BJP Must Leave Science To The Scientists We should celebrate the literary richness of ancient India. But let’s be wary of ancient texts being passed off as history and science. In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins mentions the inner turmoil of a geologist named Kurt Wise who was torn between his scientific education and his faith. A student of the University of Chicago and Harvard, Wise felt he could no longer accept two conflicting views about the origins of the Earth. His Christianity claimed the world was less than 10,000 years old. This contradicted his college learnings of the same subject. He had to pick a side. One day, Wise decided to test his faith by taking a pair of scissors to his copy of the Bible. The plan was to snip out every verse that didn’t adhere to his scientific world-view. After a lot of snipping, Wise realised there wasn’t much of the book left in his hands. In this moment of clarity, he made his choice: he “tossed into the fire all my dreams and hopes in science” and became a Young Earth Creationist. Creationists believe the universe didn’t evolve by chance but was designed by a creator—that guy we call god—less than 10,000 years ago. Creationists love historical events that match the Biblical narrative of creation. For example, evidence of ancient floods is proof of Noah’s story. Of course, all of this has been junked as pseudo-science by the scientific community. Science puts the Earth’s age at 4.5 billion years, the universe’s age at 13.8 billion years, and going by fossil records, the age of the earliest human beings at 200,000 years. Anybody wishing to challenge these facts may only publish his findings, have them verified and peer-reviewed, and walk away with his Nobel Prize. But that’s not how creationists like to play this game. They cry about victimisation and bullying by the scientific community that obviously sneers at their lack of critical thinking. Yet, creationism has its sympathisers who see it as a wholesome mix of science and faith—or rather, science that isn’t at odds with their faith—even if it’s not really science. Now, all this wouldn’t be a problem if these were views held by fringe groups who peacefully—and privately—practiced their faith. The trouble starts when such people form governments and start creating policies around their warped worldview. This phenomenon can now be seen in India. Our new government is actively promoting ideas rooted in ancient Hindu texts. They’re thus attempting to rewrite our historical and scientific knowledge of the world. This would be alright if their ideas were backed with solid reasoning and verifiable evidence. But predictably, that never happens. Perhaps, the attempt was never to stimulate scientific thinking but simply to fan sparks of nationalism and Hindu pride. Sample the incidents at the Indian Science Congress. We’ve heard a union minister claim that Indians invented algebra and the Pythagoras theorem. Another commented that a helmet from the Mahabharata found its way to Mars. In the past, we’ve heard Prime Minister Narendra Modi mistake myth for fact when he talked about Karn being born outside his mother’s womb and Ganesha receiving a head transplant through an ancient plastic surgeon. But the basket case was Anand Bodas’ presentation about Vedic astronauts who piloted spacecraft to other planets. Bodas claims these flying contraptions were all the rage in around 6,000 or 7,000 BCE. This predates the invention of the wheel (around 5,000 BCE), the invention of writing (around 3,500 BCE), and the birth of the Indus Valley civilisation (around 3,300 BCE). That era was called the Neolithic Age—which literally means ‘the new stone age’, a period when everyone still used sticks and stones, and nobody had the slightest idea what was going on in the universe. (Here’s a more nuanced take-down of the Bodas’ laughable theory by folks at the Indian Institute of Science.) Leave the science to the scientists. And if you must make a scientific claim, back it up with evidence. There are plenty of reasons to love Indian folklore and mythology, the stories about gods and demons, the never-ending conflicts between good and bad. We can do without the intellectual strain of believing them to be historical fact.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 02:44:39 +0000