Creation & Evolution

The doctrine of creation is the Biblical teaching of the origin, nature, purpose, and destiny of creation. There has been much concern over this doctrine and the defence of it in the past two centuries since the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). Evolutionism has become one of the most threatening enemies of the doctrine of creation. By its predominance over the secular education system it seems to have eclipsed all other religious and philosophical theories of origins. While evolutionism has got a stronghold in biology, physicists such as Stephen Hawkings in A Brief History of Time (1988), have gained a great audience for their theories of origins that leave no room for God. The implications have been tremendously great. The concept of the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence has been explored in both science and fiction. The scientific interest in this field has given rise to idea of SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). The American agency NASA has a SETI program that uses high-speed computers to search in eight million radio channels simultaneously for signals from outer space.

Regardless of its prevalence and predominance over the education system, the theory of evolution has not been able to destroy the religious spirit of India. Doubtlessly, the past two centuries have seen a great change in the intellectual climate of the nation. On one hand, was to be seen the positive effect of Christianity on reformation movements such as the Brahmo Samaj, while on the other hand, could be seen the revival movements such as the Arya Samaj that shunned anything Western. Meanwhile, philosophers such as Sri Aurobindo Ghose tried to fuse evolutionism and Vedantism together as the pride of heritage prodded the intellectuals to give the Vedas a scientific face.