Does the fact that religious knowledge doesn’t grow like scientific knowledge prove its irrelevance?
Directions. Question, does the fact that religious knowledge does not grow through the non-existence of God? Answer, this is a non-sequitur.
There is no connection between the two directly. Because if we talk about the essential knowledge provided by the religious traditions of the world, that knowledge is of things which are beyond the changing features of the world. Yes, religions may also contain statements about the world, but their most important contribution is to give us knowledge about what is beyond the world, about God, about our spiritual side, and about the linking between us and God.
So, the very fact that the essential knowledge that the religious traditions give us that does not change, that itself is a strength. It's not a weakness. The world that we see around us, that changes.
And therefore, change is its defining characteristic. Bhagavata also says, na sato vidyate bhavo na bhavo vidyate satah. That of the material, there is no endurance.
It's constantly changing. And that's why our conceptions of matter and the knowledge that we derive from those conceptions, that also keeps changing. But in contrast, when we look at the spiritual truths, they are beyond this changeability and malleability and perishability of matter.
And the very fact that the knowledge of those higher realities, that the scriptures do, that does not change. That indicates that that knowledge is real. So, because it's talking about a reality which is beyond change.
And as far as growing is concerned, yes, every generation of great thinkers within the various religious traditions of the world, they have talked about higher truths. They have talked about spiritual wisdom. They have talked about the timeless truths in timely terms, in terms that are intelligible to their generation.
And as there is the perennial relevance of the eternal knowledge, the perennial relevance of the perennial comes by its timely presentation and representation according to contemporary situations. So, the religious body of knowledge does grow in the sense that the timeless is presented in timely ways. So, that's why each generation of people keep writing the knowledge.
So, the religious body of knowledge in its essential postulations remains unchanging, but in terms of its contemporary presentation and representation, it keeps growing. And both point to firstly, the transcendence of that knowledge in terms of it being beyond material change and its relevance in terms of it being presented according to changing situations. Thank you.
Hare Krishna.