Can we scientifically prove the validity of scriptures?
So how do we know the scientific community appreciates scholarly works so can we scientifically prove the validity of scriptures actually recently I was in a class after somebody asked a question you know can we scientifically prove the existence of God so I explained that first of all science cannot even prove that you exist science can prove that your body exists your heart exists your brain exists but you as a conscious center of awareness you as a person who experiences emotions where is that in the body that's not there anywhere according science we can even do heart transplant we can replace parts of the brain but that is not you so science is a very powerful body of knowledge at the same time it is limited with medical science is all meant to heal people from pain but with all of medical science is there something called a pain-o-meter when somebody's got a fracture how much pain are they experiencing you can have an x-ray which shows how much the bone is fractured there's no pain-o-meter you know if a boy and a girl want to form a relationship and get married can they get some they can they place a love-o-meter on their heart and find out do you really love me no so there is so much in our life which cannot be it is real but it cannot be measured Einstein said that and the others have also said it before him that all that counts is not countable all that counts is not countable and all that is countable doesn't count so there is much to our life which is irreducible which is not countable but it counts so similarly when we refer to scripture now what exactly are we referring to within scripture as I said that scripture ultimately gives us knowledge of the origin value and purpose what is it that we are meant to live for so if we consider scriptural knowledge to be a circle a big circle within that there may be some sections which agree with science some things which don't make sense with respect to science the major part of scripture is beyond science it is so it is not unscientific scripture is not unscientific scripture is trans-scientific it is scripture is not against science scripture is about science it is giving us a different kind of knowledge now if we look at scripture the knowledge that it gives it will it forms a coherent body of knowledge which explains things systematically so we we shouldn't we should value science but we shouldn't overvalue science and make it the make it the prison through which the filter through which we look at everything in the world we don't do that in our normal normal day-to-day functioning also no then we are with brain surgeon if he comes back home and he finds his wife is upset with him you know will he tell come let me do a brain scan to find out why are you upset she will say you go and scan where you lost your brain so science has its role and it's very powerful when we study scripture we study it for values for values about how to live our life and as i said science is amoral so it is it cannot make any statements about values whether they are right or wrong now of course scripture does talk about about realities such as the soul or god or the spiritual world the relationship between soul and god these themselves because they are spiritual and science looks for material explanations of material phenomena they cannot be quantified and measured but what can be measured if at all we are looking for scientific explanation or scientific demonstrations you know we can see objectively that the values that scripture teaches if we adopt them in our life that brings about observable positive transformation in our lives we can see there are thousands of people all over the world who were addicted to many different things and just by practicing the principles of bhakti yoga they become free from their addictions Prabhupada himself he came at the time of the counterculture when there were many people who were addicted to drugs and even the US government with all its might did not know how to deal with this but Prabhupada inspired them to chant Hare Krishna and they gave up their addictions and not just one or two hundreds thousands so if we look for scientific in terms of empirically measurable the fundamental truths of spirituality are trans-scientific but the effects of spirituality are empirically demonstrable it's not just one person in remote part of the world it's thousands even millions of people all over the world who have been transformed so in that sense of verifiability of repeatability not of the core truths of spirituality but the effects of spiritual practice that is something which is there like I was in Detroit and I had a long meeting with a neurologist he has just done a whole study of around a number of subjects on the effects of mantra meditation on the brain and he's found objectively documented that the same effect that comes on the brain by if a person is having a panic attack and then there are medicines which are given to curb their panic attack if a person is habituated to chanting their brain calms down in the same way through chanting as happens through medication by a panic attack so he's going to publish this in science and other papers other journals eventually and he is a very respected scientific body very respected hospital so there is I'll conclude this answer in two parts as there is ontology which is the nature of reality and there's functionality how things function so the nature of reality is something which is just beyond science so when we study scripture for understanding the nature of reality that is not unscientific it is trans-scientific we study scripture for values again science we're talking about values but the effect of living according to certain values the effect of chanting Hare Krishna effect of practicing bhakti yoga that positive transformation that happens that is empirically demonstrable in terms of people's behavior and now it is also being empirically demonstrated in terms of brain functions so in that sense the transformation from scripture to living can be empirically demonstrated scientifically correlated the essential principles of scripture essential truths of scripture they are trans-scientific.