Page 10 - RD (English) - Sample
P. 10
2 IntroductIon
community, and offers an alternative viewpoint to standard modern
evolutionary thinking.
One distinguishing feature of this book is that it is written from the
standpoint of someone trained in the thoughts of Eastern philosophy,
or, more precisely, in the Vedic tradition of ancient India. This natu-
rally has a bearing on the material
selected and the issues discussed
in the book, and the last chapter
directly outlines a Vedic philoso-
phy of nature as an alternative to
Darwinism.
Not only is this book about evo-
lution; it is also, in its own right,
the result of an evolution. It started
as an idea to present some Vedic
perspectives on Darwinism in the
form of an easy-to-read booklet,
to be published and widely dis-
tributed during the Darwin bicen-
tennial in 2009. As the material
accumulated, I saw that more
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) than a small publication was tak-
ing shape. At one point I contacted
three of the world’s leading proponents of Intelligent Design, profes-
sor of biochemistry Dr. Michael Behe, mathematician and philosopher
Dr. William A. Dembski, and biologist Dr. Jonathan Wells. They all
found the idea of a book with a Vedic angle an interesting challenge,
and each agreed to contribute a chapter. Then historian of archeology
Dr. Michael Cremo, co-author of the taboo-breaking book Forbidden
Archeology – a work directly inspired by the Vedic account of a human
presence in ancient times – also consented to write a chapter. Clearly,
a unique publication was unfolding. The result is what you now hold
in your hand.
Until Darwin’s time, mainstream science had concluded that