Can a scientist who accepts evolution practice Krishna consciousness?
Question can a scientist who accepts the theory of evolution practice Krishna consciousness answer I am a PhD scientist who has studied the theory of evolution as I specialize in biology and I find the evidence for it quite strong and I also find the arguments that devotees use against it to be largely childish and they can easily be refuted but when I try to point this out to devotees they become very angry and call me faithless I want to practice Krishna consciousness but I seem to cause conflict whenever the issue of evolution comes up how should I go ahead in my practice of Krishna consciousness answer anyone can practice Krishna consciousness it is not that we take an initiation vow that I will refuse to believe in the theory of evolution when we start practicing Krishna consciousness or even when we take initiation so there is absolutely no bar for anyone as far as the practice of Krishna consciousness is concerned at the same time we have to understand that Krishna consciousness is not just a set of activities that we do like chanting or coming to the temple nor is it just attraction to Krishna attraction to Krishna can be cultural it can be historical it can be conceptual it need not necessarily be devotional or spiritual although it may appear like that so spiritual and devotional attraction to Krishna means that we accept Krishna as the absolute truth and we accept him as the cause of all causes and serve him accordingly with that understanding so with respect to evolution I feel that many devotees who are in the academia are not exposed to its critique adequately you know criticism of evolution is not just something which Hare Krishna devotees are doing nor is it something that just religious hardliners are doing there are many scientists without any religious connections who have pointed out the crippling deficiencies of evolution on purely scientific terms without any religious implications or connections whatsoever so as a scientific theory itself it is debatable but still I am not going to go right now into the merits of the and demerits of evolution because that is not a thrust of the question on this article site itself there is article which analyzes this scientific examination of evolution and then those who are further interested can read Sadaput Prabhu's and Dhritakarma Prabhu's books H. R. L. Thomson and Dr. Michael Kringle's books for a systematic analysis of the problems with evolution and the Discovery Institute has also come up with many books although several scientists within the Discovery Institute have connections with Christianity but not all of them there are many like David Berlinski for example who is a mon-jew but he is not a practitioner but he makes many coherent and cogent critiques of evolution which evolutionists have never been able to respond to effectively so anyway the point is that as far as practice of Krishna consciousness is concerned anyone can practice it so if somehow because of our educational upbringing and because of the current level of our exposure to the theory of evolution it may appear to us as if it is an acceptable theory but scientifically it has its merits and it has its demerits and as far as the arguments of devotees seeming childish we have to understand that there are different levels of arguments which devotees with different levels of proficiency will make most devotees are not scientists and that's why if we want scientifically precise arguments then we will have to look at the writings of scientifically trained devotees when we have a war being fought a food soldier will fight with a food soldier a cavalry a horse rider will fight with a horse rider, an elephant warrior can fight with an elephant warrior so if somebody is deep into science then that person has a lot of issues then it's like a person who is a horse rider trying to being challenged by a person who is a food soldier that's not going to work so it's not that the arguments against evolution themselves are weak although some of the arguments that devotees use may not be very sound in the perspective of serious scientific scrutiny but even with the perspective of serious scientific scrutiny there are arguments which are sound and we have to look at the right sources to find those arguments and as far as the conflict is concerned we have to know that ultimately there is a central aspect and a peripheral aspect in our practice of Krishna Consciousness and the central aspect is our relationship with Krishna and a lot of things are peripheral so whatever is favorable we accept, whatever is unfavorable we put aside so Prabhupada you could say had conflicts with Upathalam Si who later became Upasavudana Maharaj and Prabhupada pointed out to him the deficiencies of the scientific world view which is based on chance so there that led to because of Prabhupada's potency and purity that led to a realignment of one's understanding in the case of Upasavudana Maharaj now not every devotee teacher may have the same potency and we may find that our previous education or our current understanding seems to be more convincing than what we may hear from devotees so in such situations the important point to recognize is that there is no need to aggravate conflict that means that if I am finding that I am attracted to Krishna Consciousness I want to practice Krishna Consciousness but evolution is an issue because of which I am not able to practice then let me put it aside let me not become a proponent of the theory of evolution within the devotee community that will create unnecessary conflict and it's quite unlikely that one will meet with much success and it's not necessary also for one to become a proponent of something which has anti devotional implications now one can with one's personal life practice Krishna Consciousness and with whatever faith one has in Krishna one can pray to Krishna to give one guidance about how to perceive one's Krishna Consciousness in an amicable way now beyond that one will also have to do some intellectual adjustment about how one reconciles the concept of evolution with our understanding of God with understanding of God as the creator and the source of everything so that is something which one will have to do individually so I would say that it would be one can put certain categories certain things in the category of suspending judgment so this is not what is of central importance to me right now in my practice of devotional life so let me put it in the category of suspending judgment that I don't bother about it and I focus on the practice of Krishna Consciousness this is not the soundest policy and actually if one gives serious study to the arguments that contradict evolution then one will find that one can move one's position from the state of suspended judgment to the position of skepticism not towards scripture but towards evolution and we have to understand that the criticism of evolution is not the criticism of science science is much stronger when it is studying current events that are observable repeatable verifiable when science makes predictions about things that happened millennia ago which are not observable which are not repeatable, which are not verifiable then it is on much weaker grounds so when we understand the difference between the two then we may also find that we don't have to, we won't be so much on the defensive the rejection of evolution is not a rejection of science it is just a scientific exposure of a theory that is masquerading as science but is actually weak in terms of its scientific credentials or to speak of it further being strongly anti-devotional so to summarize anyone can practice Christian consciousness and a theory of evolution with its idea that things came through natural selection and chance mutation and similar things it does meditate against one of the central understandings of Christian consciousness but still one can continue practicing Christian consciousness if one finds that one is unable to intellectually realize and recognize the weaknesses of this theory but we can put the whole theory in the state of suspended judgment it would be better however if one gives a serious study to the critiques, scientific critiques of evolution and harmonizes one's understanding with what is scientifically sound and with what is consistent with scripture.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.