Science is based on curiosity to know – where does faith come in?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So science is based on curiosity about what we observe.
Where does faith come? Yeah good question. See even when there is curiosity there has to be some faith that there is something to be learned over here. Isn’t it? So I will give an example.
Suppose somebody just comes and gives me a cheat and I see some ink patterns which make no sense to me. Now it may well be if that pattern has been sent by someone to me. I saw somebody who sent the paper to me.
I know that person is an intelligent person. It’s not just scribble over ink. Then what that would mean is maybe they have written in some language that I don’t understand.
Maybe it’s written in some code that I don’t understand. Then I will inquire about that code. But if I didn’t have that faith that there is something meaningful over here I will just tear the paper and throw it away or discard the paper.
So that even when I see some ink patterns on paper I may have curiosity about what those patterns mean. But that curiosity itself is based at least on the consideration of the possibility that those patterns have some meaning. And there is no guarantee in advance that this pattern have meaning.
So what is the basis for my assumption that these patterns may have some meaning? That is faith. So by faith I am not talking about faith in God. I am talking about faith in the principle that there is something beyond the apparent.
Beyond the visible there is something more over here. So science the curiosity is definitely the engine of scientific progress. But that curiosity is itself based on the faith that there is something to be learned.
So when Newton observed the fruit falling he was curious what made this fruit fall. But that question what made this fruit fall that is based on a faith that things don’t just fall by themselves. There must be some reason why this is happening.
So in that sense curiosity and faith are not contradictory. Sometimes people say our religion is based on faith science is based on curiosity. It is not true.
Actually both are there. In science also curiosity is there. In science also faith is there.
And spirituality also there is faith but there is curiosity also. Athato Brahma Jijnasa. The Vedanta Sutra which is one of the most prominent books among the spiritual literature of India.
It begins with Jijnasa which is enquire. Enquire. It talks about Brahma Jijnasa.
Enquire about ultimate principles. Enquire about the ultimate truths of life. So in any branch of knowledge if there is to be progress there has to be this combination of curiosity and faith.
To put more in simple terms curiosity is the eagerness to learn and faith is the assumption that there is something to learn. So only when both are together then learning happens. I have to have the desire to learn and I have to feel that there is something to learn over here.
Then learning happens. And this applies this combination of curiosity and faith are the operating principles for the growth of knowledge in all fields of knowledge be they scientific or spiritual. Does it answer your question? Thank you.
Any other questions? Question. Science says that the universe