Science as a whole and religion of any description are not always good bedfellows at the best of times. Science always retains a fair distance from religion, but religion has been found to resort to ‘pick and choose’ policy towards science. That is not bad in itself; only if good, productive parts of science are assimilated in the religion leaving the bad, destructive parts outside. On the other hand, if an opposite approach is taken in religion, the world will face a catastrophic situation.
When Pope Francis said recently that God is not a magician with a magic wand; he was, in fact, blurting out an undeniable fact which any lesser individual than him would simply shirk away. He said, “When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so. God created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment”. He continued saying, “The big bang which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it. Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”
Pope Francis’ acceptance of the big bang theory and the concept of evolution are streets ahead of the Christian churches’ position even today. However, as the head of Roman Catholic Church, he may persuade the Church to accept his enlightened views. Even Christianity, the most advanced and forward looking religious system from 15th century onwards, had been at odds with science. The Christians believed even in the 17th century that earth was at the centre of the God’s creation and all heavenly bodies revolve round the earth. When Galileo Galilei supported the previously unknown Copernicus’ heliocentric system that the Sun is at the centre and earth revolves round it, he was defying the scriptures and consequently he was charged for heresy. He suffered the ignominy of being a heretic and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.
Nonetheless, Christian churches are much more accommodating in accepting scientific ideas and developments than Judaism or Islam. That does not mean that Christian Churches everywhere accept scientific developments readily. There are a large number of churches of various denominations in America where evolution is rejected even today in favour of God’s creation. Intelligent Design is the buzzword for these churches. However, these rejections are not endorsed by State laws nor is there any imposition of religious beliefs by the State.
This attitude is in sharp contrast to Islamic States where State imposes religious beliefs on the citizens. If the religious belief contradicts scientific principle, so be it – religion prevails. As I said in my previous write-up, evolution does not exist in fundamentalist Muslim countries and if someone is seen to propagate such ideas, he is liable to be charged for blasphemy. Modern system of government, democracy, human rights etc. are all redundant in favour of Sharia Laws. But Sharia Laws make no pretence of adopting scientific laws and ideas; they derive legitimacy straight from the Almighty God. That way Sharia Laws are truthful and transparent, although inhumanely barbaric and despicable.
But the peak of the pack must now go to the inherently docile and non-martial religious belief called Hinduism. The newly elected Prime Minister of secular India, Mr Narendra Modi – the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – found divine inspiration in discovering great scientific achievements in Hinduism. Who would have thought that despite the great burden of the secular state and its associated political Machiavellianism, NM would have enough time to rummage through old, dusty religious books to discover hitherto ignored or overlooked scientific achievement in Hinduism?
At the inaugural ceremony of the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre in Mumbai, Modi recently made public his ground breaking discovery that since Mahabharata said Karna was not born from his mother’s womb, there must have been genetic science present in India at that pre-historic time. A good logic indeed (!) which even Aristotle would have been hard pressed to discard! To claim further credits to India’s scientific prowess in those prehistoric days, Modi continued: since Lord Ganesh has an elephant’s head on human body, it must have been that plastic surgery was prevalent in those days! With two such undeniable claims from this great leader of India, he paused to claim the laurel for India!
Narendra Modi’s such mendacious claims are not new. He is renowned to be instrumental in introducing in school curriculum right across Gujarat that stem cell research was known in the days of Kunti and Kausavas; television was invented during the time of Mahabharata and the motor car existed in the Vedic period! With such litany of successes, who would have the mind set to challenge him or the country he leads?
Faced with such egregious claims from no less a person than Modi, the prime minister of India, I have very little option but to take it as a facetious comment. I was totally unaware that Modi is an accomplished joker, as is evident from his claims. But whatever it is, he has picked up an outstandingly bad occasion to amuse and inspire his countrymen. After all, Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre, which he was inaugurating, is not the right place to cut jokes – the centre is supposed to be the cutting-edge research centre in medical sciences in India. Now talking about jokes, it reminds me of a similar joke I heard some years ago and it reads like this:
An Egyptian, a Chinese and an Indian were arguing about the earliest antiquity of their civilisation.
First the Egyptian said proudly, “Recently we dug 250 feet underground in our barren deserts and we found golden statues. Our civilisation was that old and advanced enough to produce golden statues.”
“That is nothing”, said the Chinese dismissively, “We dug 500 feet underground and we found man-size soldiers guarding our palaces at that time. We had civilised society even at that time.”
The Indian had been listening patiently so far. Now he said in a quiet, contemplative mood, “Look, we dug well over 1000 feet below ground and we found absolutely nothing.”
“What does it mean?” shouted the other two in unison.
“It means”, the Indian continued in assertive tone, “It means that even at that time we had wireless communication.”
Now Narendra Modi may have a streak of that Indian character, but he has brought a whole new ball game into the fore. He may be implicitly claiming his position at the topmost table of scientifically advanced countries when India had genetic science, plastic surgery, television etc., not now, but nearly four millennia ago!
But, more crucially, he seems to have a game plan. Whereas all the religions – Islam or Christianity or Judaism and so forth – endeavour to bring scriptures and divine messages into the modern age by claiming how present day scientific developments fit in well with the religion, Narendra Modi is asserting that his religion was in harmony with present day scientific developments back at the time of Mahabharata’s creation, because all of these scientific things were present at that time. His religion was going hand in hand with science right from the time of its creation!
This new game plan is not dissimilar to that of the Islamic State’s (IS) plan. The IS are trying to draw inspiration from the glory days of the 7th century when the religion was set up and run the state in the present day basking in that glory. Narendra Modi has drawn inspiration from his mendacious claims of spectacular achievements in science in those prehistoric days and carrying on with his religious beliefs in modern times to run the country. For Narendra Modi bright days may lie ahead; but for India, secularism may be in the sick bed.
Source: bdnews24
