{"id":6903,"date":"2009-02-04T16:29:50","date_gmt":"2009-02-04T15:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=6903"},"modified":"2009-02-04T16:29:50","modified_gmt":"2009-02-04T15:29:50","slug":"happy-birthday-darwin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=6903","title":{"rendered":"Happy birthday, Darwin?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Isvara Krishna das <\/strong><\/p>\n

As you probably know 2009 is a double Darwin anniversary: the British naturalist was born 200 years ago and his ‘The Origin of Species’ was published 150 years ago. The scientific establishment is making arrangements to increase the number of its “Darwin Day” events where it can defend and promote the evolutionary theory.<\/p>\n

The Hungarian Society for Krishna-consciousness formulated a press release on this subject. Although it is not an official international ISKCON statement we suggest to use this text (or its modified version) in local languages all over the world.<\/p>\n

The Darwin Day is on 12th of February. So it is the most practical to send the message to the media on 9th or 10th of February, so they can use this material in their articles on the “big day”.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

Your servant: Isvara Krsna das
\n————————————————–
\nStatement by Krishna believers on Evolution Theory on the 200th Anniversary of Charles Darwin’s Birth<\/p>\n

English naturalist Charles Darwin was born 200 years ago and his book “Origin of Species by natural selection” was published 150 years ago. In his book he put forward his theory of evolution, according to which the types of living beings gradually evolved from common ancestors, from the primitive to the more complex. Although the theory never gained universal acceptance, by now it has become a marked element of public thinking.<\/p>\n

As we see it, however, the Darwinian hypothesis on the transformation of the living world is merely an arbitrary interpretation of facts and, in spite of its being widely known, it has never been scientifically proven.<\/p>\n

Similarly to hundreds of millions of Hindus, the Krishna-conscious devotees consider the ancient Vedic scriptures in Sanskrit language as the reliable source of knowledge related to the origins and ultimate questions of existence. These scriptures belong to the most ancient heritage of mankind and their followers accept them as divine revelation. According to the Vedic literature, our world and the species in it emerged by a process of creation. Living beings are eternal spirit souls who spend a determinate amount of time in the various bodily forms of different species.<\/p>\n

Our civilisation is greatly influenced by the ideas about the origin of life and our species. Because of the dominant evolutionary paradigm, many regard life and themselves a mere product of matter. This view has formed the basis for the emergence of the hedonist, greed driven, consumer attitude of modern society that has led to the present economic, environmental and food crisis looming over humankind. Darwin’s theory is thus not only unproven, but, to a large extent, also responsible for the moral decline of human culture.<\/p>\n

According to a well-known approach the evolution theory should be integrated into religious teachings. Proponents of this idea say that, although the creation of the world was initiated by God, the species are not the products of His actions but of natural processes. We deem such a distortion of the tenets of monotheistic religions as unfounded, for, originally, all these religions professed the direct creation of both the living and inanimate worlds. We see no reason why the unproven, human ideology of Darwinism should be mixed with the wisdom of revelations – that would be a concession to appease the proponents of materialism. We are convinced that the role of religions in society is to consistently represent divine truth rather than to make unscrupulous compromises with the dominant (and ever changing) materialistic views of the day.<\/p>\n

We find it important that those forming the opinion of society take steps to counterbalance the dominant, practically exclusive, evolutionist approach in education and mass communication. The Darwinian thought should not be presented as “The Explanation” but, true to the facts, as a hypothesis that has its own problems and limitations, and to which divine creation is a justified and rational alternative. By presenting the subject without bias, we should leave the way open to the possibility of considering and accepting spiritual explanations.<\/p>\n

According to the Vedic model of society, its leaders – politicians, teachers, intellectuals – are not only supposed to look after the physical and cultural needs of the members of the society but it is also their responsibility to provide the possibility of spiritual advancement for the people. Favouring a strongly materialistic theory severely limits the way to understanding and attaining the final goal of life for the living beings who are longing for eternal bliss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Isvara Krishna das<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you probably know 2009 is a double Darwin anniversary: the British naturalist was born 200 years ago and his ‘The Origin of Species’ was published 150 years ago. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}