Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.
Carl SaganUS astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996)
Science and spirituality are two sides of the same coin. Science relies on the questions—how, what, why? Spirituality, on the other had, is wonder. Simply put, “Just wow”! Deepening the mystery of creation is science and deepening the mystery of the Self is spirituality. Every scientific discovery leads to the realm of spirituality. If neither science nor spirituality can create wonder and devotion in you, then you ought to be in deep slumber.In this part of the world, there has never been a conflict between science and spirituality. Unlike in the West, not even a single scientist was prosecuted. In the Occidental way of thinking, belief comes first, and then experience follows. The Oriental philosophy and science have the same parameter. They both say experience first, and then believe.You have the knowledge first, and then the faith follows. For example, the knowledge that pesticides and chemical fertilisers are good for plants came through science and people developed faith in it and all over the world, people started using them. Then the knowledge that they are not healthy came, and the faith shifted to organic farming. Knowledge brings faith and when knowledge changes, faith also shifts.Science and spirituality are like two ways of looking at the creation. Science regards life as matter and spirituality regards matter as life. Spirituality elevates matter to the level of life, level of divinity and adds a sense of honour. While science brings us material and physical comfort, spirituality gives comfort to our souls. Science cultivates logic and spirituality develops intuition, another faculty of enquiry. Ancient rishis recognised this interplay between science and spirituality and said true fulfilment in life can come only through gyana (spirituality) and vigyana (science).There is a saying in the Upanishads that reads “padarth, gyanaat, moksha”. It means that if one understands even one particle in the creation thoroughly, he or she will be liberated. One doesn’t even need to believe in God’s existence. Ancient rishis knew that the entire creation is reflected in each particle as consciousness. Today scientists are saying the same thing. The DNA of all the creatures can be created from one human DNA chain. It’s further said that whatever is there in the universe is present in the body of human existence.The entire creation is one organism— there is life in every particle of this universe. Divinity, one consciousness, permeates the entire creation. God is present in every single atom of this planet and universe.This establishes that science and spirituality are two ways of looking at the same truth—the objective and the subjective. Through spirituality, India knew from ages that the Earth and other planets are moving round the Sun. Ages before Galileo discovered that the earth is round, India had the concept of the Earth being spherical.Here, the earth was always considered spherical. Likewise, even 15,000 years ago, people knew that Jupiter has got 12 moons. From the times of Vedic age itself, people understood the arrangement of the sun and the planets in the solar system. So India was never ignorant about science; instead it was very advanced from ancient time.the country wants spiritual scientists in one body and soul not a separate scientist and a separate spiritual leader. I would like to support this idea of mine by the lines quoted below.”Science is the systematic understanding of what this is. Spirituality is systematic understanding of who am I. We are all made up of spirit and matter. The body is made up of amino acids, proteins, minerals, etc. The spirit is made up of beauty, love, joy, enthusiasm and comfort, all that values that enhance life.These values come only through spirit and as we live the values of the spirit, life attains its richest form. Without them, life becomes very shallow and we are dependent and unhappy. The spiritual dimension of life in the truest form promotes scientific temper. It smashes the narrow boundaries of caste, creed, religion and nationality and gives one a broader awareness of life present everywhere.When the mind relaxes, the intellect becomes sharp. When the mind is loaded with small things such as ambition, feverishness and desire, then the intellect loses its keenness. And when intellect and observation are not sharp, life does not express itself fully. Ideas don’t flow properly and abilities diminish. The possibilities of scientific enquiry get clouded.To nurture the spirit of scientific enquiry, it is very important for us to probe into the source of thought. Often we are called great thinkers, but what is a thought? Where does it originate? Is there any way that we can improve the thought process? What are the mechanics to make people creative?Thought is nothing but an impulse of energy and intelligence. That impulse of energy and intelligence, for it to arise and a correct thought to come, you need 16 impulses to meet at a point in the cerebral cortex at the speed of 10 to the power of minus 30 cycles per second. In that short interval of time, all the 16 impulses in the cerebral cortex, when they meet, is what we call a correct thought. What do we do about it? We need to train our brain, our mind. And that’s the purpose of spiritual practices.Spiritual life enhances imagination, which is the basis of many scientific discoveries. When an imagination comes up, the person will not think whether it is real or not. What appears to be unreal and a pure imagination can bring creativity. Thomas Edison, once upon a time, dreamt of how to create light. It was purely an imagination. Many inventions trace its roots in the realm of imagination and through linking that imagination to the ground reality.If you are thinking only of the ground reality, then no creativity can emerge. Also, if you base yourself purely on imagination. A balance between your intellect and your heart is ineeded desirable. Listening to your heart is spirituality and developing that sharp and intuitive intellect is science.People may say that spiritualism begins where science ends, but I do not agree with that. Science and spirituality are not separate, they go together. And there can be no dispute about it after the theory of relativity which proved the interconnection between matter and energy. Life is like a tree. Its branches and leaves are science and the roots are spirituality. A scientific spirituality and a spiritual scientist is the need of the day.”—Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation and the International Association for Human Values
India has been an intellectual land right from the time it was discovered.. bearing great rishis,munis and jyotshis who wrote some most sensibl stuff back then.decades ago…in the Vedas and its high time for India to wake up and act on it!
In the Vedas the focal point is the human being and the knowledge contained there in is for the welfare of the entire mankind. This knowledge also helps the human beings to develop scientific out look. The Vedic science is only in the context of his/her material and spiritual welfare. Unlike the present day, physical sciences are part of Vedic metaphysics, which unequivocally explain that physical sciences pertain mostly to the external world that is objectively real and not absolutely real.
To get a feel of Vedic physical sciences, reference to a few hymns are given in the very beginning. The Sun never sets or rises and it is the earth, which rotates (Sama Veda121). The gravitational effect of solar system makes the earth stable (R.V.1-103-2, 1-115-4 and 5-81-2). The axle of the earth does not get rusted and the earth continues to revolve on its axle (R.V. 1-164-29). The science of Time and its subtle nature is described in (R.V.1-92-12 and 1-95-8).
Why science leaves room for faith:"Science" such as evolution takes a great deal of faith to believe in, as there has not been, to this date, a credible missing link found; yet it is widely accepted by its believers as fact.The lunar landing is thought of by some to be a hoax- some point out the video of Neil Armstrong saluting a waving American flag in space. The only problem is that space is a vacuum, thus, there was no breeze for the flag to be waving in.Faith leaving room for science:Those who believe in the Bible, Koran, Rig Veda, I Ching, etc. accept the teachings ver batim. In most cases, it would take explosive scientific evidence for a "believer" to renounce his religious beliefs.The essence of faith and science is truth."Science" aims at finding out the truth [by questioning, experimenting, hypothesising, theorising, and if required (like when further experiments/results/inventions prove the so-formed theory wrong)- modifying the theory to some extent or changing it altogether]."Faith" is another path which the human mind/heart/soul undertakes to find out the truth. For example, many have faith in God because they probably believe that God is the ultimate truth.That's just my views, though.I have come across some very religious-minded and some very scientific-minded people in my life. Many of them probably do not realize that the scientists so faithfully try and keep trying to find out the truth and that the faithful so scientifically stick to the facts/truth/theories that they (the faithful) themselves know. Probably science and faith leave room for each other, but the scientific and the faithful do not leave much room for one another. If people 'believing in' such different schools of thoughts ever did leave room for each other, we would all PROBABLY be so, so aware of the truth by now.
electrons are models... paradigms. like the atom.we dont really know any more than the set of their behaviors.i think it is safe to define science in the abstract, as exemplified by the scientific method:n. The principles and empirical processes of discovery and demonstration considered characteristic of or necessary for scientific investigation, generally involving the observation of phenomena, the formulation of a hypothesis concerning the phenomena, experimentation to demonstrate the truth or falseness of the hypothesis, and a conclusion that validates or modifies the hypothesis. science, unlike christianity, is an incomplete hypothesis.
there are two basic assumtions that science makes:
(1) the principle of sufficient reason (that all things can be understood)
(2) the principle that there is a mind-independent realityscience is the model of rationality, provided these assumptions...i would say that in conflicts between science and religion... 9999 out of 10000 times science is going to be right, and victorious.httpis invincible, mind you (it can only be defeated by itself).i agree for the most part with the sentence "then perhaps religion was never meant to be a factual, rational way of understanding the world, but rather a private guide for one's practical life."spirituality is meant for introverted explorations, and for conceptualizing the images that science paints.
I consider myself a religious person, but I have never been told before to reject the laws of science or new discoveries of science. In my belief system, religion is the search for truth. If science can get us there, so be it. If science says that the earth is round when my holy book says otherwise (which it doesn't, but that's just a random example), and if that scientific conjecture can be proven, well then I'll bite my tongue and move along.
I can also say that, as someone who has been heavily involved in the Christian community (there ain't too many Hindus in Texas and WA State), that many times, Western religions DO reject science. This is because the perception seems to be that science and religion are fighting a war- is it God, or is it commonsense? (In Hinduism, these are one and the same).
The essential differences between science(realism) and religion (metaphysics) is that science applies a valued system (positivistic pragmatism) that enables a well defined and non-disputable criteria for knowledge and discerning percieved phenomena. Where metaphysics does not have such a system. In social context:As defined above, science and relgion aren't exactly comparable classes. It is like comparing a drama movie and a fridge but I will do my best.Science in it's focus is driven virtually for monetary reasons. If you don't have the money to do research on your project, you don't get to do it. The only way to get money is convince someone to give you money. It would be virtually impossible to convince someone to invest 200,000 thousand dollars in research that wouldn't even raise an eyebrow to anyone in the world. So, researchers always try to tie in their research to something where the money is at; cancer and AIDS. So on a large scale science is driven solely by money. Knowing and understanding the world is just dictated by the whims of society.Religion is an easily accessibly and even tangible thing. It provides a ready made system for thinking, social convention, the past, future, inclusion, emotional contentment, and anything else that a human being would require. Also, religion is reciprical in that social convention also molds religion. Religion as a whole provides a necessity, social stability. There is a provided unquestionable knowledge, gods in some manner. In conclusion, science takes a view of the universe and with that defines it and organizes it so we can know it better. Religion is much more than that, it provides an all encompassing social, psychological, spiritual, epistemological, and personal system for humans.
Thus the following conflict continues…. If science and religion(or spirituality) are considered two sides of two different coins. Once they are united they own a power which no one can attempt to question… they together help in the search of both real and eternal truth thus supporting the research in faithful as well as scientific level. Therefore I today very well stand with the notion of breeding spiritual scientists..
i close this discussion with the smart words of albert Einstein
‘Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.’ ~Albert Einstein.
the science thing is for everybody.
the spiritual thing is eternal.
