Abstract
Many contemporary Jains assert that the ancient tradition of Jainism is compatible with modern science. Some authors specifically attempt to demonstrate the early evolutionary insights of “Jaina biology” which, when compared to Darwin’s nineteenth-century theory, may be partial, implicit, resonate with “Darwinian expressions,” or offer a corrective to Darwin’s account by redefining certain aspects of evolution altogether.
In this essay, I explore three strategic arguments contemporary Jain authors have made for their tradition’s compatibility with Darwin’s theory of evolution, namely that the Jain view posits (1) biological resonances and epistemic flexibility, (2) the evolution of consciousness explained through karmic variation, and (3) the exceptional possibility of human omniscience. I will highlight persistent challenges within these arguments that undermine any easy comparison between the Jain worldview and Darwin’s theory.
The Jain tradition does not speak in one voice regarding modern science. However, as Jain communities move and develop into new contexts with fresh concerns beyond ancient orthodoxies, we find a proliferation of divergent responses to claims such as Darwin’s theory of evolution that keep the Jain tradition alive and changing in its own right.
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Notes
- 1.
The monk Kumar Jayakirti describes his decision to leave the ascetic order as part of a documentary on Jainism called “The Frontiers of Peace: Jainism in India.” The relevant portion can be found at the 9:00 min mark at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a96nz4DvRRE&list=PL1aqwA6lSoz6oo8nkrS8OQ8O3DmYl8-mg&index=3
- 2.
According to Suzuko Ohira’s chronological textual analysis, the Ācārāṅga-sūtra, like other canonical texts, was written in over several hundred years, dilineated often by key themes and term usage (Ohira 1994: 1).
- 3.
The dating of many of these texts is difficult. The Bhagavatī-sūtra, also called the Vyākhyāprajñapti, “Exposition of Explanations,” is thought to combine older and more recent oral traditions, potentially spanning fourth century BCE to fifth century CE when the present version was recorded at the Council of Valabhī. See Dundas 2002a: 23, and Wiley 2004: xix–xx.
- 4.
A one-sense being called a nigoda, considered part of the plant family (discussed later in this chapter), can live anywhere in the universe; they are not limited to the two and half islands.
- 5.
Regarding the Jain measurements of time, John Cort writes, “A crore is ten million, a sāgaropama is one-hundred million of one-hundred million palyas, and a palya is simply defined as an uncountable (but not infinite) number of years. . . . In other words, each half-cycle lasts for ten crores of crores (one hundred trillion) sāgaropamas” (2009: 42); mentions of the time cycle can be found in various scriptures such as Kalpa-sūtra 185–203, trans. Jacobi, and are further described in Kachhara 2014: 108–118.
- 6.
See Auckland 2011 for a compelling account of the enduring significance of Jain cosmology.
- 7.
Banks describes the “orthodox” tendency as associated with tradition, rituals and sectarian identity, while the “heterodox” tendency is more variable—associated with a theistic outlook shaped by bhakti influences in the subcontinent and greater degree of syncretic religious identity and/or co-existent truth claims. Banks asserts that orthodox, heterodox and neo-orthodox do not describe fixed groups but rather three categories of informal belief that can overlap and shift within a given person (1991: 244–57).
- 8.
The particular number 8,400,000 may have been an adaptation from another śramaṇa tradition known as the Ājīvikas, closely related to the early Jain community. Ājīvika doctrine suggests that every soul must pass through 8,400,000 great time periods (mahā-kalpas) before reaching mokṣa. The Jain tradition transformed this into the number of possible birth-states (Jaini 2010: 130).
- 9.
Again, the dating of many of these texts is difficult, and is often based on the dates of the assumed author, in this case Bhadrabāhu, a Jain teacher who died in the mid-fourth century BCE. The text was passed orally until it was written in the fifth century CE. See fn 2 above.
- 10.
See Vallely (2018) for a fuller analysis of Jainism’s “conditional ‘anthropocentrism’” that joins human exceptionalism with a strong reverence for life beyond the human (15). Vallely’s essay was published 2 years after this chapter was initially completed and turned in. Consequently, I could only add a brief reference within this text during the final review. However, I fully recommend it to readers interested in these themes.
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Donaldson, B. (2020). Jainism and Darwin: Evolution Beyond Orthodoxy. In: Brown, C.M. (eds) Asian Religious Responses to Darwinism. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 33. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37340-5_8
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