[Advaita-l] creationist And evolutionist

[Raghavendra N Kalyan]

Namaste,
   
   
  > Can an advaitin recognize creationism And (not or) evolutionism ?
   
   
  Since evolution is based on pratyaksha and anumAna (direct observation/experiment and logical inference), an advaitin should have no problem in accepting it.
   
   
  But creationism can create some problems. There are some creationists who claim that the world was created in 4000 BC or something like that. These are directly against observation and needless to say an advaitin would reject them.
   
   
  Of course there are some theories of creation in Sruti which "appear" to contradict evolution. But then, the standard advaitic position is that the (mutually) contradictory nature of some creation theories in Sruti, is meant to drive home the point that creation falls under the realms of mAyA. (I may not be exactly correct here, but this is the gist anyway).  Note that this is not a modern day cooked-up reinterpretation of the Sruti but it has its basis in the mANDukya upanishad bhAshya + gauDapAda's kArikAs. The "ajAti vAda" (no creation in the ultimate sense) is derived from this. From this point of view, neither Sruti nor advaita vedAnta (which is based on Sruti) should have any problem with evolution.

		
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