Six Causes: The Vedic Theory of Creation

The development of science has generated a strong debate between creationists and evolutionists. While evolutionists claim to have reason and empirical data on their side, the creationist view is based on revelation and hence often decried as regressive. This book hopes to undo some of that misunderstanding especially with regard to Vedic theories of creation by describing how the Vedic ideas are not just modern in many cases, but also useful to science in some cases. This book describes the Vedic theory of creation in a language that can be followed by the lay person. The book doesn't expect knowledge of Vedic texts, or of Sanskrit in which these texts were originally written. This English expose is meant to bring some obscure topics in Vedic philosophy to the educated lay person who is interested in the question of origins. The theory of Six Causes is not just about motion in matter, where scientific theories excel, but also about other parts of conscious experience that can't be viewed as motion in matter. The Vedic view covers sensations, mind, intelligence, unconscious and a functional description of the body, besides a material one. The theory of Six Causes can hence also be viewed as a theory of conscious experience.