How can we explain Bhagavatam sections that contradict modern science?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So we talk about in the Bhagavatam, there is cosmology, there is chronology, it talks about the universe, chronology is time scales and essentially it is about philosophy, about the ultimate nature of reality, so without getting into specific theories or specific controversies, whether it is about moon landing or about evolution, we have to look at what is the essential teaching of scripture which Shri Prabhupada stressed when he made particular statements, now Prabhupada’s point with respect to cosmology was primarily that what is such a big deal about going to outer space, rising up and going to outer space is in terms of physicality it is dramatic but if it is not going to elevate our consciousness, it is not going to change our purpose of life, we all human beings like other living beings are driven by four drives, food, sleep, sex and power, we all want these four things and even if we go to the moon, if we are ultimately pursuing the same things, food, sex and power, what is the difference? So Shri Prabhupada’s focus was on a higher purpose of life, specifically as I said that science postulates certain theories and scripture is not necessarily in competition with theories, the competition between science and scripture can happen in two ways, spirituality in general, when science goes beyond its jurisdiction and makes claims that are not necessarily scientific or when we take spiritual understanding and conflate it or put it in confrontation with material understanding, I will explain both ways, say for example, now there is evolution as a mechanism of say species adapting to nature, that has abundance, there is evidence for that, okay, species do adapt to nature, now from this evolution is made into a grand creation narrative which is claimed to explain everything about everything, so evolution as a natural adaptation of modification that happens within species, that is observed phenomena, there is no need to quarrel with that, the plant breeding and interbreeding that is talked about in the Bhagavatam also, but from there evolution which is a mechanism to explain observed phenomena, from there it is extrapolated to ideological explanation for everything in the world, everything, including our consciousness, our emotion, including the world’s existence, now that great evolution narrative, it even from the scientific perspective has very scant evidence, so as far as the material world is concerned there are certain mechanisms by which certain things happen and the evidence that comes from those, evidence about those mechanisms, there is no need to see scripture as in competition with it, scripture also acknowledges that there are material mechanisms by which things happen, so that is one point, so the word evolution is a very slippery term, now what exactly are we talking about, so it is only when evolution is seen as a grand ideological narrative for explaining everything about everything, that is not scientific, that is actually an extrapolation of science into the jurisdiction of ideology, it is what is called as scientism, so material mechanisms, if there is evidence, that’s fine, Prabhupada was primarily concerned about atheism being extrapolated from particular scientific theories, so we don’t have to make, what is important is that the issue, what is the issue, it is not that science and God are competitors, it is when science claims that God does not exist, then there is a problem, or some people feel if, because of believing in religion or God, we say we can’t be scientific, neither of them are really true, science does not make any comments about ultimate principles, as I said Newton himself believed in God, at that time when he saw the fruit falling, he could have said what made the fruit fall, God made the fruit fall, he could have said that, but that was not the expression he was looking for, the expression he was looking for was what is the material mechanism by which God makes this fall, so if science discovers material mechanisms how things happen, that is perfectly fine, but underlying those mechanisms is something more, see science offers explanations for natural phenomena, but the explainability of nature requires an explanation, why is there a cause effect connection in nature, so God is the explanation for the explainability of nature, so God is not an alternative or a competitor to science, God is the foundation for science, science offers, explains nature, but the explainability of nature, the explanation for that is God, so we don’t have to get into technicalities or specific theories, we have to look at principles, because we with all our knowledge we are not scientists, we can leave science to scientists, the important thing is when science goes outside its jurisdiction and makes ideological claims, then it becomes a problem, so with respect to cosmology, there are different ways of looking at the universe, so as far as the moon mission is concerned, Prabhupada’s focus was on don’t get unduly excited about this, it is not going to make any ultimate difference in terms of life’s big questions, so if we see that primary thrust then specifically depending on what one scientific orientation is, depending on what one scriptural understanding is, different devotees may have different understanding specifically about how to approach evolution, about how to approach the cosmological issues, the important principle is that we keep things purposeful, science is not here, science never claims to answer ultimate questions of life and scripture is not primarily giving us material knowledge, when Bhagavatam speaks to, Bhagavatam is spoken by Parikshit Maharaj Shubhdev Goswami, he is not speaking to tell Parikshit Maharaj how the planets move around, his primary purpose is to help Parikshit Maharaj fix his mind on Krishna, so when we are approaching science, any form of knowledge, when we approach it with the purpose in mind, when we study scripture, we study it to fix our mind on Krishna, when we approach science, we use it to get natural explanation for natural phenomena so that we can function in this world and if certain things are contradictory or difficult to reconcile, we can consult specific devotees who can answer the questions, so both evolution and the moon landing, there are articles on the scripturescientist.com which elaborately deal with these issues but here I will focus on the principles, does it address the question?