Monday 23 January 2012

The pseudo-Science

Influence on impressionable minds
It is really very amusing with the way science has endeared to our hearts like the way a kid is absorbed in the superhuman acts of his dream heroes like superman, He-Man, and such other characters.
We have developed a very sweet relationship with scientists and science for all they taught us. I remember very vividly how I would be listening and reading in awe everything a scientist would say or a science magazine would glorify. I remember those simple words like “concepts” , “proof”, “inference”, “hypothesis” and other related terminologies. In fact after I came to know about great scientists like Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg …and their great theories and experiments it was like..”Gosh..these guys can do anything…” I am repeating here but I can’t resist saying that these people,had kind of become sweetheart, and subconsciously I was in love with them, not ready to listen anything against them..ready to protect them saying that..”it is just a matter of time and everything will be crystal clear in front of me….” Sometimes I feel we like them more than for what they have done actually. We appear more confident on what they have taught us, than they themselves.
Our perception of science
We think that they are concerned about us just as we are for them, as if “science” is an institution located on an inaccessible island wherein only some extremely intelligent and revolutionary people are only permitted, who have taken up the responsibility on behalf of the entire human race to solve all the problems of this world including the most important; death. As if scientists are working very diligently for us, and they keep publishing some papers so that we know that their work is in progress. And we all know that someone doing something in some remote place always bears more value than a person whom you know says something meaningful.
Somewhere out of fanaticism, is it possible that we lost our habit of questioning the reality? Why should I believe someone or something that is so adept in manipulating matter? Is it very difficult to understand that majority of the work science has progressed in, falls in dead matter category? And if we are slightly more observant, we can see that the very advancement of science and technology has had a detrimentaleffect on the overall lifestyle of us, causing different forms of pollution. Outrageous manipulation of matter without any higher knowledge and simply putting ourselves in the center has made people restless for material achievements, which is meant to perish.It has hastened our journey towards death instead. Do I write letters to the science department saying, “Respected Sirs, Can you please tell me what is the progress of the science in decoding the reality of creation and God? What stage are you guys at? When can I possibly expect some breakthrough? Do let me know. Thanks, yours sincerely” . Am I being practical in blindly following and relying on the promises of science?
The tricky argument of science
Imagine a bespectacled, charismatic, confident scientist looking intently at you and saying in a grave voice, “Give us some time and we will give you “The Truth”.
 YES. That is exactly what we do not have. Time.
 Sufficient time is definitely required to come to a conclusion about such grave subjects. No doubt about that. But then, is that our natural behavior in our day to day life? If I do not get what I want from one shopkeeper and he tells me to come the next day, even though I know that he might have it the next day, will I wait for the next day? Of course “NO”. Well, even if I do, it will be because what I am looking for is actually something very trivial.
Anyway. What I am trying to say is that if we think that science should be given time to prove themselves then it is the same “Time” that devours us of everything and it is the same “Time” that we do not have, or rather we do not know how much of it we have.
Why should we become patriotic in the name of science? While research is still underway can we not let our own search going?
And moreover why hate/be fearful or envy or bear any other such feelings regarding spirituality. I understand that normally there is always a tussle between the believers and non-believers on the matter of god. Why not just take it as a process that will answer all the unanswered questions that I have so far? After all we can always weigh the answers that we are provided. Nobody is forcing anybody to believe. On the contrary, the teachings of science took place when we were very young so our current understanding could be an effect of conditioning, but if we take to a process now, we can always put forth relevant and intelligent questions. Unless I am not seriously interested I would go for it.
Does life really matter to science?
It is like this.
Science never openly says that our only concern is to dig out the truth of this creation, purpose of creation and unearth the mystery of birth and death. Science has many, many other agendas.
But when we talk of spirituality, it solely revolves around the fundamental questions that can drain out anybody. So why not take it just for our own sake? Even out of curiosity one can take it. Obtaining spiritual knowledge from some bona fide authority has no alternative. We did get our education in some recognized institution, didn’t we? One can look at the fruit and tell the tree. Similarly we can see the effect of science and technological advancement and tell what the objective of science is. Increased exploitation of resources;living and non-living both.Erosion of values among people. Mad pursuit for material acquisitions, luxuries, comforts, increased dissatisfaction in life, broken relations, aimless life, self-destructive habits etc. If any process destroys the individual itself how can that process ever get to know “The truth”? A process primarily working in order to make life convenient is implicitly accepting this life as the whole and sole, then where is the impetus to go beyond to find “The Truth”.
The Inspiration
If a person is really interested, then there should be no reason why one should not take to spirituality seriously. Due of insufficient knowledge about the science of spirituality and some quack spiritualists,people have lost their faith in it,“once bitten twice shy” as they say. But running away, is that a solution? Nature runs faster than us and will catch any moment, when we are least prepared. Common sense says that people have been living and dying for millennia and search for The Truth was alwaysprevailing, so to think that, all those people died in the absence of real knowledge and our pseudo, speculative, error-prone budding scienceis to offer the final judgment is gross folly.Human life is a life of responsibility and if we do not understand what the objective of life is, we will die a million times, to die again.

1 comment:

Akshar said...

wonderfully written. It is posing a very important question, whether science itself has become a 'blind faith?'