SOUL BELIEFS AND CONSEQUENCES – SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

This writeup was submitted as final assignment in the Coursera Course “Soul Beliefs and Consequences Unit-III “how does it all End

SOUL BELIEFS AND CONSEQUENCES – SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The purpose of this exercise is to is summarize the in-depth knowledge gained during over 30 weeks of online study in the Coursera/Rutgers’s University course tilled “Soul Beliefs and Consequences. The in- depth knowledge gained are in the following categories:

1)      Soul beliefs and afterlife beliefs come mostly from religion and we explored in-depth soul beliefs from various religions of the world.

2)      Since soul beliefs were from religion we studied in-depth the possibility that religion itself is the result of adaptation and evolution and religion was essential for the survival of human kind and hence soul beliefs were for formed for human survival and may not be necessarily based on verifiable facts.

3)       This lead to the study of body mind dualism and evolution of the brain from reptilian brain to Reptilian formation to Paleomammalian formation to neo mammalian formation responsible for consciousness and cognitive skills such as language, imagination and nexting.

4)      We also studied some of the legal battles in the united states about the ethics of teaching evolution or not teaching evolution and creation of intelligent design to explain theory of creation consistent with one of the religions.

Instead of merely explaining the various soul beliefs revealed by the students (who were, Catholics, protestants, Christians of other denominations, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists and agonists) of the class that were told to them by parents, teachers, preachers, etc, I will present an analysis of the same. Here Abrahamic religions refer to Judaism, Christianity and Islam and Dharmic religions refer to Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

Basic differences in views of Dharmic Religions and Abrahamic Religions

	DHARMA BASED	ABROHOMIC
THE ULTIMATE REALITY	Some Lineages demand priori Beliefs. Others are process driven	A priori Belief in Mandatory
	Supreme being could be Male or female or both or neither. Ultimate reality could be impersonal. Multiple representations and access methods to one	Belief in Supreme being, described as male and father.
	Brahman is both transcendent and immanent. The world is sacred	God and World are distinct. World is dependent on God. And the world is separate/profane unless redeemed by Grace
	Integral Unity of everything; Ultimately no separate essences or things exist.	Separate souls and worlds of objects ultimately exists
	Ishvara includes everything good and bad. Deal with bad internally	Evil is a principle with its own self existence. It is an external force as well as internal innate inclination to cooperate with that force as a result of sin
	No doctrine about non-believers is enforced. Let others be. Worry about one’s own spirituality	Elaborate mandates about need to save others. Salvation is collective, hence institutional also; there is personal mandate to proselytize others.
THE HUMAN	Individual = Sat-Chit-Ananda, must self-realize	Individual is sinner and must be saved
	Reincarnation	Only one life
	Circumstances are made by Karma, hence self-made destiny, not fatalism	No explanation for individual’s good bad circumstance by birth
	Many adhyatma vidyas (processes for advancement). Belief is a working hypothesis. Supreme is present within adhyatma	Less stress on inner sciences/technologies. Salvation dependent on God’s grace with varying roles for belief and ‘work’. Work  means any activity, including ritual activity, undertaken for the purposes of salvation
	Karma and Release	Salvation: Retribution and redemption
THE WORLD	Time is beginning-less. Infinite cycle of Creation-Sustenance-Dissolution. Time and Causation are not linear.	Time and space had a beginning and are linear. This affects all History writing
	No End-Times or Finality, Moksha is individual and not collective	End-Times=Judgement day for all humanity
	History not critical because: many avatars; adhyamika experience of rishis as Shruthi; humans rewrite smritis.	Unique historical intervention of god. Hence history is all important to know God.
	Perennial access here and now, Independent of any history	Spiritual authority Contingent upon God’s revelation in history

Reference: pages 112,113, of book “Being Different” By Rajiv Malhotra

Next, we studied the question whether humans invented moral codes and religion to ensure social order, prevent freeloaders and create fighters for warring groups or if like finding fire the humans stumbled upon god realization while entering trance state while dancing or during contemplation and deep meditation – rituals and moral code derived later from this realization or handed down by a prophet/saint.

The scientific theory of evolution holds that the humans evolved from ‘lower’ species of less intelligent creatures and animals by process of adaptation by which the creatures who adopted to the environment better survived and produced offspring’s that had similar qualities that allowed them to survive and evolve (Here is an interesting question – who gave them the intelligence for this adaptation?). As the species evolved, the brain size/mass to physical mass/size increased as the brain developed from a triune brain from Reptilian formation (including basal ganglia, mid-brain, and brainstem) that Genetically encoded instinctual action plans related to primitive survival issues such as exploration, feeding, aggression, dominance, and sexuality to Paleomammalian formation (including the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus and other structures in the so called limbic system) which relate to Innate emotional and motivational systems shape behavioral responses to incoming stimuli based on instincts and past experience; mediates the social emotions, playfulness, and maternal nurturance and later to Neo mammalian formation (neocortex) that is responsible for  Declarative Knowledge about the world derived especially from sight, sound and touch. This process of brain evolution might have also resulted in the following scenario of creating religious beliefs.

The evolutionary psychologists like Wade believe that the primitive societies moved away from Alpha male dominated society to egalitarian society (where no one individual was the leader); the dominant person was at risk as others tended to gang up against them. Sharing of the hunt and produce was encouraged. In such societies, moral code was necessary to ensure survival of the group and ensure that everyone does their part and fighters were willing to lay down their life for the sake of the group. Such moral code was promoted by rituals such as ritualistic dancing, music and adhering moral code of conduct.

Rewards were meted out of good conduct and punishment handed out for deviations from the norm. It was not always possible to punish or reward all the folks and afterlife reward punishments system was invented and the belief in the soul took root. Also, it is possible that folks found it difficult to accept death of the dear ones or their own death and hence the belief in soul that lived on forever might have been created. Folks also started believing in super natural forces to account for disease, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters who could be endeared through rituals, prayer and sacrifices to lessen the burden on the individual and the group and emerge victorious in inter group warfare.

Such groups who adopted moral and religious values ensured social harmony and survival of the group. Those groups who did not perished due to natural selection say the evolutionary psychologists. Hence it is concluded that “No society has exited (or survived) without religion”. It is also observed that all societies without exception have common religious beliefs and most folks have religious tendencies and this corroborates the above view or conclusion.

We also looked in to the fact that Americans face the social controversy of about how to reconcile the teaching of scientific fact with religious belief. And a recent Gallup poll on Darwin’s birthday showed that only 39 percent of the American public overall “believes” in the theory of evolution and would rather believe in creationism or Intelligent Design. Whereas 97% scientists believe some theory of evolution and 87% of them believe in the Darwin’s theory of Natural selection.

Cartesian Dualism or the body/ mind problem which is the basis of western philosophy was discussed and how it differs from the Dualism observed in children by Professor Paul Bloom. Whereas Cartesian dualism was an observed conclusion, Children naturally believed is dualism, which is argued as result of evolutionary mechanism or adaptation. As religion and soul belief were postulated as result of adaptation and evolution that ensured the survival of humans it was suggested that the soul belief in children is a result of evolution and need be taken as given fact.

Further we looked at the seriousness with which the American public has taken to this debate by studying two related cases:

1)      Scopes trial held in the year 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, where a science teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution in biology class when the religious majority objected to teaching evolution in publicly funded classrooms.

2)    Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District: Teaching Intelligent Design in Public Schools. In October 2004 war broke out in the town of Dover Pennsylvania, between teachers were teaching evolution in the biology classes and those who coined up Intelligent Design to be taught as an alternative to be consistent with their religious beliefs and it landed up in the courtrooms.

Conclusion:

It is true that soul beliefs and religious beliefs are learnt by a child from their parents, teachers, preachers, friends and members of the society. It is also true most soul beliefs and religious beliefs may not be proven by verifiable fact. However, they have either been deduced during meditation or trance and proven to be useful for survival of human race as pointed out by evolutionary psychologists which has led to the conclusion that “no society ever survived without religion”.

However, it is important to also recognize and acknowledge that soul beliefs have been responsible for irrational conflicts and wars and humans in possession of destruction technology cannot hope to survive another deadly war based on soul beliefs. Hence it is important to recognize the source of soul beliefs and others and realize it is only an accident that one has one set of beliefs and need not go the extremes of self-destruction or destruction of others to defend them. The idea is not to discard the soul beliefs but to examine the source and nature of the beliefs and enable constructive contributions to the society, world and survival and progress of human race.

It really matters less whether religion and soul beliefs are based on the true representation of the ultimate reality or it is result of evolutionary effect. Either way it is useful; either for spiritual growth or survival or both. Hence there is disagreement on whether religious practice is useful but only on how? One of the best ways is spend less time on theorizing on the beliefs but to practice that leads to true realizations. Identify and practice the ones that leads to spiritual growth of the individual; identify and discourage practices that aims to interfere with other’s practice, such as ridicule of others, praising one’s own, control and even murder of other civilizations, etc. The openness to let religious and scientific pursuits to be independent of each other must be encouraged. Here I would like to quote Albert Einstein “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind”

I think we evolved beyond the stage when Galileo and Bruno were punished for believing that the earth was round and not the center of the universe, to believing that our ancients knew of all these facts at a much earlier time; We have also moved away from those who deliberately discredited religious beliefs to promote their political and social agendas; However, these are not new, they have always been inexistence and will be forever. We must use our intelligence suitably to arrive at what is best for us now and act accordingly.

References:

1)      Then Faith Instinct: How religion evolved and why it endures By Nicholas Wade

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HO2tcJSd1ucC&oi=fnd&pg=PT6&dq=the+evolution+of+religious+behavior+wade&ots=VLuNRpnPFR&sig=M0jNqHTGoEV4z__1p9X-QTTh5fs#v=onepage&q=the%20evolution%20of%20religious%20behavior%20wade&f=false

2)      pages 112,113, of book “Being Different” By Rajiv Malhotra

https://beingdifferentbook.com/

3)      Evolution

http://www.livescience.com/474-controversy-evolution-works.html http://study.com/academy/lesson/who-was-charles-darwin-theory-of-evolution-natural-selection-quiz.html

http://today.brown.edu/articles/2009/09/schmitt

4)      Cartesianism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesianism

5)      Descartes baby by Paul Bloom review

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/aug/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview7

6)      State v. John Scopes (The Monkey Trial)

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1024297

7)      Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District: Teaching Intelligent Design in Public Schools

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/crcl/vol41_2/lee.pdf?affid=100037

8)      Defeating Creationism in the Courtroom, But Not in the Classroom

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/331/6016/404

Soul Reversal

What if my Soul Beliefs is forgotten

This article was submitted as assignment for the Coursera course "Soule Beliefs and Consequences" Unit-III. An imaginary What if scenario if realise that our soul beliefs are all wrong or the sol does not exist:

I will first describe the soul beliefs in Hinduism, which is mostly what I believe of the soul and then we will go into the question of  “What – if” the soul does not exist.
1) There is the eternal soul that existed before creation that is beyond time and space (This mean infinite time and space and means only here and now exists - Since we are all historically minded, we will go with infinite space and time). Some Call it Vishnu, others call it Siva some others call it Shakthi (the female version). Let us leave it alone for now.
2) The eternal soul created the universe and is not separate from it. Examples give are like a spider that creates the web (creation) and pulls it back (end of creation - leading to another creation). Or a smile on face is distinct expression and part of the face. Way the universe was created was first created the creator (brahma) who started creation as per rules laid out in the Vedic texts (which seem to be eternal as the eternal soul) , who in turn created heavenly beings including Siva (or Rudra) who ends cycles of creation, and sages. The sages were given the job creating the souls, human, animal, birds, reptiles, etc. The physical universe itself is the manifestation of the eternal soul and just a creation.
3) The individual souls are body of the divine soul and hence all are connected to the eternal soul and is also distinct (just as we feel each cell in our body is distinct). Although we think/feel that we are experiencing life, it is the eternal soul that experiences everything
4) Our Body/mind and ego prevents us from realizing this reality (This illusion is called Maya).
5) The eternal soul first created Brahma (Who does the job of creation), Vishnu (is it the same as eternal soul, there are various versions of it the protector of the universe) and Siva (the Destroyer or who helps the soul to return to the source by destroying the Maya). Brahma creates the various souls, initially by creating very may saintly beings, who propagate the creation (Not considered sin but doing god’s work). Even animals, birds, snakes and plants have souls. The physical universe itself is the manifestation of the eternal soul and just a creation.
6) The creation, like seasons goes on in cycles of four (called yugas) . Here is wiki Link to Yugas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga. and we are in about 155 trillion years of the present cycle of creation (quite small in comparison to infinity). The life of Brahma is about 300 trillion years at the end of which creation is stopped till new Brahma is created first by the eternal soul. The time scale described are nearly eternal and human existence is only minuscule part in the universal scale.
7) The souls go through recycling based on their karmas (actions in present  and past lives) and unfulfilled desires. If your final desires are noble you are reborn with good purpose and circumstances in life and the opposite. The person who contemplates on god at the end of life is not reborn. Those who had devoted to god's purpose most of life or had surrendered to enlightened gurus are also not reborn (due grace of guru or God). Mostly we cannot do it ourselves.
8) Our world is called "Lilavibhuti" is where all this happens. There is another world called "Nityavibhuthi" where souls have attained the eternal soul and are never reborn (this 3/4th in size) and ours is only 1/4th in size.
9) The eternal soul or its representative or born in the world to guide others are to establish Dharma (The way it was meant to be), when dharma is disturbed greatly. These birth out choice (not out of Karma or desire) are called "appearances" or avatars and not birth.
10) The eternal soul is considered by some as formless and without any qualities by some whereas other believe that the eternal soul has infinite from and infinite qualities.
11) Hinduism sounds polytheistic with may Gods; but, it  is one god with almost infinite forms. This Characterized by "Vishwarupa" where the lord reveals himself to be all the souls). The term I recently learned in "Panentheism", I think it refers someone who is everything (I do not see it dictionary though); something like omnipresent and at the same time external to it and created it. Like the Sun light and the Sun.

Given below is pictorial illustration of How souls evolve and reach Moksha

Now “What if” soul was not present and only a belief and an imagination then the possibilities are that I start to believe in one of the following

1) No soul, no eternal soul leading to modern psychological explanation of Physical materialism. Evolution and science as type of religion. Believe in superiority of brain, and mind is a creation of brain and soul as epiphenomenon of brain functioning. All good and bad emotions and feeling are due to neurochemicals and transmitters. Even in extreme cases, due to my upbringing I might not  indulge in mood  artificial mood altering substances  as shortcut to achieving good “moods” without the effort.
2) Buddhist belief of no soul or no limiting soul or eternal soul but only limitless Sonya. If the space is infinite, it is logical that is also empty of matter and then how did matter and physical materialism come into existence? I would probably end up with Four noble truth, Five Skandia’s, ie., form sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness, and eight-fold path to end suffering and attain nibbana. The path I choose to live might be compassion, combined with Devotion  and , appreciation.

3) Or by default like African tribes and south American tribes be converted to one of the Abrahamic religions who postulate that the soul is separate from god as it disobeyed the god and forever keep fighting to get better and stay away from the designs of the devil (God only knows why he created the devil). Since I am lesser than God for ever I will be trying to get better and improve the circumstances in my life to be closer to that of heaven as I would believe, this is the only life I have got to either go to heaven or eternal hell.  This lifestyle will perhaps increase my anxiety and guilt expressed sometimes aggression.

I will be under pressure  follow historic revelations and single text and religious authorities to show the way and but my lifestyle so far will make me  trust my god given intelligence and intuition for higher realizations. Since god is masculine and I am created in his image, I would under pressure to  subjugate the female of my species but due to my lifestyle so far will not surrender to this pressure. And when  my and religious  book and authorities  tell w me whoever does not believe in my book are not religious and their life is worthless, I will resist the pressure  to subjugate them, murder them, discredit them and try to convert them to my way.

Given the above three options, I would probably Go the Buddhist way of compassion with devotion as against the way of fear or greed. However, my religion is likely to  be good, have positive thoughts, be grateful (to whomsoever), learn more about our internals and stay healthy. Adopt family values like education, culture, respect for women and elderly, eat right, avoid substance abuse, music, games and try to enjoy the life at any moment.

                                                                                

Robber's Cove and Ram Janmabhoomi

Robber's Cove and  Ram Janmabhoomi

This write up as submitted as Assignment in the Coursera course “introduction to Psychology” offered by the University. The purpose of the assignment is to test our understanding of a psychological concept taught in the course by applying the principle to world class event. We are to star with link to article describing the event

UP CM Yogi Adityanath visits Ayodhya, says Ram temple issue should be resolved through dialogue

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/up-cm-yogi-adityanath-visits-ayodhya-says-ram-temple-to-be-built-through-dialogue/story-QzDARYNHPJQEH4PjqJ2gfP.html

Ayodhya dispute in a nutshell. During the 16th century one of the  most brutal Moghul emperor known to India, Babur, destroyed and razed a temple dedicated to Hindu Avatar Rama in his birthplace Ayodhya. Babur destroyed the temple and built a Mosque in its place.  List of 1856 Hindu Temples destroyed in India during Moghul empire and mosques built on temple lane can be found here

https://vhsindia.org/list-of-mosques-in-various-states-which-were-built-after-demolishing-hindu-temples/

Over the centuries the Hindus have been trying the reclaim the holiest of their sites and rebuild Ram temple and the Muslims and leftists have been resisting the effort. Finally the disputed structure was pulled down by  Hindu Volunteers in the year 1991. This resulted burning of railway Coach occupied by Hindu volunteers by Islamic terrorists, which resulted in the murder of about 60 Hindu Volunteers and subsequent Gujarat riots. The matter is now sub judicial   and resolution expected soon through negotiation and moderation.

What is of interest from psychological point of view is the work of Sheriff et al. (1953, 55,61) was seminal in the developmental understanding relating to intergroup hostility and prejudice. At the heart of Sheriff’s theory lies the proposition that intergroup attitudes and behavior will tend to reflect the objective interest of the groups vis-à-vis other groups.  Thus, for example in the Ram janmanhoomi/Babri Masjid issue the conflict of interests were obvious; both Hindus and Muslims clashed over area of land over which each claimed ownership.

Sheriff and his associates conducted three famous studies, known as summer camp studies, which were designed to demonstrate systematic changes in behavior of individuals because of changing intergroup relations. The experimenters observed each group through stages of group formation, intergroup conflict, and conflict reduction.

These experiments were landmark study in prejudice and discrimination. Thy marked a paradigm shift. Prejudice and discrimination arise as function of intergroup relationship rather than interpersonal peculiarities. Conflict is generated due to competition for real resources rather than by displacement of aggression. Conflict is reduced by cooperation in order that superordinate goals, jointly valued be the competing groups may be achieved. Intergroup behavior is a collective phenomenon rather than simple summing up of coincidentally similar individual emotions.

The experiment and results were similar the one psychological experiment don in the 50s called Robber’s Cove experiment. 22 children in   group of 10 t0 12 from a very similar ethnic background were randomly assigned to two diverse groups. The two groups were given to develop their own group identity and were taught to love their group members and hate the other group members. In the next stage, they were made to compete against each other and started to think each other in nasty and prejudicial and derogatory terms. Now to eliminate the prejudice they were made to work together by creating a common enemy and common challenge. As the ignorance about other group reduced and positive aspects of other group emerged, prejudices and stereotyping decreased.

We see a lot similarities between Robber’s Cove experiment, Sheriff’s experiment on Ram Janmabhoomi conflict and the actual and potential resolution of Ram Janmabhoomi conflict. Here the conflicting groups should realize the importance of holy land for one group, the vested interest of individuals interested promoting conflict based on fundamentalism and false propaganda for personal glorification and profiting from breaking of a nation (These forces may be described as common enemies to be overcome) must be defeated and the common goal of peaceful and Enlightened living needs to be prioritized.

My core beliefs as Hindu and moving toward a new norm in religious understanding

The following write up was submitted as assignment in coursera course “Soul Beliefs: Causes and Consequences - Unit 2: Belief Systems”

A statement of the core belief and When and under what conditions do you think, it was formed

I considered many possible core beliefs but zeroed on this one as it will be appropriate contextually.

“I AM HINDU BRAHMIN BOY/MALE”

I was born in a Hindu Brahmin family of Vaishnava sect. Some of the important expectations are belief in god, rituals, respect for parents and teachers, being honest, respect for elders and women, honesty, modesty and vegetarian food habits. Bhakti, ie devotion to God and prayer (in the form chanting and asking for stuff, except for good marks in exams) is the way and goal. Karma and astrology were part of life, and work needed to be treated as Karma yoga or one’s duty to society and to fulfill one’s family needs. Temple visits and following of rituals and excellence in education and patriotism were a must. Involvement in sports and entertainment were encouraged more as spectator rather than participant (Except for cricket). Reading English fiction and Tamil journals were also encouraged. By the way the medium of instruction during most of schooling and college was English.

In my case mother who was spiritually inclined passed away at an early age of five and my step mother was a very orthodox religious lady, and this conflict in values used to influence me in major part of adult life. The Extended family was very important and grandparents doted on us. The Holidays were spent in an uncle or Aunt’s home at a different down in nearby towns. Holidays in far off cities were a luxury item. Sex was Taboo and boys and girls were kept separate. Parents never discussed sex with the children and youth learned of sex in pop literature and movies. Under these circumstances the schooling was completed. Interactions were mostly with other Brahman boys except a few exceptions in High school.

How it has influenced your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the past

I do not if it was the genes or the environment but I grew to be shy type of a person. My entry into college exposed me folks from other parts of India and diverse backgrounds (different languages, attitudes and family backgrounds). Early upbringing kept me focused on studies in college (although participation in sports increased) stay out trouble like various potential addictions and habits. Although there was lot of politics among groups, I tended believe all were nice guys and got along well with most people I interacted with. My health and confidence in my abilities improved during college, where again education and getting good marks were the focus with idea of doing well and getting an excellent job. I must say due to focus on education and reasonably superior performance and clean habits we developed an air quite superiority (even though we were lacking most other skills). The downside of this attitude is not recognizing the ability in others and not being in touch with reality of many situations and perhaps lack of gratitude we owe to many folks.

Like most students from premier Institutes in India at that time, I aspired for higher education in USA as route to better prospects in life and proceeded for Master’s degree in USA. My Aunts and grand mom advised me to stay away from the three Ws (Which were Wine, Women and I forgot what the third W was; was it wealth?, I do not think so, was it White?, probably not, must have been  something to do with remaining vegetarian).

I continued do well in studies in USA (even better as choices were more and open book exams). But socially I was dumb trusting wrong folks, not being centered enough in my culture, believing that any girl that smiles at you (which is often in the USA) is in love with you, etc. But the value system developed early on ensured we hung out with similar folks and this prevented us from integrating better in the adopted environment. Anyway, I completed my studies, worked for some time, made some good friends, had some  enjoyable times and some terrible times,  returned to India due to family considerations.

How it currently influences your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Many of the beliefs that were taught earlier on makes more sense now. Only I wish they (parents and teachers) had done a better job of it. Somehow taught us the basics and philosophical background in a better way. I would have been much better grounded and confident as an individual that way. I believe I would have been less distracted and more productive due that action. I feel a bit let down earlier on in life this way. I am now grateful for many opportunities that are available these days via TV, Internet and course like this to really understand our religion, culture and heritage.

Finally, after you have thought about one of your core self-beliefs, consider (in writing) if it “makes sense” to keep it or if the time has come revise it or let it go.

I think core belief may be revised from I am Hindu Brahmin boy to I am a realized and well-grounded Hindu or Sathana Dahrma Practioner. I am well grounded in the Basic Tenets of this Dharma and am aware Basic differences between the other Dharmic Traditions like (Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism) and other Major Abrahamic Religions of the world (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). I respect other religions that respect Hinduism and am willing to educate those who do not. And Unlike in the past we will stand up for the rights that have been denied to us and have been  responsible and taken/taking corrective actions where we may have erred. Time for deeper faith and understanding, being well rooted, clarity and regular practice rather than shallow beliefs and superstitions  based  on fear or greed. Om Shanthi.

Natural Selection

This document was was submitted by  me as assignment for the coursera course Soul Beliefs and consequences

Assignment criteria #1; "In your own words, describe Darwin's theory of "Descent by Modification".";

Darwin’s theory of Descent by modification was based important observations on nature of species:

1. Members of a population of the same species vary in their traits.
2. Traits can be inherited, or passed from parents to offspring.
3. Populations can produce more offspring than the environment can support.
4. Due to a lack of food or other resources, many of the offspring do not survive.

In his theory of Descent by modification Darwin postulated that individuals with a trait more suited to the environment are better able to survive and reproduce. These individuals are the ones that pass on these traits more frequently to the next generation. Subsequently, their traits become more common in their descendants and in the population. So, over time, organisms better suited to the changing environment will thrive. Organisms not ideally suited would become extinct. Given enough time a species may change enough traits to eventually become a totally distinct species. They led him to the conclusion that all species derived from a common ancestor through the process of descent with modification which was later termed natural selection. In natural selection, fitness refers to the ability to survive and reproduce.

Natural selection leads to adaptive evolution. Adaptation is a trait that organism has that increases its chance of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment. The off springs of this organism with adaptation trait will inherit this trait and will be more suited to survive and reproduce in the environment and hence causing the population to have this favorable trait.

Assignment criteria #2; "Explain how "Natural Selection" contradicted the prevailing world-views of Darwin's time; and

Darwin's observations were to contradict the Biblical  'Genesis' version of the creation of life. Since many of his scientific peers believed that God created all animal and plant life, and these species remained unchanged since their creation, he repeatedly delayed publishing his ideas.  It dealt a massive upset to the biblical account of creation as well as against the assumption of the unique status of Man.  

However, there was a general acceptance of Darwin's ideas amongst the younger generations of scientists. And as they began to embrace his ideas and accumulation of fossil records intensified, the public became more prepared for the acceptance of earlier human species and of a world much older than 6000 years (which was the age of earth according biblical story of creation). It is also to be noted here that There were other evolutionary theorists at that time but their theories were consistent with the idea of Christian God’s work in progress; but Darwin’s theory was based on philosophical materialism of random variation and natural selection and contrasted with the biblical version of creationism.

Assignment criteria #3, I would like to take out the time of "150 years", how about we change it to "Providing evidence that resistance to the theory of evolution remains strong in some sectors of our society today, after Darwin's his seminal work was published."

There is no question that evolution has shaped us and the world we live in today, and it has major consequences for our daily lives. And yet 150 years after publication of The Origin, Darwin’s theory remains “controversial” in America and Christian societies.  This is no longer a scientific controversy. Predictions generated by the theory of evolution have been repeatedly tested against scientific facts, and the theory has held fast. The clear majority of scientists accept the theory of evolution based upon multiple lines of overwhelming scientific evidence, just as they accept the Copernican theory that the earth revolves around the sun.

Americans face the social controversy of  about how to reconcile the teaching of scientific fact with religious belief. And a recent Gallup poll on Darwin’s birthday showed that only 39 percent of the American public overall “believes” in the theory of evolution and would rather believe in creationism or Intelligent Design. Whereas  97% scientists believe some theory of evolution and 87% of them believe in the Darwin’s theory of Natural selection.

Some people see bleak implications for human society in the theory of evolution. If Darwin is right, does it mean that we are all engaged in a perpetual struggle for existence, in which only the fittest will prosper? Is selfish behavior always rewarded at the expense of the common good? This might be an overly simplistic view, especially when we take culture and learning into account. Modern evolutionary theory is beginning to show how natural selection can operate at multiple levels, and may favor groups with elevated levels of cooperation and altruism. This can be considered as survival of the fittest group rather than the fittest individual, as individuals require society for their survival and vice versa.

Another important concept from modern evolutionary theory: the idea of niche construction. In ecological jargon, an organism’s niche is the combination of environmental factors that define where it can live, grow, and reproduce. Human culture is a remarkable example of niche construction. Through tool-making, language, and the construction of society, humans have expanded the range of environments in which our species can live and grow. Without culture, natural selection would act on us very differently that it does today. But this very culture and tools not used optimally is threatening the world in terms detrimental climate changes and threat of Terminal nuclear war. One hopes that natural selection will throw up solution to the problem so that all humans and most species survive (as extinction of one specie means the probability of all species surviving goes down in the common ecosystem).

Buddhist Societies do not seem to have any objections to theory of evolution as they believe cosmos and time without beginning and end that is ever changing and is consistent with natural selection. Hindu societies who believe souls in all living entities and that souls may have millions of births before being perfected as human beings. With time scale of creation stretching to trillions of years and sole source, also do not have any serious problems with accepting natural selection not being different from God’s way.

I would like complete this write up with Top 10 scientific problems with Biological and chemical Evolution and the bonus problem of Human behavior (Read more about in reference -4). This list does not negate the scientific community’s acceptance of Darwin’s theory bur opens more areas for research to fill the gaps.

• Problem 1: No Viable Mechanism to Generate a Primordial Soup
• Problem 2: Unguided Chemical Processes Cannot Explain the Origin of the Genetic Code
• Problem 3: Random Mutations Cannot Generate the Genetic Information Required for Irreducibly Complex Structures
• Problem 4: Natural Selection Struggles to Fix Advantageous Traits into Populations
• Problem 5: Abrupt Appearance of Species in the Fossil Record Does Not Support Darwinian Evolution
• Problem 6: Molecular Biology Has Failed to Yield a Grand "Tree of Life"
• Problem 7: Convergent Evolution Challenges Darwinism and Destroys the Logic Behind Common Ancestry
• Problem 8: Differences between Vertebrate Embryos Contradict the Predictions of Common Ancestry
• Problem 9: Neo-Darwinism Struggles to Explain the Biogeographical Distribution of many Species
• Problem 10: Neo-Darwinism has a Long History of Inaccurate Darwinian Predictions about Vestigial Organs and "Junk DNA"
• Bonus Problem: Humans Display Many Behavioral and Cognitive Abilities that Offer No Apparent Survival Advantage

References:

1. http://www.livescience.com/474-controversy-evolution-works.html
2. http://study.com/academy/lesson/who-was-charles-darwin-theory-of-evolution-natural-selection-quiz.html
3. http://today.brown.edu/articles/2009/09/schmitt
4. https://www.discovery.org/a/24041