Vedic Science
Has Science Failed Us ?
by
Swami B. B. Visnu
Swami B. B. Visnu
Scientists generally insist that all phenomena can be described, in principle, in terms of measurable quantities which can be calculated using simple mathematical laws, thus reducing the universe to a mechanism and humans to complex submechanisms whose will and feelings correspond to nothing more than patterns of chemical interaction among molecules. The vast majority of these scientists are bent on eliminating the concept of God from all descriptions of reality and it's creation.
Erwin Schrodinger
Presumably scientists seek to improve their position of knowledge and better satisfy their needs (pleasures) in this world by controlling nature. Unfortunately we find that so-called scientific progress more often brings an unexpected toll, a negative reaction from the material energy.
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Even with all the advances in medical cures, new and incurable diseases have only increased. It seems that the goals of knowledge and pleasure have not been achieved.
SCIENTIST'S IMPERFECTIONS
It is often found that scientists are not unbiased in their search for the truth, giving preference to evidence which supports their desired thesis and unscientifically rejecting alternative theories as unsuitable without proper consideration.
Alfred Russel Wallace
Although scientists are subject to the four defects of all humans, namely, they make mistakes, are subject to illusion, have a cheating propensity and defective perception (bhrama, pramada, vipralipsa, karanapatava), their findings when presented with some sort of verifiable experimental proof, are accepted as factual descriptions of reality.
Even so, theories of creation, formation of life, and evolution cannot be rigorously proven nor do they adequately describe reality. Scientists have not provided us with adequate answers to fundamental questions about the universe, galaxies and life forms.
All too often scientists forcibly assume [albeit incorrectly] that their laboratory experimental evidence can be applied elsewhere under different circumstances. Further, almost all currently accepted theories of Creation and Evolution are unverifiable and often contradicted by reliable evidence. However, when concepts such as consciousness, a creator intelligence and soul are introduced as viable concepts, the scientists demand that they be detectable by experimentation.
Albert Einstein
Although Albert Einstein professed atheism, he agreed that there is a perfect "brain" behind all the natural physical laws. It is common sense that there is some cause behind each action. Even machines cannot run automatically without an "operator" to turn them on or repair them. There is no logical reason for ruling out in advance alternative strategies for explaining the creation and it's constituent parts. Yet, the vast majority of scientists reject outright any argument in favor of design since such a concept is not reducible to physical processes and simple mathematics. We think this approach of the scientists is unscientific .
Gödel's incompleteness findings shook the very foundations of 20th-century mathematics, just as relativity theory and quantum mechanics redirected contemporary physical research.
Chaitin's work focuses on the problems of mathematical "truth" as a convenient fiction. There are infinitely many possible mathematical facts, but, according to Chaitin, the underlying relationships among them are impossible to establish. This isn't good news for anyone interested in a "theory of everything," since, if the foundation is built on cottage cheese, the tower is going to be a bit tippy at best. Even worse, Chaitin's results demonstrate that not only is there no structure to the foundation of mathematics, the foundation is in fact random. Bad news, reductionists! (2)
Heisenberg
P.A.M. Dirac
So we can see clearly that the various evolving theories of the scientists are constantly changing as they scramble to adjust these theories, all of which are filled with speculation. These theories can never be perfect because the scientists themselves are imperfect and subject to the four human defects. With our limited knowledge, tiny brains, limited experience and resources we cannot hope to understand the unlimited.
Noted astronomer Bart J. Bok wrote in Scientific American " ... we did not suspect it would soon be necessary to revise the radius of the Milky Way upward by a factor of three or more and to increase it's mass by as much as a factor of 10." (4)
BIG BANG THEORY
For lack of other alternatives, scientists generally support the "Big Bang" Theory of creation, which postulates that in the beginning of creation all the matter in the universe was concentrated into a single point of mass at a high temperature which then exploded producing a superheated cloud of sub atomic particles. However this initial condition is mathematically indescribable. A point of infinitesimal circumference and infinite density is called a "singularity." — an impossibility.
Stephen Hawking
These various "Big Bang" theories lead to a stage of uniformly distributed gas which is expanding. Again, what happens after that is the subject of further speculation and has not been properly explained.
Attempts by the German scientist Manfred Eigen to describe how an inert chemical soup might transform into self-reproducing cells elicited such comments as: "Clearly these papers [of Eigen and coworkers] raise more problems than they solve." (7)
Their failure is like the frog in the well speculating as to the size of the Pacific Ocean by comparing it to his well.
DARWIN'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION
His Theory of Evolution published in his book "Origin of Species" has been accepted as fact, although it is based on Darwin's fallible speculations. His critics write, "If the theory of natural selection of Darwin is correct, why can't we see the intermediate forms of species, the connecting links?" Darwin did not have the answer nor the archeological evidence to back it up. Although there is ample evidence for many species, fossil records provide almost no evidence for the intermediate connecting links.
Later, scientists revised Darwin's theory with their "Punctuated Equilibrium" evolutionary theory, supposedly making evolution invisible in the fossil record. Yet this theory is not verifiable in any way. It is indeed strange that scientists speak with absolute conviction of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, when it has been calculated that out of one billion species that have lived since the Cambrian period, that 99.9% of these species left no fossil record, thus leaving scant evidence (some of which is contradictory) to support this theory.
Java Man
Peking Man
Yet, such significant finds are simply not mentioned in standard textbooks and popular accounts of human evolution, nor are they included in the evolutionists writings. Sir Arthur Keith, an eminent British evolutionist, wrote, "Were such discoveries in accordance with our expectations, if they were in harmony with the theories we have formed regarding the date of man's evolution, no one would ever dream of doubting them, much less of rejecting them." (10)
A hint of the prevailing attitude towards unwelcome finds (those which contradict the predominating evolutionary theory) is provided by a quote of William H. Holmes during his opposition to the Tertiary humans found by J. D. Whitney, "Perhaps if Professor Whitney had fully appreciated the story of human evolution as it is understood to-day, he would have hesitated to announce the conclusions formulated, notwithstanding the imposing array of testimony with which he was confronted." (11) What he is really saying is that if the evidence does not support the favored theory, then it should be disregarded.
The modification of species by breeding has been heralded since the time of Darwin as evidence of evolution, yet experiments have shown that there are natural limits to the changes which can be brought about by breeding. Experiments with plums and roses by the eminent biologist Luther Burbank confirmed these limits, "In short, there are limits to the development possible." (12)
A staunch advocate of evolution, Ernst Mayr of Harvard University found similar results in his experiments with fruit flies. Some altered species died out while others reverted to their original state a few years and generations later. (13) These results show a strong anti-evolutionary characteristic in the species examined.
Domestic animals have not evolved in four to ten thousand years. "Ten thousand years of mutations, crossbreeding, and selection have mixed the inheritance of the canine species in innumerable ways without its losing its chemical cytological [cellular] unity. The same is observed of all domestic animals: the ox [at least 4,000 years old, the fowl (4,000), the sheep (6,000), etc." (14)
It has been found that ancient Egyptian pyramids contain depictions of various species of animals which remain unchanged to this day. Why have the species not evolved?
Evolution theory fails miserably to account for complex form. How can small sequential changes over many generations improve the survivability of each generation such that these changes develop? It seems that the intermediate steps would decrease the species fitness rather than increase it. However, this would simply not take place unless each successive stage provided some definite advantage over the previous stage. Otherwise, the changes cannot be attributed to natural selection. A particularly vexing question is that of the evolution of the eye in previously sightless species. Darwin himself admitted this shortcoming of his theory, "To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could nave been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree." (15)
Evolutionary theorist Theodosius Dobzhansky has stated that there is almost zero chance of human evolution being repeated.
In view of so much strong evidence to the contrary, it seems very misleading to present Darwin's Theory of Evolution as factual as has been done and continues to be presented in today's school textbooks.
LIFE FROM CHEMICALS?
The great question is: How can inert matter, acting according to simple physical laws alone, generate the remarkable molecular machinery found in even the simplest cell?
Albert L. Lehninger aptly expressed the dilemna, "At the center of the problem is the process of the self-organization of matter." (20)
The scientist's quest to show how a set of simple natural laws can explain the transformation of a few basic molecular building blocks of life into a single self-reproducing cell can be compared to finding a simple computer program which can take the 26 letters of the alphabet and transform them into a Shakespearean masterpiece. To help our readers formulate an idea of the complexity of this task we mention that Professor R, B. Woodward of Harvard, winner of a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1965, took eleven years working with ninety-nine scientists to synthesize the vitamin B-12 molecule.
Scientists claim to be able to produce life, but can they create one mosquito, produce milk from grass or put a banyon tree in a capsule the size of a mustard seed?
In view of the fact that there exists no viable theory on the chemical origin of life, perhaps other factors may be involved in chemical evolution, such as a self-intelligent organizing principle.
COULD LIFE ARISE BY CHANCE?
A number of scientists, left with no other viable alternatives, then turn to blind chance as a last resort explanation in their attempts to save the theory of evolution. Some scientists have calculated the probability of life arising by chance from a primordial soup and shown that it is virtually zero. (21)
Could Life Arise by Chance <<-- Click for Popup Proof
CONCLUSION
Scientists seem obsessed with the concept that complex life forms have evolved progressively from simple building blocks. However direct experience shows just the opposite, that complex forms actually originate from even more complex forms. On the basis of information theory and also the basic principle of the Second Law of Thermodynamics regarding increasing entropy, or the tendency towards disorder, we can understand that to go from a simple system to a more complicated one, that design information is necessary. If we say that this information is encoded in the DNA, then we ask simply for an explanation of how this encoding information may happen to appear without any external input to our inert primordial soup.
Our capacity to function in an intelligent way and make decisions based on external stimuli depends on our consciousness. The phenomenon of consciousness cannot be denied, yet because consciousness itself cannot be explained quantitatively, scientists themselves generally neglect to include this essential element in their constructs. Fortunately not all of them feel this way.
He is not alone in this thought. Other important scientists have considered the concept of a higher source transmitting design information; that there is a purpose in the universe. Robert Broom, who made important anthropological finds wrote, "The origin of species and of much of evolution appears to be due to some organizing and partly intelligent spiritual agency associated with the animal or plant, which controls its life processes and tends to keep the being more or less adapted to its environment. But in addition to this there seem to be other spiritual agencies of a much higher type which have been responsible for what may be called greater evolution ... These spiritual agencies appear to have worked by directing from time to time the inferior agencies which are associated with the animals and plants." (22)
Alfred Russel Wallace
If we cannot explain the origin of life via simple principles then the only choice other than giving up our quest is to search for more complex principles as the source.
So, one might rightly ask, then where do we turn for a proper understanding of reality and the purpose of life itself? If we cannot trust the knowledge or findings of any human source, then where can we find a reliable source of information?
REAL KNOWLEDGE
Also encoded within this vast body of literature is a description of the process of bhakti-yoga, a process for obtaining enlightenment and rising beyond the ordinary platform of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. The essence of these teachings may be found in the Bhagavad-gita.