5/09/2008
- The Occult
Occult practice was there in all ancient civilizations. The priests of ancient Egypt, the philosophers of China, the rishis of India, the Pythagoreans in Greece, and alchemists everywhere, all indulged in esoteric activities, expressly prohibiting the vast majority of people from their own knowledge and understanding, not unlike the proceedings of secret committees and agencies associated with the governments of the modern world. More
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4/25/2008
- The World of Magic
In everyday usage, magic refers to a trick or a clever illusion. But the term has a more serious connotation in the framework of ancient science. More
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4/10/2008
- Astrology
One of the most universal of ancient beliefs was astrology...After considerable modifications and refinements it continues to thrive to this day in many parts of the world. There are perhaps far more astrologers these days than there are astronomers. More
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4/03/2008
- Worldview shapers: Roots of worldviews and beliefs
We all have our views on the world, on life, and on issues. If we trace their origins we will find that they have resulted, for the most part, from our interactions with others through our personal and cultural environment. These include parents, teachers, and friends, as well as the books and newspapers we read, the programs we watch on TV, the movies we see, the places we visit, etc. The roots of beliefs and worldviews rest on three kinds of factors which may or may not overlap with one another in particular cases. We may call these worldview-shapers. More
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3/28/2008
- Continuing Legacies of Ancient Science
The achievements in thought and deed of ancient peoples were considerable. Indeed, it is fair to say that we are descended, not just from apes, but from thinkers and philosophers, from poets and artists, More
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3/21/2008
- Three Types of Errors
We are apt to fall victims to three kinds of errors in our evaluation of scientific achievements. These may be called temporal error, cultural error, and nostalgic error. More
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3/11/2008
- Science in the Ancient World
When we look at the heavens on a clear moonlit night, the twinkling stars and the silvery moon seem to be staring at us. Some acquaintance with astronomy might make us reflect on the incredible distances that separate us from the celestial bodies. We may have heard, for example, that the Pole Star, which is visible in the northern hemisphere, is some four hundred plus light years away: that is to say, that light from that star reaching us this night began its journey more than four hundred years ago. More
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3/06/2008
- Agnosticism
Though the vast majority of people accept without much reflection or questioning the assertions of traditional religious texts and preachers regarding the transcendental principle, the hereafter, reincarnation, day of judgment, etc., quite a few have often doubted if all this is really true. In other words, people have doubted some of the details in the religious faith. More
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2/25/2008
- Analyzing Believers and Unbelievers
At one level of the religion-science dialogue, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers have analyzed why millions of people believe in a God and in the religion of their family or ancestors[...]The scholarly or scientific analysis of religious inclinations is not as harsh or judgmental in its assessment as the criticisms of religion by atheists. More
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2/18/2008
- On a Typology of Beliefs
Our attitudes and actions are often governed by our personal beliefs and the overall belief system under which we function. There are a great many sources for the beliefs we hold: early indoctrination and instructions received from parents and teachers, subtle influences from books and media, our own reflections, and our cultural, national, and religious affiliations. More
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2/06/2008
- Contextual Relevance of Faith and Doubt
With the spread of education and the refinement of the doubting faculties of the average person, it has become more and more difficult to convince large numbers of people in our own times of the truthfulness of claims that one has actually had a direct encounter with God or one of His deputies. More
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2/01/2008
- Faith in Science and in Religion
It is sometimes said that one cannot or should not compartmentalize religion and science. Thus, physicist-priest John Polkinghorne stated: "… I want to hold together my scientific and my religious insights and experiences. I want to hold them together, as far as I am able, without dishonesty and without compartmentalism.. I don't want to be a priest on Sunday and a physicist on Monday. I want to be both on both days." The practicability of this project depends on what one means by holding together. More
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1/23/2008
- Doubt in Religion
Just as it is simplistic to say that there is no faith component in science, it is not quite true that there is no doubt-component in the religious context. Many deeply religious people experience skeptic’s doubt when they encounter a religious system other than their own. More
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1/11/2008
- Doubt and its Variety
Doubt is a state of mind, some would say an affliction of the mind. It refers to a condition in which one is unable or unwilling to accept, on the face of it, a given statement as true. Like the word faith, the word doubt is also used in a variety of contexts with varying shades of meaning, resulting in some avoidable misunderstandings between science and religion. Here again, controversies tend to arise when one ignores the variety of doubts that might arise in the mind. More
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1/04/2008
- More on the Scientist’s Faith
This idea that scientists have finally awakened to the truth as against the clouded visions of their ancestors does not explain why Max Planck and Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg and John Polkinghorne still were and are among the faithful. More
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12/27/2007
- More on Religious Faith
It has been observed that there is this important distinction between science and religion: In science, one believes what one sees, whereas in religion one sees what one believes in. As St. Augustine asked rhetorically, "What is faith if not believing in what thou seest not?" More
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12/18/2007
- Three Types of Faith
Faith may be looked upon as the implicit trust one places in a person, thing, or idea, often without asking for or requiring any proof of its validity. In this sense, as I will discuss presently, it is not quite true that the scientific enterprise does not rest on any faith. Instead of the lines from Browning quoted above, we must rather say: "It must be averred, That a faithless science is absurd." More
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12/14/2007
- Doubt in Philosophy and in Science
Doubt has philosophical and as well as scientific relevance. Since ancient times, keen minds have argued for a skeptical evaluation of any proposition that is presented as true. Skepticism generally entertains doubt about knowledge that appears to be, or is presented as, absolutely correct. More
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12/04/2007
- The Criterion of Simplicity
One of the principles governing the scientific description of the world is this—of different possible explanations of a phenomenon, the simpler one is to be preferred. This rests on the belief that there is an element of intrinsic simplicity in the behavior of nature. More
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11/27/2007
- Source of Theories
Murray Gell-Mann noted that "A successful new theoretical idea typically alters and extends the existing body of theory to allow for observational facts that could not previously be understood or incorporated. It also makes possible new predictions that can some day be tested." Often in science, any significant contribution uncovers some serious flaw in a long-accepted and respected idea. There are no hard and fast rules by which a theory is constructed in science. The formulation of a scientific theory is a supremely creative act, constrained only by the condition that its ultimate results must be in accordance with observed facts. More
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11/13/2007
- The Doctrines and Dogmas of Science
There is no logically valid reason for rejecting as untrue even the most fantastic speculations about what may be happening beyond our ranges of perceptions. But...it is never easy to discriminate the truly original mark of genius from the ridiculous fantasies of crackpots which are sometimes presented as revolutionary insights or discoveries. This does make matters difficult for the scientific community. More
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11/06/2007
- Hypothesis and the So-What Criterion in Science
There is much truth in the quip, attributed to Edward Teller: “A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective. “ More
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10/26/2007
- Theories in Science
In scientific literature, and especially in physics, theory has a clear meaning and function. Yet, here too there are philosophical debates and disagreements as to what constitutes a theory. More
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10/19/2007
- Logical Limitations of Physical Laws
We must be clear about two aspects of the scientific enterprise. It does not aim at, nor pretend to, absolutely certain knowledge. But science does offer proofs for whatever tentative knowledge it proclaims. In religious doctrines, on the other hand, while one is assured of the eternal veracity of the views, one is not always given logical or evidential supports. Hence the statement that science is proof without certainty, whereas religion is certainly without proof. More
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10/05/2007
- Empirical and Theoretical Laws
Empirical laws may be explained by concept driven laws, but how are we to explain concept-derived laws? Why, one may ask, do bodies attract each other, as stated in the law of gravitation? If told that this is the property of all masses, one may ask, why is this is a property of all masses? Clearly, one can continue asking such questions at every step. More
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9/20/2007
- Laws of Nature: modern science
Some philosophers of science have declared that the laws of nature as formulated by science are mere conventions. However, it is important not to trivialize something whose role and significance are far greater than conventions. Such criticisms generally come from those who have not practiced science themselves or from thinkers who recognize the limits of human knowledge at a profounder level. Most scientists are quite aware of the tentative nature of scientific knowledge. They don't regard it as science's weakness, but rather as its strength. More
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9/11/2007
- Laws: Ancient Science and Religion
Laws, as we understand the term in everyday parlance, are constraints to which all the members of a group or nation are subject. Restrictions on individual actions and behavior have existed in all cultures and societies, if not always with rigidity, at least as custom. Laws, in the sense of injunctions and rules prescribing good and proscribing hurtful behavior constitute what may be called moral laws. Moral laws have been there in all religious traditions and cultural settings. The question that arises is: Are there also laws to which the phenomenal world is subject? Yes, says science, and also ancient wisdom. More
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9/09/2007
- Hypercomplexity and Omniscience
Beyond the various shades of determinism in physical phenomena, there is another level that governs our lives and also affects the physical world in subtle ways. This is the world of thoughts and ideas which have their origins in the human brain. This is very different from the world of atoms and molecules, of quarks and leptons from which it has emerged, even as a painting by a master artist is very different from the paints and brushes from which it arose. Thoughts are as different in their essence from the neurons that give rise to them, as a sonnet is from the alphabetical letters whose permutations lead to it. More
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9/05/2007
- Shades of Determinism and Levels of Reality
Determinism refers to a particular feature of the world by which every event that occurs is the inevitable outcome of precisely operating physical laws on simple and complex systems. Many arguments and misunderstandings arise from not recognizing that there are different shades of determinism which are applicable to different levels of physical reality. More
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8/07/2007
- Prediction in physics
Whereas predictions in non-science are qualitative and related to human events, those in science are quantitative and invariably refer to phenomena in the physical world which are generally indifferent to human concerns. More
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8/02/2007
- Prophesy: Religious and otherwise
Another technical meaning of revelation is the unveiling of a momentous event or events to occur in the future. It is in this sense that the term is used in the Christian Book of Revelation. Here it is declared that there will come a time when people of evil nature "shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone…" But it also assures us that God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of the good, and that "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain…." This very unhappy prospect for the evil ones as well as the hope of eventually finding ourselves in a better world, both have their echoes in other religions as well. More
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7/26/2007
- Fatalism: Practical aspects
It is important to make a distinction between looking at the past and looking into the future in fatalistic terms. In the first instance, the fatalistic view is an analytic statement: it does not say anything significant about the world. Nor does it circumscribe in any way our capacity for action. On the other hand, fatalistic view about the future is quite different. For here, we are affirming that the future is (already) cast in concrete. There is nothing we can do about it. Even if we think we are doing something to alter the future, even such actions have been pre-ordained, and we are merely acting within the fatalistic groove. More
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7/06/2007
- Knowing the Future
Knowledge with some specificity what is going to happen is called precognition. It is easy to imagine an all-knowing God who, by definition, knows the future also. But do or can human beings have precognition? Even if there is predestination, normally, in the phrase of a popular song, the future's not ours to see. While we have footprints on the sands of elapsed time, there is no trace of events yet unborn, especially of events in the world of human beings. More
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6/27/2007
- Predetermination
Astronomers tell us with great precision when the next eclipse will occur, on which day and year the next planetary conjunction will come about, etc. It would appear that in the astronomical realm, the world is functioning in such a way that the course of events are well determined. The question that arises is: Is this true of every aspect of the world. Is the course of events on our earth thus strictly determined? This is not an easy question to answer. More
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6/12/2007
- The Chosen Few
Another important aspect of revelation is that it occurs only to select individuals, and conveyed only in a few chosen languages. Moses, Vedic Rishis, the Buddha, Nammazvar, and Mohammed are among the few historical personages who are believed to have been so gifted. Because in each of these instances God is said have communicated to the recipients directly, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali, Arabic and Tamil are regarded as sacred languages by members of the respective traditions. Over the ages, other individuals have felt that they too have been beneficiaries of divine revelation. Thus Joseph Smith (the founder of the Mormon faith) announced that God had communicated with him. Over the centuries, a number of other human beings have reported similar experiences. However, not all have been equally successful in convincing a sufficiently large number of people of God's direct contact with them. More
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5/30/2007
- Poetry and the Reality of Sacred History
Epic poetry often created a rich and lofty history for its people. Through strong and noble heroes in times glorious and places grand and abundant, epics conjure up a past that makes the heart swell with pride. In the depression of current turmoil and the helplessness in overwhelming obstacles, it is relieving to think of a splendid past when mighty men arose to subdue the agents of mischief, fighting valiant battles for truth and honor and standing tall after virtuous victories, even as escapist movies make us forget the troubles of the present and float in a world where all is Technicolor and musical number. But in ancient cultures, the mind's eye and the heart's throb perceived epic characters as historical figures, and the accomplishments of the heroes were taken to reflect the intrinsic greatness of the nation. More
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5/22/2007
- Poetry Transmission and Vision of Reality
Deeds of bravery and revenge, acts of glory and heroism; beings strange and powerful, often superhuman; gods and godlings, the recall of events of a distant past: such are the ingredients of the great epics of humankind. The world they created, the personages they fashioned, the beings they conceived, all with the poetic clay, lived on for ages, and some live to this day, as part of what many thinking and feeling mortals regarded and regard as aspects of reality. More
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5/10/2007
- Poetry as Revelation of Human Nature
Whether it is the joy or the despair of love, the celebration of life or the gloom of grief, whether it is anger or anguish or mirth or moaning, every state of the human heart and every mode of the human condition has been brought to words by the poet's pen. More
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5/03/2007
- Poetic Visions
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth and from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name. More
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4/25/2007
- Scientific Biogenesis and Some Religious Reaction
Once the spark of life was lit, the self-replicating systems began to multiply in number and variety. The nucleic acids embodying the subtle coding that preserves life patterns slipped now and then. These changes in structures were the mutations which may be looked upon either as responses to unceasing turmoil in the earth's physicochemical features, or as alterations resulting from changing conditions. The first embers of life began to evolve along countless directions. As ages rolled by, and grand upheavals shook the planet's crust, ever newer kinds of plants and creatures shaped themselves. Both land and sea became homes for innumerable life forms. More
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4/18/2007
- Designer Cosmology
Since ancient times, thinkers have been struck by the wonder and splendor of life, as much as by the majesty and magnificence of the universe. It was generally believed therefore that all this must be the work of a grand Divinity. The idea of a creator-god, endowed with the qualities of omniscience and omnipotence has therefore been implicit or explicit in practically all the cultures and religious systems of humankind. More
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4/10/2007
- Religious and Scientific Views of Cosmogenesis
To those who are conditioned to scriptural authority and revealed truths, scientific cosmology is one drab and dismal story in which human beings are mere byproducts, accidents or worse, like some inconsequential mushrooms that sprout in the wilderness and perish. All the grandeur of a magnificent universe with splendid stars in the firmament is reduced in the scientific picture to tenuous hydrogen gas pervading all over and concentrating here and there, to dying stars with nuclear fire at the core, galaxies running amuck every which way like swarms of frightened fowl, sea salts cooking into animalcules... All this, from the perspective of traditional religion, is not so much poverty of thought, as mischievous materialism, haughty in its cocksureness, lacking in humility, ignorant of the Divine, and pale when compared to the power and poetry of a glorious God-engendered Creation sanctified by meaning and morality and purpose. More
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4/02/2007
- Interpretation of the Time Frame
From a historical humanistic perspective one would say that it is not unlikely that the authors of the Book of Genesis, extraordinarily brilliant and awakened intellects that they were, would, if confronted with the data of current science, choose to present a revised edition of their work. More
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3/26/2007
- Genesis according to Hindu visions
The Rig Veda, which is said to date back to more than five millennia, has visions of cosmic origins. The best known of these is the Nâsadîya or Creation Hymn which appears in the tenth book of the work. Here one speaks of a pre-creation stage in which there was nothing in the universe, a poetic vision of the pre-Big Bang phase. More
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3/16/2007
- More on Middle-Eastern Genesis
Middle Eastern visions of a Creator-God date back to a fourteenth century B.C.E. hymn to Aton (the Sun) where the poet declares:
How manifold are your works!
They are hidden from before us
O sole God, whose powers no other possesseth
Thou didst create the earth according to thy heart. More
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3/06/2007
- Bereshith: Judeo-Christian Genesis
For the Judeo-Christian view of cosmogenesis we go to the opening chapter of the Bible, known in English as The Book of Moses, Called Genesis. Its original Hebrew title was simply Bereshith which means "In the Beginning." When translated into Greek, it became simply Genesis: coming into being. Here it is stated that the world arose because God willed it so, or, if we refer to the original, because the Gods willed it, since there the word is Elohim which is in the plural. In any event, the view expressed here is that the universe is a consequence of God's fiat (let there be!). In other words, the world did not just come to be: It came about because it was God's will. More
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2/28/2007
- Ancient Cultural Visions of Genesis
Every culture has its own cosmogony. The stories of genesis are perhaps the first great scientific theories. For they attempt to answer the basic question: How did the universe come about? We are so accustomed to thinking in terms of the major world religions, we tend to forget that other cultures have had their views also. More
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2/20/2007
- Science as Theology
The search for unity in the absence of experimental pointers may be described as scientific theology, in that it is based on a doctrine for which there is no observational evidence. To say that there is a theological dimension to science is not to belittle it, but to recognize that this enormously powerful enterprise rests on some unproven, but immensely rewarding fundamental assumptions. More
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2/12/2007
- Theology as Science
Religion has experiential as well as intellectual dimensions. The latter is reflected in a time-honored discipline which approaches religion in ways similar to what obtains in the scientific realm. Known as theology (etymologically, a systematic study of God), its goal is to analyze, understand, and formulate in a reasoned framework the doctrines and worldviews of a religion. Thus, theology is a rational enterprise: That is to say, it is based on logic and reason, exactly like science. More
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1/26/2007
- Analytical and Traditional Approaches to Sacred History
All this is a cultural manifestation of the perennial conflict between the head and the heart. All through human history, in practically every society touched by civilization, the behavior and beliefs of traditionalists have been challenged by inquiring minds. This has resulted in new insights and understanding about the past for an elite minority. But they tend to cause pain and shock and even discomfort to a great many people. The conquests of the mind in religious matters tend to upset the joyful heart. An impeccable proof to the effect that no anthropomorpic God lovingly holds His protective hand over our heads when we go to sleep could result in restless and worrisome insomnia in some. More
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12/29/2006
- A Descriptive View of Religion
The religions of the human family are manifestations of a fundamental yearning. Yearning is more than simply wanting. It is a deeply felt longing. The heart more than the mind is involved here. Many people experience a profound need which is at the root of all religious expressions. One reason for the great popularity of religions is that they answer to a profound human need. Even when a traditionally taught religion is rejected at a later stage in life, it is often replaced by another system of beliefs and another worldview which then becomes a substitute for the older religion. More
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11/17/2006
- Some Characteristics of Science
Ultimately, anything becomes meaningful only when it becomes part of one's own self. None of the wonderful theories of science, be they of microphysics or cosmology, of genetics or neuroscience, will make any sense to those who have not been initiated into the worldview of science. It is only when the intellect grasps the intricacies of the picture that science emerges. More
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11/10/2006
- Science and God
Meaning and purpose, if they don’t exist, must be created for human sanity. One may try to explain this in terms of evolution, neurochemistry, or the property of the frontal lobe, but any system that denies meaning and purpose to human life, and proclaims faith as an unnecessary confusion of the human mind is more foe than friend to the man on the street. Science, as the foundation for a worldview, simply cannot afford to ignore this. More
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11/03/2006
- The Great Divide and Pseudosciences
We live in an age which is rich in its knowledge of the world around us. We have come to know a good deal more about mute matter, throbbing life, measuring mind, and the expansive universe than ever before in human history. But even as we probe deeper into the mysteries of the universe, our sciences are becoming so specialized and complicated that only a handful of experts in any field know what their fellow-workers are talking about. Large sections of society may hear about a few spectacular discoveries or breakthroughs such as the spotting of a new comet or the finding of a new drug for a disease. But by and large, there is widespread illiteracy as to the nature and goals of science, its framework and methodology. More
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10/20/2006
- Reactions to Mixing Metaphysics and Modern Science
A slow revolution has been occurring in science's backyard, as it were, reformulating scientific methodology and epistemology. Not all practicing scientists are happy with this turn of events. They feel that these efforts are based, not on experiments but on extrapolations, inspired more by analogy than by analysis; where the purpose of hypotheses is not to explain or derive experimentally observable data, but to confirm religious visions and sometimes to plead for a return to anthropocentric physics. More
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10/13/2006
- Theology and Science
The serious discipline of theology offers reason-based interpretations of scriptural worldviews. Whereas religious practitioners are generally content with the experiential, ethical, and community aspects of religion, inspired by trust in religious institutions and faith in some aspect of the Divine, academics and theoreticians strive to put the faith in a rational framework. This has been the case in all sophisticated religious traditions where philosophical thinkers influence the general public no less than pujaris, rabbis, bishops and popes do in their performing capacities. These writings add important dimensions to religions. More
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9/29/2006
- Science-Religion Interface: New Initiatives
It would be rash to conclude from all this that only the major religions knew about quantum mechanics. William S. Lyon, writing in an internet forum [23], states that "Shamans can effect change in local reality through spirit helpers working at the quantum level.” He explains further that the so-called ritual rules are in fact the rules of quantum mechanics. "Once you understand these new findings of physics," he explains like similar enthusiasts from other traditions, "what shamans do in a ceremony appears rational." More
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9/27/2006
- Science-Religion Interface: The Warfare Model
It is only in traditions where theology is no longer a static and unswerving allegiance to the literality of sacred texts, and where the monopoly for religious authority is not in the hands of clerics with medieval mindsets that there is hope and room for constructive and meaningful dialogue between science and religion. More
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9/19/2006
- Science-Religion Interface: Introduction
Most serious scientists spend the good part of their waking hours amidst papers and preprints, equations and equipments, talking about graphs and data, arguing about ideas and theories, and writing grant proposals. But if they browse in bookstores or glance in the book review sections of journals, they cannot escape a fascinating phenomenon in the scientific landscape: books proclaiming the extra-rational implications of science are proliferating...Religion and mysticism are inching their way back into the arena of science whence, some thought, they had been gradually weeded out during the past two centuries. More
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9/07/2006
- Science & Religion: Before and Now
Both science and religion spring from the same inner urge to understand and unravel the mystery of the existence of a world with all its splendor, and of a mind that reflects, a heart that feels, and a spirit that experiences it all. Science and religion once went hand in hand: The same people who spoke of God spoke about the Universe. Statements about the divine and about the world came from the same source: the Vedas, the Bible, the Holy Qur'an, and such. Extolling the Divine and explaining the world were both in the scriptures and in the saying of sages. More
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