It's probably the biggest issue in the USA. Whether someone called God "intelligently designed" life and all its features, or was it all through chemical reactions followed by the so controversial word "evolution"? While many believed that the 1925 Scopes-monkey trial settled once and for all in favor of evolution; in 1999, the Kansas Board of Education decided to delete the teaching of evolution from the state's science curriculum. So much so, George Bush has stressed the need to present both views with equal respect in schools. If any one is interested in the details of this issue, please read this great piece in the New Yorker.
School texts across India mention creationism along with evolution as one of the possible theories. But while creationism gets a paragraph, evolution is dealt with in much greater detail thereby implicitly establishing evolution as the correct theory. While Hinduism (over 2500 years old) commonly believes that it was Brahma who created life, Hindus in general don’t have any conflict in accepting both evolution and Brahma-creationism. Of course, Hindus have this remarkable ability to simultaneously believe in two contrasting theories. (As I have said in an earlier post, a Hindu student of advanced physics finds it perfectly OK to pray to a Sun God while studying fusion in detail). So can people in the US live like the Hindus do, or will they wait till the pope (who because of his most remarkable scientific background, also happens to be the final approver of scientific theories) says more than that "evolution is more than just a theory"?
2 comments:
As reg living lives with ironies.. Hindus must be miles ahead of the rest. I recently saw the ISRO chairman offering prayers at Tirupathi before a launch and apparently wished for its success. And somebody told me that ISRO chooses 'auspicious' dates for its launches. I do not know if this is a fact.. but I hope it isn't true!
@fnr_thomas:
I wonder how the evolved human species will be like, say 5 million years from now.
@aswin and gaurav:
Gaurav, i agree with your point that "Making and Breaking theories is just a means for a human to survive". But when the ISRO goes into such superstitious paths, there is something else going in as well: it's probably lack of believing in science enough or being too trigger-happy in life to take a puase and understand that belief in one means you cant probably believe in another (as in the ISRO case)..
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