26-12-2007, 10:15 PM
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 | SPN Sewadaar | | Enrolled: Oct 2007 Location: India. Age: 28
Posts: 3,155
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Religion depends on intuitional power and demands belief whereas physical sciences depend on observations and experimentation. They require concrete demonstrable proofs. The mystic simply believes that a Prime mover (God) is the final cause of all creation but the scientist does not accept the presence of a Prime mover and demands proof of its existence. Therefore the first clash between religion and science starts at the question of the Creator. According to many modern scientists and agnostics there is no higher authority (God) creating, controlling and running the universe. They argue that matter is eternal. It has in-built selfsufficiency to evolve, dissolve and shape itself. On the other hand the mystics argue that if matter is eternal, how did the vast processes of motion and transformation begin which resulted in filling the vast universe with matter? How did matter develop thinking and evolve into mind? Descartes said, “The essence of matter is expansion in space but the essence of mind is thought” (cited by Sir James Jeans in The mysterious universe P. 171). How and at what stage did matter change into mind is not known. Neither is it known as to how the expansion of matter started and when will it end? “Mind no longer appears as an accidental intruder into the realm of matter, we are beginning to suspect that we ought rather to hail it as the Creator and Governor of the realm of matter, not of course our individual minds, but the minds in which the atoms out of which our individual minds have grown exist as thoughts.”(Sir James Jeans The mysterious Universe p. 187) Aristotle has written quite a lot on this subject. He writes, “If we are not to plunge drearily into an infinite regress putting back one problem step by step endlessly, we must posit a Prime Mover unmoved being, incorporeal, invisible, space-less, sexless, passionless, changeless, perfect and eternal (God) who is the final cause of nature.”(SVD p. 47) Aristotle’s view is quite convincing. The extremely complex chemical and physical make up of living organisms is a very convincing testimony to a superior and perfect maker. Most living organisms originate from a minute fertilized egg barely visible to the naked eye. The egg is as small as a pinprick and yet this insignificant pinprick contains immeasurable traits of new life for future regeneration. Remarkably incomprehensible, intricate, unbelievable and mysterious developments result in the womb producing functionally different organs of the body like eyes, ears, and the brain (with at least 10,000,000,000 cells in it). It is hard to believe that all this happens by itself without any planner. One wonders what protects the embryo from the surrounding harmful chemicals in an egg. What mechanism provides food for its growth until the chick develops into millions of complex living cells within a short span of time? Who provides vital oxygen to the chick in the egg or disposes of exhaled carbon dioxide? “There certainly is some ‘directive principle’ at work”(Science Today p. 25-26). According to Sikhism ‘the directive principle’ is the Creator who created everything and infused His spirit in the living. organisms. The Guru says, “O, my body, the Lord infused His consciousness in you and only then did you appear on the earth”(AGGS p. 921). Since there is a design in everything we see in nature, there must also be a designer. The more complicated a design is, the more intelligent the designer. Sikhism believes that God is the designer whose creative designs are par excellence. As for providing sustenance and protection in the womb, the Guru says, “The Lord provided protection to you in the womb.” (AGGS p. 805) According to Sikhism God created the universe and he looks after everything. __________________
~~~**Jap mun Satnaam sda Satnaam...sda satnaam sda satnaam.....~~~ |