The Dilemma: To Believe in Darwin or The Minister?
VIEWS ON THE DARWINIAN THEORY OF EVOLUTION
Key words: Darwinism, views of Indian minister and public, world
view, misconceptions.
INDIAN VIEW
A few years ago, a junior minister of Human Resource Development in the then Government of India claimed that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution of man was “scientifically wrong”, and it needed to be changed in school and college curriculum. He said, “Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, have said they saw an ape turning into a man,”…. further adding “No books we have read, or the tales told to us by our grandparents had such a mention” (The Hindu, January 20, 2018). About two years later, the same Member of Parliament again questioned Darwin's theory of evolution saying human beings are descendants of sages and not monkeys as propounded by the British scientist (Times of India, Jul 19, 2019).
It is an altogether different matter that Charles Darwin never claimed that “man was descended from the apes,” nor did he say that an ape turned into a man. Modern scientists would view such a statement as a useless simplification—just as they would dismiss any popular notions that a certain extinct species is the “missing link” between humans and the apes. In 1871 Darwin suggested in his book The Descent of Man that human beings shared a recent common ancestor with the great African apes. Darwin’s assertion was based on the many shared anatomical features of apes and humans. In his Descent of Man, he referred to the natural processes leading to us, the Homo sapiens, dwelling at length on the special role of the secondary mechanism of sexual selection. Darwin makes it very clear that he considers human thinking and actions, especially in the moral realm, have an evolutionary origin just as much as our physical nature.
Notwithstanding the minister’s comment, a study conducted by group of evolutionary biologists from the Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, India (Blast and Tahilramani, 2018; Times of India, Aug 30, 2018) revealed that 68.5% of Indians accepted that the human beings evolved from earlier species of animals. The figures though are marginally less than in Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, France, and Japan, where over 78% accept evolution, are significantly higher than that in many other countries including the United States and Turkey. According to Pew Research Analysis (2013), only 32% American adults accept evolution of human beings through natural processes, while 33% of the whole population entirely reject it.
Countries where religious belief is high (Turkey, US etc.) tend to be least likely to accept the evolution, and vice versa. Paradoxically, the Indian population is thought to be highly religious, with the 2011 census revealing 99.8% of the population to be part of major religions in the country; merely 0.2% had no religion. According to Bast and Tahilramani (2018), the possible reason for high public acceptance of evolution in India despite the fact of high religiosity is that Hinduism, the major religion in India, is not in conflict with Darwin’s theory of evolution to a large extent. Most Hindus accept the theory of biological evolution, as similar concepts like the concepts of dashavatara (ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu) have existed in India since time immemorial.
But as one goes behind these numbers to ask what the Hindus actually mean when they say that they accept the theory of evolution, the story gets more complicated. As noted by Nanda (2010), it becomes evident from reading the writings of professional Hindu gurus, sages and philosophers and following public perception that “evolution” in this case does not necessarily mean Darwinism. While Darwinian theory explains evolution of species by descent from a common ancestor by genetic modification, Hindu teachings assume spirit or consciousness to be the primary force of evolution.
Thus, most Hindus who answer in affirmative when asked if they believe in theory of evolution are actually quite comfortable with reincarnation of karma-bearing soul as the cause of evolution of species which supposedly takes place in cycles of growth and decline, each lasting for billions of years (Nanda, 2010). What immediately stands out about these theories is how deeply and fundamentally they contradict Darwin.
Questions about our origin and the topic of human evolution always generate intense interest across the world. In fact, no topic in all of science is more contentious or polarizing than evolution; on the top of it, media sources often only serve to magnify this polarization. Challenges to accepting and understanding evolution are many, which include mistrust and denial of science, cognitive obstacles and misconceptions, language and terminology, and a religious worldview.
WORLD VIEW
A perusal of overall world view indicates that evolution denial by much of the general public has been in stark contrast to consensus within the scientific community, despite nearly a century of increases in levels of formal education and scientific evidence. As shown by various authors, it ranges from “ignorance of the evidence to outright denial or distortion of data” (Liu, 2012, referred to in Pobiner, 2016), and stems from a myriad of often interwoven reasons.
One of the most common questions and misconceptions is often phrased as the question “if humans evolved from apes [or monkeys], why are there still apes [or monkeys]?” Or, why haven't all primates evolved into humans? Isn't evolution just an inference? Why do not we see humans evolving from apes now? etc., etc.
Pobiner (2016) refers to a study on 12th-grade Singaporean students’ understanding of human evolution using an open-ended question about human ancestry. This study was done with students from a wide variety of religious background. Most students thought that an extant ape gave rise to humans (like the minister!) . While several students thought that more than one species or a hybrid organism was the most recent common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, some students inferred that since chimpanzees existed at 4 million years ago, it must be them.
According to Pobiner (2016), one major reason for such misconceptions is the wrong
perception that evolution is always
linear and innately progressive. Another reason may lie in not clearly spelling out the issue of common
ancestors versus living relatives. Pobiner opines that reiterating the fact that we evolved from fossil apes (using
the qualifier ‘fossil’ in front of apes) and that living species are neither
ancestors nor descendants of each other might be helpful. Miekle and Scott
(2010) also point out that the concept of “cousins” can be helpful in
overcoming such misconceptions.
It is also apparent that
most of the books on human origin and evolution in India are in English
language and the texts are of technical nature. There is hardly any book or
publication that describes the basic of
human origin and evolution in a popular
fashion in vernacular languages for non-specialists. I think in order to make
Darwin’s views on origin and evolution of species in general, and human
evolution in particular, acceptable to all we need to have many publications in
different Indian vernacular languages.
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