Theory
  5. The Out of Africa Theory Verses the Vedic View
  6. The Hare Krishna movement: the postcharismatic fate of a religious transplant, Maria Ekstrand, 2004, p. 12
  7. Back to godhead: the magazine of the Hare Krishna Movement, Volume 23, Baktivendanta Book Trust, 1988, p. 71
  8. Symptoms of Devolution
  9. By "Flipside of Hindu Symbolism: Sociological and Scientific Linkages in Hinduism", by "M. K. V. Narayan", P. 185.
  10. http://business.highbeam.com/437657/article-1G1-194886404/difference-did-darwin-make
  11. "Religion & Ethics-Hinduism". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/beliefs/intro_1.shtml. Retrieved 2008-12-26. 
  12. By John Hedley Brooke, Ronald L. Numbers, "Science and Religion Around the World", P. 204,
  13. Creationism: The Hindu View By Colin Groves
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