Should spiritualists be afraid that scientific research may disprove their faith?

From: Keshav

Is Sprituality Afraid Of Science ?

These days scientist are doing tremendous research to root out the existence of god.

Some of very popular research like God Particle,Creation Of Synthetic Cell ,Bio-weapon are some example which shows that Demons in other yugas and this yuga are same , just the difference is that demon in this yuga are powerful by research and in other yuga demon were powerful due to boons by Demigod’s .

How to see all these research in light of Sprituality . Don’t these research fall’s like a atom bomb on spritual person’s faith

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Prabhu. Should devotees be afraid of scientific research? These days scientists are doing tremendous research to root out the existence of God.
Some of very popular research like God particle creation of synthetic cell bio weapons are some example which show that the demons in other yugas in this yuga are same. Just the difference is that demons in this yuga are powerful by research and in other yuga demons were powerful due to the wounds by demigods. How to see all these research in the line of spirituality? Don’t these researches fall like atom bomb on a spiritual person’s faith? Here is a link of a research that is leading to create life from matter.
Thank you for this important question. Firstly we need to recognize that there is no, the essential conflict is not between science and spirituality Science is simply a tool for acquiring knowledge. If there is any conflict that is between a spiritual world view and a material world view, between spirituality and materialism and science as a tool for acquiring knowledge has been increasingly appropriated or misappropriated by materialistic and atheistic scientists.
So we have to recognize the difference between science and materialism and refuse to let materialism have a monopoly on science. This is a very important concept to understand without understanding which we will forever stay insecure in our faith. So let me explain this.
Science is a tool for acquiring knowledge. We observe the world around us, that is from the Vedic epistemological perspective and then we make inferences that is anuman brahman and that’s how science may come up with the laws of physics and various other theories like quantum physics and relativity and whatever else. So this is one valid way of looking at the world and it gives results.
So just as a map, just as a country can be mapped in different ways. If you want to map a country for political purposes, then we will show all the district boundaries and the state boundaries and the city locations. If you want to map the world for physical or topographical features, map a country, then we will show where there are plains, where there are mountains, where there are plateaus and the other geographical details in terms of political boundaries will become insignificant even irrelevant in such a way of looking.
Now which is real? Is the physical map real or is the political map real? Both are real. It depends on one’s purpose. If a person is in the government and is primarily interacting with governmental administration, the political map will be more important.
If a person is say primarily interacting with geology or topography, is a meteorologist or something like that, then maybe the physical map may be more important. So similarly, science offers us one way of looking at the world. So it’s like one map.
And then spirituality offers us another map. Science can be called the political map because the political boundaries are made by human beings. Similarly, the theories of science are proposed by human beings.
The physical map is more of what the natural features are there independent of human boundary settings. So like that, the spiritual map is more in harmony with how the world actually is. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that for the functional perspective, the political map is not valid.
Similarly, for functioning in this world, the scientific way of looking at the world, the scientific map is valid, important and for many purposes in this world essential today. So now, from the map that science has drawn, some further inferences are to be made or can be made. So there is nothing intrinsically in the map drawn by science which either proves or disproves the existence of God.
In fact, the scientific study of the world, for example, reveals design that huge aspects of the world are intricately and delicately designed from the microscopic to the macroscopic level. So now when we see that this design is what is revealed by science. So science is a tool and science reveals design.
Now spirituality and materialism come up with two different explanations. Now, spirituality says that this design is there in nature and this design has been ultimately manifested by God’s will and wisdom and what materialism says is it acknowledges the presence of what looks like design and it says actually it is not design in the sense that it is designed by someone. It is not a design.
It is an illusion of design and that has come by natural forces like evolution. So evolution is not a scientific theory in the sense that it is not what is intrinsic to science as a tool. It is an inference made by people who already had a pre-existing materialistic world view or those who want to have their materialistic world view justified by science.
So as devotees we don’t have to become insecure if science does some further research because whatever research science does it doesn’t ultimately talk anything about spirituality directly because spirituality talks about the soul and God and these are transcendental to the reach of science. Science focuses on and can investigate in the material realm. So because it can investigate in the material realm it doesn’t necessarily mean that science has to be equated with materialism.
Science is a tool for understanding how reality actually is and materialism is the philosophical belief system which assumes that matter is all that exists. Now science can in no way prove materialism because science begins at least the way science is studied today, it begins by observing and inferring. So there is no scientific experiment that can ever prove that there is nothing beyond matter that exists.
That is an assumption of materialists and science from a functional perspective will stay within the materialistic realm of study and that is fine as far as it goes. So when we understand that science is a tool and materialism is a belief system which is dominantly using that tool today then we understand that science doesn’t have to be monopolized by materialism. That spiritualists can also use scientific research and then arrive at inferences about how science is not only compatible with spiritual truths but is also actually demonstrating those truths.
So regarding the God particle I have written a whole article which you can read on the site from the God particle to the Godly particle. I have also given a talk where I explain elaborately how even the most advanced scientific theories don’t necessarily prove that there is no God. All that they prove is that there is order in the universe.
So science may prove that even the electron obeys law. So in my article on in my talk along with PPT on the God particle I have talked about how scientists don’t know why electrons move around in orbits at a pre-specified speed. So what causes electrons to move in an orbit? Materialism in itself has no answer.
So it will assume its chance and the spiritualists will say that it is God. Now who is true? Certainly it is not that the materialist idea is true. There is no way to prove that chance is what causes science or causes the electron to move about in orbit at a specified speed.
Or for all the various material phenomena that we observe to have some patterns, we have those patterns because of chance. In fact the deeper we go into science we realize the inadequacy of chance as an explanation. And that is why materialism turns out to be inadequate as an explanation.
So devotees don’t have to necessarily be afraid of scientific research. We can use the scientific research to show how it points towards spiritual truths. It can neither prove nor disprove spirituality.
Because spirituality by definition is beyond the realm of science. But it can definitely help us make inferences. So from the knowledge that is acquired by science we have to check which inference is valid.
Is materialism a valid inference or is spirituality a valid inference? And let science do its research and as the research is going further and further the inference of materialism is becoming more and more untenable not tenable. Because we are discovering that even the smallest cell and the smallest mechanism within the cell is extraordinarily designed. That even the most even matter and even the fundamental particle level is having intricate patterns.
So where do these patterns come from? The whole discovery of the god particle happened because there was a presumption, there was a implicit assumption that nature behaves in predictable ways and that’s why if it is behaving in certain predictable standard ways then there should be a particle called god particle existing. And now what makes nature behave in the predictable ways still remains open to question. So that is not, so certainly the discovery of the god particle doesn’t prove the, prove anything about god.
If at all it proves anything only the, it’s by inference and the inference is certainly more towards that the order in the universe is coming from god, not coming from chance as materialism would have us believe. I’ve also answered a question on the site about is there any scientific discovery that will disprove spirituality and there I addressed that they are non-intersecting realms to a large extent, not entirely and you can hear that answer to see how the discovery of life coming from matter is not something which we need to get worked up about. The soul is present at various places and the soul can enter into a physical medium whenever there is a conducive biological atmosphere available.
So science can, even if science can empirically demonstrate that by producing, by using conducive life, by providing for or arranging for or manufacturing conducive biological medium, life emerges. That doesn’t prove that the conducive medium produced life. That is again an inference and the inference alternatively could be that okay, this medium produced life.
How did it produce life? Matter doesn’t have consciousness. Matter doesn’t have emotions. So there is no theoretical explanation of how suddenly is matter when it takes on some arrangements suddenly starts having emotions and perceptions and reciprocations.
So just as from the normal biological point of view when a semen and an egg unite, at that time life comes. Now where does the soul come in? The scripture describes that actually the soul comes into the semen. But that is not the only way the soul can come in.
The soul can come in from various other ways. In the Srimad Bhagavatam it is described in the past time that when Diti united with her husband Kashyap at an appropriate time there were ghostly beings who were going around and seeing that in an appropriate time they actually injected the soul over there. So the point which I am making is that even in the process of normal reproduction the element of mystery remains.
We have a semen and we have a sperm and egg unite but the sperm and the egg are simply biological matter and there are hundreds of experiments done by scientists when they try to unite these two and many times they don’t work. Sometimes they work and life and an infant is born eventually. But where does matter develop the potentiality to become conscious? That is a fundamental question which science has no answer for.
So there is also an elaborate article on artificial life which you can look for on the site. Just do a search for artificial life. You will find the article and you can read that also to understand what exactly scientists do when they try to create life.
They actually are simply creating suitable biological mediums and are hoping that life will manifest over there. So just as nature creates a suitable biological medium within the mother’s womb for the soul to enter scientists may also create a suitable biological medium. Now that the biological medium has produced life is an inference and that inference is made by materialists.
That is not necessarily the inference that is essential or unavoidable or compelling from the experiment because science has no explanation of how matter can produce emotions and consciousness. And we continue with the same example that in the past the demigods, the demons would become powerful by using the tools given by the demigods, by the boons given by the demigods. Similarly there may be some ungodly, anti-godly people who may become powerful by the tools given by scientists.
Now this doesn’t mean that just as the demigods’ boons are valid, but they are misused. Similarly, the scientific research and scientific findings are valid but they are being misused by materialists. So be careful it is not that the scientists are demoniac it is materialists who are demoniac and somehow or the other today majority of the scientists, not majority a very vocal minority of the scientists are explicitly materialistic and atheistic.
A large number of scientists just go about doing their job. They don’t care about the philosophical implications of their research. They just want to do research to earn a living, to maybe improve the lot of humanity by providing technology and maybe find out what is the truth about nature.
But there are there is a very strongly opinionated and vocal verbally aggressive minority of scientists who are explicitly atheistic and they are misappropriating science. So just as the certain technology that was available in the past through the worship of the demigods was not itself bad but was misused by the demons. Similarly the technology that is available through scientists today is being misused by demoniac people who are materialists.
So we should stop that and we should use the technology for propagating devotional service and for sharing devotional service just as in the Mahabharata war there were there were people in the Mahabharata or the Ramayana war there were demons and demoniac people who were using the astras, the weapons which they had got from the higher powers in the universe. But then the Pandavas and the other devotees in the virtuous people were also using similar astras and countering them. So same thing we have to do as devotees.
If we are scientifically inclined then we can actually do scientific research to show how science substantiates the conclusions of spirituality and even if we are not scientifically inclined we shouldn’t be misled into thinking that science by its very nature or by its very progress justifies literalism and disproves spirituality. By carefully understanding the difference between science and materialism we can ensure that scientific progress can be compatible and even conducive to the development of our spiritual faith.