Evolution by Catastrophe: Does it indicate Intelligent Design?
By Bibhu Dev Misra (IIT, IIM)

Bibhu Dev Misra is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management and has been working as an Information Technology consultant for more than 12 years, for various organizations across the world. He is also an independent researcher and writer on topics related to ancient civilizations, myths, symbols, religion and spirituality and has travelled to many places of historical, religious and architectural importance. His articles have appeared in various internet websites and magazines. He can be contacted at bibhumisra@gmail.com and via his personal blog: http://bibhudev.blogspot.com

More articles by Bibhu Dev Misra:
The Opet Festival of Ancient Egypt: Has it been derived from the Jagannatha Rathyatra of Puri, India?, 15 April 2011
A Day and Night of Brahma: The Evidence from Fossil Records, 15 April 2011

In a previous article titled, “A Day and Night of Brahma: The Evidence from Fossil Records”, I have pointed out that the time period between two successive ‘cosmic dissolution’ events, as mentioned in the ancient Vedic texts, is 24 million years. This has a surprising correlation with the data from fossil records, which tell us that every 26 million years there is a mass extinction of species on the earth.

The Vedic texts inform us of a large cycle of time known as a ‘Day of Brahma’ which stretches for 12 million years. At the end of a ‘Day of Brahma’ all life forms in the universe are destroyed. This is followed by a ‘Night of Brahma’, which is of equal duration as the ‘Day of Brahma’, when no life forms exist. At the end of the ‘Night of Brahma’, the universe is once again created by Vishnu from unmanifested matter. Thus, we have a cyclical, 24 million year period of cosmic creation and dissolution, much like the 24,000 year Precessional Cycle, and the 24 hours of day and night.

Even the dates of the previous extinction events, projected from the information in the Vishnu Purana, correlates with the dates calculated by Raup and Sepkoski from the fossil data. As per the Vishnu Purana, it has been roughly 5.5 million years since the beginning of the current ‘Day of Brahma’. Therefore, the previous destruction events should have taken place as per the following timelines: 17.5 million years ago, 41.5 million years ago and 65.5 million years ago. This matches very closely with the dates calculated by Sepkoski: 11 million years ago, 38 million years ago and 65 million years ago. The small variations are possibly because the 24 million year cycle of the Day and Night of Brahma may fluctuate between 22 million and 26 million years, with a ‘mean’ value of 24 million years. The exact periodicity of this fluctuation is not clear. Besides, the dates calculated by Raup and Sepkoski are approximate, and other scientists have arrived at slightly different values.