Thread by @Hiranyareta

Hamare Saadhu-Mahatma kahate hain agar need na aaye to Vedanta ka koi text padho aur turant need aa jaayegi. 🤣
So here is something very interesting I came across during last night's bedtime reading. It's about Darwinian evolution and the Upanishads (Vedanta).

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"Darwin’s theory of evolution is related to Biological evolution from viruses to unicellular to complex life forms ending up with human beings or Homo sapiens.
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According to Prof. Julian Huxley, evolution has peaked with the specialization of conceptual thought processes for humans.
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Natural selection, the survival of the fittest, and a major specialization in a particular branch of evolution, etc., are all the processes that can be accounted for based on the observations in the evolutionary ladder.
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Physics, as well as biology, come to stand still when it
comes to the origin of the universe or the origin of life or consciousness.
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In terms of the origin of the universe, we are left with the Big Bang, a singularity that can only account what happened after the millionth of a second after the bang, with space and time created with the bang.
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Therefore one cannot ask questions like ‘where did the bang occur?’ since ‘where’ is a concept of space. One cannot also ask what was there before the Big Bang since ‘before’ is a concept of time.
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Furthermore, one cannot also ask questions like, ‘How did the bang occur or what are the laws governing the bang since even laws of bang were created with the bang. 8/

Cause-effect relations breakdown when one wants to enquire further. 9/

‘Singularity’ essentially means ignorance as we do not know, or it cannot be explained since explanations rely on logic or deductive or inductive reasoning, which fails miserably as they are within the concept of time.10/

In principle, the Big Bang occurred everywhere, wherever the observer (the conscious entity who is enquiring) is.11/

It is deduced by extrapolating the length-time scales of ever-expanding galaxies backward, and the point of extrapolation meets where the observer is, who is doing the extrapolation. 12/

Thus every observer becomes a center of Big Bang or center of the creation of this phenomenal world, wherever he is, who is trying to look into the past by extrapolating the time-space.13/

In a way, Vedanta says the same thing. The observer is the center of the universe with ignorance covering factors beyond the time-space, what a scientist conveniently calls it as a singularity. 14/

From the point of the origin of life too, science
ends up with another singularity attributing to another
accident. From the point of science, life originated when
accidentally appropriate chemicals came into contact. 15/

In essence, according to current theories, consciousness
originated from matter. It cannot explain how and why
unconscious entities or assemblage of chemicals suddenly became conscious entities. 16/

Thus ignorance prevails about the entities before the Big Bang or the origin of the consciousness. 17/

Investigations are still going on trying to find out what exactly is consciousness and how does it arise in living beings, again by trying to look for answers within unconscious entities such as alpha waves or beta waves or origin of neurons, etc. 18/

In essence, a conscious entity is looking for origin for
consciousness in the unconscious entities. Vedanta says one can never discover the truth that way since it excludes the investigator who is a conscious entity. 19/

Therefore, the system that is being investigated is incomplete at best. On the other hand, the investigator cannot investigate himself since the subject cannot be objectified for the study.20/

Thus, in essence, neither the origin of the physical matter nor the origin of life can be clearly accounted for by logic-
based science, using objective tools. 21/

It is to be noted that Darwin’s theory of evolution involves increasingly complex life-forms to meet the criteria of survival of the fittest. 22/

It involves extensive order, and therefore requires forces beyond human comprehension to maintain that order countering the natural thermodynamic forces to push the system into disorder.23/

However, once we accept the laws governing the biological evaluation, such as natural selection, the survival of the fittest, etc., then, Darwin’s theory of Evolution could follow. 24/

From the point of Vedanta, the theory is irrelevant and may be taken to be valid within vyavahaara or transactional reality like all other scientific theories. It has to be recognized that Darwin’s theory of evolution pertains to the anatomical evolution at the Biological level.

What exactly ‘Life’ means or consciousness means can never be analyzed using objective tools. It can only address how life forms evolved and not what ‘Life’ means. This aspect of Darwin’s theory has to be clear.
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In essence, any evolution theory presupposes creation
since something has to be pre-existing for it to evolve further.
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Unlike other religions, Vedantins have no conflict with Darwin’s theory of evolution since its application is only relevant to vyaavahaara like all theories of objective sciences, and therefore cannot account for spiritual evolution.
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What makes the biological matter to become dynamic and follow the evolution process is not addressed in Darwin’s theory of evolution.
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That there is a spirit that is a conscious entity that makes the matter enliven as the expression of life forms that wants to survive, cannot be known through any scientific or biological tools for evaluation.
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