‘Quest for Knowledge’ Faith means a strong belief in something reasonable on which a rational thinking person would reasonably, honestly and conscientiously entertain and not the acceptance of timid mind which fights shy or is afraid of the logical consequences. It is not the belief of a vacillating mind that has not the moral courage to decide but shelters itself in a vain and idle skepticism. It means that the evidence must be so strong as to exclude even a remote possibility of denial of the thing. A person is said to have “reason to believe” a thing, if he has sufficient cause to believe that thing but not otherwise. The word ‘belief’ is a very much stronger word than ‘suspect’ and it involves the necessity of showing that the circumstances were such that a reasonable man must have felt convinced in his mind. A reasonable man would be led by a chain of probable reasoning to the conclusion or inference that the thing or the matter is carrying absolute conviction and that may be termed as ‘faith’. Faith is a natural quality of human mind and is indispensable in all human Endeavors. Science and technology would not have progressed if researchers across the world did not have faith in experimental information generated by many others. All researchers consult the handbook containing experimental data generated by other researchers and use those data for the analysis of their results. Although the role of faith in scientific investigation is not always apparent, yet we assume that the laws of nature apply everywhere and at all times. This is, certainly, an act of faith. Einstein once remarked, “The mind can proceed only so far upon what it knows and can prove. There comes a point where the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge, but can never prove how it got there. All great discoveries have involved such a leap.” (Ronal W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, World Pub. Co., New York, 1971, p.622) Professor Charles Townes sums up by saying, “ ….Science itself requires faith. We don’t know our logic is correct. I don’t know you are there. You don’t know I am here. We may just be imagining all this, I have a faith that the world is what it seems like, and thus I believe that you are there. I can’t prove from any fundamental point of view… Yet I have to accept a certain framework in which to operate. The idea that ‘religion is faith; science is knowledge,’ I think, is quite wrong. It misses the actual basis of science, which is faith. We scientists believe in the existence of the external world and the validity of our logic. We feel quite comfortable about it. Nevertheless, these are acts of faith. We can’t prove them.” (Faith and Values in Science and Religion: A Discussion with Charles H. Townes, Bhaktivedanta Institute, 1997). Since antiquity, many prominent thinkers of the world, from Plato to Tagore and from Newton to Einstein, have attempted to unveil the nature of reality. But reality seems always deeper than our feeble minds can be comprehended. So ‘faith’ or believing something reasonable is a sincere attempt to seek some possible answers to the question of reality. Here, The Search Begins… and Our Affair With TRUTH Continues. I believe in spirituality when it speaks only the language of love, compassion and Oneness. – Sri Nihar Ranjan Acharya, Director, TRUST This is the Editorial Article of Here, The Search Begins… (An E-Journal for TRUST)
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 11:40:36 +0000