It was one
of those much –awaited Friday evenings at Copenhagen where usually we start out
with a coffee , a dinner and end up with lots of beer ! This time, apart from the usual 2-people crowd
that is me and Jesper, we had 2 of my other colleagues from India who joined
us. Over the beer and the game of pool, our conversation as usual moved onto
religion. Of course, it definitely did not end in any kind of consensus. But,
it did substantiate my important
argument about the religious bunch. Every conversation with them, end with
their believes and Gods , dwindling down to an abstraction. All of their
millions of believes,superstitions,astrological
suppositions and Gods –all of them, just become “THAT SUPER POWER” which
science cannot explain yet.
Born and
brought up in a country where the astronauts and rocket scientists resort to
nonsensical religious liturgy before a rocket launch, where “the right time and
day” needs to be observed for even cutting your fucking nails , I am not
surprised that we have ceased to produce or contribute anything serious to the
world of science and technology.
I have no problems
with the ones who wish to believe that God created the Universe in a week´s
time or the ones who believe that stars and planets guide and orchestrate
trivial ,paltry details of our evanescent lives. (To each his own.)My
frustration starts when they start to justify their believes at the cost of
denying science without having even one empirical
evidence to refute it.
And this
passion in them to defend their religion and belief is totally justifiable
because religion and faith is driven by emotions. Faith gives them the strength
to live on, a sense of communion , and the comforting feeling that death is not
the end. When you talk rationally to them, you strip them off that sole
lifeline they have , you take away their hopes and leave them in the bitter
world with no bulwark to shield them . That sole thought is what holds me back from pouncing on them and
ripping their brains out! All religions offer redemption in one form or the other.
They all talk about eternity , some with bonanza offers of 72 virgins and some sans.
And the poor rationalists wonder, why do they believe what they do.!
( I always
wonder, what if the 72 virgins were huge, hairy, pot-bellied, fat-legged , men?)
And then
comes another diabolical argument against Science. “ Science IS also a religion!
“ . And I go – UG2BKM!!!!!! They lay out
the famous example of Abdul Kalam and his quotes about science and
spirituality. And this is where I come to the essence of this article.
In India,
we are always surrounded by charlatans of one kind or the other--of astrology,
of Vedas, of puranas,of numerology -all kinds of pseudoscience- most of them in
the form of family members and distant relatives. Science education and
knowledge takes a back seat to ludicrous religious beliefs and customs.
Science
literacy in its true sense is lacking in our society which worries me deeply. Scientific
literacy should empower us to ask the
right question and help to develop a society of people who are curious about
the universe around them ,the universe
which they are a part of. Current scenario at a Science classroom lacks
critical pedagogy required to instill in the student a sense of inquiry about
the world. Children are hardly allowed to ask stupid questions. They are either
laughed of or discouraged by the eye-rolling parents apparently embarrassed by
their kid´s silly question. For example, a kid who asks his parents, “ Why is
the sky blue?” I am sure most of us
would answer “ Then what should it be?..GREEN?”. His curiosity and the sense of
inquiry is already killed a bit there. It is registered in his mind that he is
not supposed to ask questions of that kind anymore. How many of us would have
answered with a soft version of “Rayleigh Scattering” for that question in a
way the kid could understand?
Science literacy
empowers you to know when a person is fooling you. So, when someone is trying
to sell you a ring with a crystal on it claiming that it will cure you of your
illness , you do not have to know the atomic structure of the molecules inside
the crystal or the exact chemical composition , you just need to have the right
rational sense to ask the right questions to debunk him.Questions like, how do
you make it, where did u find it from, how have you tested it, what kind
illness does it cure, is it better for some ailments and not that great for the
others, can it be used to detect illness, can you cure something for me right
now, how long will it take to cure the illness, so if it doesn’t cure me do I
have a money back guarantee (or an agreement to kick the hell out of your ass..
etc. )This rationality developed through the right form of scientific literacy
will stop you from taking an answer based on eye-witness testimony. (“I saw a
miracle happening to my uncle´s father´s sister-in-law´s daughter”). As Dr.Neil
deGrass Tyson says, eye witness testimony is the worst form of evidence.
But then a
question arises. With whom does the responsibility lie,the responsibility of
building a society which is scientifically literate? It is our science teachers
and scientists. However, what can we expect from them when most of them are
themselves steeped in superstition and religious fervor? How far can one go in
a society of such religious hegemony?
The first
chapter in any science education course should be dedicated to the importance
of asking questions even if they are dumb. Before that, it is important to
teach our teachers that it is perfectly OK to tell the students, “ I Don´t know,
Let me get back to you on that” .This gives the opportunity to the teacher to
give the right information to the students and it makes children growing up to
understand that “ It is OK, to not know some things”. Grownups should understand that it is OK to tell “ I don´t
know or we don´t know that yet” when your child asks “ Who made the Universe?”,instead
of feeding them stories written by pre-historical humans who had no more
insight into these fundamental questions than any of the brightest minds alive
today.
I would
like to point out something one of my favourite scientists, Dr.Neil deGrass
Tyson, said in one of his talks. Just after 9/11 – Bush in an attempt to
distinguish “we” from “they”, loosely
quoted a verse from the Bible which says “ Our God –is the God who named the stars”.
However , the fact is that of all the stars which have names,2/3rd
of them are ARABIC names. How did that happen? The intellectual centre of the
world for a period of 300 years in the 11th century was Bagdad. All
kind of advances in engineering,biology,mathematics took place there. Have we
ever paused and wondered where words like Algebra, Algorithm etc come from. The
numerals were brought from India and was popularized in the western world by
the Arabs. What led to the decline of this fertile period in the Arab world
which contributed so much to the world of science? 12th Century
kicks in and comes Al Ghazali -out of whose teachings came the philosophy that
Mathematics is the work of the devil. And what good could come out of that kind of teaching?
And look at
India now. We proudly boast about the contribution of Ancient India-The numeral
system,the invention of Zero,Ayurveda,earliest and oldest Universities,
Aryabhatta etc.Why is it that we are not able to live up to that legacy
anymore? Why is it that our contribution to the world is limited to mass
producing engineers and doctors ? Yes,yes.I know what you are thinking. We have
lots of scientists in NASA, and many bright Indian students in MIT. But which
was the last discovery or invention that we have to claim of in the recent past,
which was initiated and conducted in our soil? Why don´t we have
state-of-the-art research institutions which can stand tall alongside MIT,NASA
etc. ? Why don´t we have a science channel like the Discovery or the NGC run by
us with scientists and investigators from the 1 Billion lot of us?
The main
reason behind this is exactly what happened in the Arab world during
Al-Ghazali´s time. We are held back by superstitions and religious imbecility.
Religion forbids free-thinking. It does not want you to think that planets are
just rock solids that are revolving and rotating the way they are under gravity;
they want you to think that they are shining stuff in the night sky that guides
the future of your life. They will not let you think that eclipses are just
celestial objects casting their shadow on each other, they want you to believe
without questioning that it is some hideous evil creature swallowing the Sun or
the Moon. Religions reside on certainty
,absolute truth and fundamentalism. Whereas ,Science´s foothold is uncertainty,
evidence (empirical) and self-correction based on new evidences. And those are
the qualities which will lead us to discoveries, innovations and revelations.
Innovation
can be achieved only through critical thinking and inquiry. We want scientists
and leaders who can think rationally and can promote scientific thinking. Passionate
scientists like Carl Sagan with a zest to popularize science are much needed in
our society. I am not sure if we are broad-minded and tolerant enough to have a
Richard Dawkins in the Indian Society yet.We need many people with language
skills to translate science books to regional languages. I remember walking
from store to store to find a Kannada version of Stephen Hawkings book or God
Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
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