science and religion

Men diverge into two things – either in search of God or in search of scientific truth. It begins with the one common element – curiosity. But the curiosity is not without its limitations. Both usually cannot bear to digest anything beyond the limits of what they know. For example a deeply religious man is likely to dismiss an aethist’s life as meaningless and doomed. Or wrt intution the first thing a scientist will do is remind one, quite correctly, that intution is not scientifically proven.

Though I am and have always been quite a scientifically inclined person (and even have plans to pursue it further) – I believe beyond a shadow of doubt that a significant fraction of science, just like religion, is like the emperor’s new clothes. (You might have read the story when you were a kid, reading it again IMO would still be a worthwhile investment of time.)

Science is intellectual entertainment (“how? why? an answer… there must be an answer… and I will figure it out based on what all these other intelligent people have figured out…”), religion is emotional entertainment (“how reassuring it is that whenever things go wrong, I can ask Some Supreme Power to take care of me and everything else“).

They do have their place, we probably need these things until we can become free from them.

I’m particularly curious about one thing – we have definitely not reached the end of evolution, its still going on… Would we with all our abilities and achievements still be like primitive apes in comparison to countless generations into the future? 🙂

I hear babies cryin’, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world

~ Louis Armstrong

Here are a couple of quotes from H2G2 by Douglas Adams on similar lines. If I were to imagine what an enlightned man would be like, it would probably come close to him 🙂

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers
exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will
instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more
bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already
happened.

Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than
dolphins because he had achieved so much… the wheel, New York,
wars, and so on, whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck
about in the water having a good time. But conversely the
dolphins believed themselves to be more intelligent than man
for precisely the same reasons.