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Real Science

• Subject: Real Science
• From: Richard S
• Date: Sun Jul 02 12:12:50 1995
• Message-Id: id551

Dear Richard

Hello! Hare Krishna!

>What is truth?

A very good question indeed. It is the special quality of the human form of life
that we can ask such questions. It is the goal of science and also the goal of
philosophical and religious methods as well.

>If there are truths which cannot
>be observed, even indirectly, then they might as
>well not exist.

The spiritual world can not be observed by our material senses because it is not
perceivable by them. But still we can receive knowledge about it from someone who
knows. That is the difference between the process of science, of trying to
discover the truth independently and the process of religion of accepting the
truth from an authority.

Science also uses authority. If every scientist had to start from scratch it would
be a very inefficient system indeed. You have to accept some authority. There are

many things we can't test for ourselves, but we know about them through an
authority. We can read the newspapers and we have faith that what they are writing
about is actually happening... So faith is everywhere. Everyone has to put faith
in some authority otherwise life becomes impossible.

So if you want knowledge about what is beyond the material universe you have to
find someone who knows about it and ask him... You can make scientific theories to
the edge of the universe but that's the limit. Now you could conveniently say:

>They are irrelevent.

But that is giving up the search for truth. The quest for knowledge. But to go
further independently is impossible... So there are philosophers like the
Buddhists who say ultimately nothing exists... That perfection means to cease to
exist... And there are other philosophers who believe in a "universal
consciousness" of which we are a part. Their view is the ultimate object of life
is to "merge" with or become "one" with the universe. This is the highest
spiritual realization one can have without accepting knowledge from a higher
authority.

If you can find someone who knows what is beyond the universe, however, you can
just ask him and he will tell you... If you can find a perfect authority you can
get the perfect knowledge...

>To the extent
>that truths are observable, then science is
>precisely about discovering truth.

Yes. Science is ultimately spiritual. It is at least a search for the truth... But
you never actually know if your theories are "true" or not and it takes a rather
long time, that's all.  And even then science can't tell you what is beyond the
universe nor can you understand where the universe came from. You can say it came
from a big bang, but what caused the bang? You can say a "chunk" of something
exploded [an old theory I think], but where did the "chunk" come from and why did
it explode? Science can never answer these questions. For that you have to find
someone who knows:

"Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master.
Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The
self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the
truth." (Bhagavad-gita 4.34)

Thank you for your letter and I would be interested on your thoughts on these
matters.

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