The theory of evolution, and it is increasingly proved that it is not merely a theory, but the truth that underlines how life evolved, has been under attack from the fundamentalists all over the world. The religions that believe in the sanctity of books more than the sanctity of human lives have been in the forefront to criticize the theory of evolution. Evolution is true is proved by experiments and by the strong evidence. The premise on which the theory of evolution rests is this: an incremental change over the period of a long long time creates complex changes. It takes millions of years, deep time, to make a species of human being, or for that matter any life on the earth. The life did not emerge magically from the divine body. Actually, the word divine is problematic.

One of the arguments against the theory of evolution is an intelligent design and it goes like this: any design needs a designer. This hits at the bottom of the reality on which the entire life had evolved. There is no designer, there is no volition that has designed human beings, but there is only designing: the process that made us evolve into what we are today.

If we look at the religions, they either talk about creation or destruction and the human life is but one long waiting in the limbo between the creation and destruction. This is what the theistic or the religions that are based on the power dynamics preach. That there is a creator, a creator God, and that creator God presides over the human affairs and the human beings are created in his image. The God is also masculine. You pick up any creationist theory and it smells of the power dynamics, that is why the process of evolution that seeks common human origin as the process common to all human beings is a danger to the established powers.

Darwin’s ancestors were anti-slavery and in his journey to South America, Darwin reflected on the plights of the African Americans. What he found was the common origin of the human species and in fact all life. His finding is beautiful for the life and it shows that we are all part of the web of life and not an isolated atomized reality. The life evolves is a beautiful concept and that there is no father-lord but impersonal nature process that is underneath this complex reality is liberating.

India’s casteist orthodoxy has always disliked the theory of evolution. The Vedic creationism is all about the creation of the Brahmin male, Kshatriya male, Vaishya male, and Shudra male. It is one of the ugliest ways of presenting the facts and the truths about human life to create a power structure. The advocates of the Brahminical society have always tried to use some vague form of what goes in the name of the “social Darwinism” as a support for the caste system by advocating a food chain based on “big fish eats a small fish” and hence the Brahmins should devour the Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudras. This hunger to scavenge on the living human being is the underlined theme of Brahminism, which tries to reduce humanity to the living corpse. It has no intelligence to appreciate life and the beautiful process that makes life possible.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist

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