Nothing That Matters

For a hardcore believer in scientific method coping with spiritual concepts of any religion (especially of Hinduism)can be a big confusion. On one hand as a man of science, I would like to only believe what can be physically tested in carefully designed experiments. On the other hand being a non-functional Hindu, I have imbibed "World is an Illusion" concepts which are deeply ingrained in my Psyche. At the first look the two may look to be irreconcilable.
But look closely, Science is now dealing with entities which can never be perceived by Humans directly - quark etc. We propound existence of such entities by interpreting perceivable results of experiments. If we drill down such interpretations, we come to some guesstimate presumptions. This makes some theories - a house of Cards. This can come crashing down if this guesstimate is proved wrong at a later date.
In religion also we start from some guesstimate about there being a soul, a GOD and derive perceivable conclusions from that. The process is perhaps reverse of Science - where we start from perceivable things and explore un-perceivable entities based on that.
One has to be ruthlessly discerning and discard most of peripheral ritualistic things in Religion. That's why I call myself a non-functional Hindu. I follow only the core Hindu concepts and retain my suspicious inquisitiveness for the rest - till I am convinced rationally.
I do the same for the science. I retain a healthy suspicion for conjectural theories like string theory or even Quark Model.
Keeping ones head above turbulence of Science and Religion and remain sane isn't easy. But can be done.
PS: Where was I for last two months - no post during this period. I beg pardon of visitors of this site, but I am a bit caught up in Life's turbulence, and may not be that regular as before. Bye till next post and thanks again for visiting.

Posted by Girish Bhatnagar at 11:08 AM