Web: Monkey bridge over troubled waters

Richard Dawkins and Duane Gish, please go to your separate corners. We're suspending the Evolution-Creation debate while we sort out a more colorful religious controversy in the news.

Hindu hardliners have been protesting a proposed shipping canal project between India and Sri Lanka, saying it would destroy what they say is a bridge built by Lord Ram and his army of monkeys as described in the Ramayana, a revered ancient epic.

Scientists and archaeologists say the Ram Setu (Lord Ram's bridge) - or Adam's Bridge as it is sometimes called - is a natural formation of sand and stones. Dredging the passage between Sri Lanka and the Indian mainland would reduce the passage around the Indian peninsula by hundreds of miles but would also damage the bridge. The government presented a report supporting the scientific view that the bridge developed by natural means and questioning the existence of the Hindu god Ram.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party responded with a scathing attack on the government, accusing it of "blasphemy" for questioning the "faith of the million." There also is a popular feeling that the bridge broke the power of the 2004 tsunami and stopped it reaching South India's coastline.

As a result, two directors of the government's archaeology agency have been suspended for presenting the report. An effort is being made to convince UNESCO to have the bridge declared an official World Heritage Site.

OK, you may now return to your previously scheduled, boring, western-style clash between science and religion.


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