Monkeys and Superheroes

Is it possible to believe simultaneously in Darwin's theory as well as in the existence of Hanumaan (the Monkey God, for the uninitiated)?

Can religious faith and scientific curiosity coexist in the same human mind?

Read on for my unique theory! :-)

I recently finished reading Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion". It's a heavy read, not because of the size of the book, but more so because of the gravity of the ideas he keeps springing up. They take some time to assimilate. The book is mainly aimed at proponents of monotheistic religions, especially the religious right in US. I realised by reading this book and by discussing it some western friends that even in this day & age, the hardliners in the US deny the Darwin Theory and in fact are virulently against teaching the Evolution theory to their children in schools. There are regular protests and banning of Darwin's opus "On the Origin of Species". I think it's still banned in the US.

The main thing is that following one school of thought apparently precludes believing in the other. It's as if the other camp is the enemy, never to be understood.

Dawkins however doesn't specifically mention Hinduism or Buddhism as being against the evolution theory. And that got me thinking. I haven't heard of any Hindu religious sentiments being specifically focused against scientific thought etc. We are much more preoccupied with the depiction (or rather non-depiction!) of nudity in modern art, you see! Think M F Husain, think the young student, Chandra Mohan, in the prestigious Arts College who has been jailed for 5 days without trial in Baroda, Gujarat. But I digress.

So how are we Indians able to simultaneously believe in our ancient gods and goddesses, as well as believe in modern scientific thought?

The answer came to me when I was watching "The Jungle Book" last week. It is of course a thoroughly enjoyable tale, and children of all ages love it. Especially Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther and of course King Louis, the monkey king!

However, if kids come across these animals in real life, they are not really likely to run over and hug them, are they? The line between fantasy (or rather, a willing suspension of disbelief) while watching movies and between the actual hard reality of the world is very clearly understood by even little children.

What sets us Indians apart from the rest of the world in this matter is Bollywood! Anyone brought up on a steady diet of fantastic movies about superheroes bashing up 20 baddies, heroines with the with the body of a sexbomb and still retaining a virginal aura (Mumtaz comes to mind here), villains with a heart of coal and a laugh to match, will know what I'm talking about.

But when we come out of the movie hall, we switch off the gullibility switch in our brain, and when we see a girl being accosted by 10 baddies in a dark lane, we do what any sensible right thinking person would do; we run the other way! :-)

So my theory is that the reason we Indians are more prepared than most to deal with ambiguities and paradoxes in real life is because we have been trained from the very childhood to believe in and rationalise a lot of conflicting and mutually contradicting thoughts and opinions.

More on that in a later post maybe.