Dasavatharam and human evolution

This is a followup to my previous couple of posts. I had stumbled onto a post about the ten incarnations of Vishnu and how it relates to the human evolution. The post shows how the ten incarnations of Vishnu may relate to the various stages of the human evolution, starting with a fish, then a amphibian, and then ape etc. Here is the list:

1. Matsya Avatar (Fish) - Life started in the water.
2. Kurma Avatar (Tortoise) - Amphibious - Life moved from water to the land. (See Ichthyostega and Missing link videos).
3. Varaha Avatar (Boar) - Complete animal - Adapted to live on land.
4. Narasimha Avatar (Half ape) - Transformation from animal to ape.
5. Vamana avatar (Dwarf) - Transformation from ape to human, developed intelligence.
6. Parasurama avatar (Forest dweller) - Humans developed stone tools.
7. Rama avatar (Hunter) - Humans used superior weapons, bows and arrows, created villages.
8. Balarama avatar (Farmer) - Humans started agriculture.
9. Krishna avatar (Businessman) - Domestication of animals and development of economy.
10. Kalki avatar - Yet to arrive. He may bring the end of the world. It could be a virus.

It was interesting to put these two topics together. I have come to believe that religions use metaphors to explain complicated things. For example, Rahu and Ketu are used to represent the Lunar nodes (See Rahu and Ketu–The Invisible Planets).

Concept of Time in Hinduism

I am posting after a long break. I stumbled onto this post, Hindu Concept of the Beginning and End of Universe, that has a informative video by Carl Sagan. Many Hindus believe Brahma is immortal and is part of the Trinity (with Vishnu and Shiva). But there is an alternate view that Brahma lives for 100 years, gets destroyed and created again by Vishnu to create a new universe. This is fascinating stuff since no other religion has such a far reaching measurement of time as Hinduism does.