Off late, I know that my blog entry titles pose seemingly outrageous questions. But, that's the way it is! This was some talk we had at the apartment some time back about the intricacies of religion and beliefs. Faith is one such quality which can never be questioned. There are certain things that have been going on for 2000 years and we certainly do not have the wisdom to find out about its inclusion in our daily lives. Faith and veracity are two contrasting qualities, not that faith lacks veracity, but just that faith just cannot question even when there is something outrageous. Science throws a lot of questions at some of the obscure practices of man, but faith just accepts these things without much ado. Our lives have been structured to follow certain things, and we do not believe in reasoning when it comes to the basic norms of the day to day activities.
We were having this discussion about the intricacies of religious faith. There are certain things that just cannot be explained by science. What might be the reason? My friend came up with a good point. He told me, "Imagine 20 years ago if somebody had told you that live images could be streamed from one corner of the globe to the other! Would anybody have believed?" There are certain things happening today for which science may not offer a plausible explanation, but over a period of time, with the advancement of science, there will surely be a way out to learn the strange things of life. It is always good to wait and watch certain things happen than to jump into conclusions questioning everything around you. Science just cannot offer solutions to everything that's happening right now. The reason is very simple. Who is the one who is making advancement in science? It is we who are finding out things, and there are certain things which would take more than the normal time to come up with solutions. Surely, the pace at which scientific advancements are taking place, it is just a matter of time before we come up with explanations for all the intriguing things in life. But, till then we just have to wait! Now, it is not the question of whether it is true or not, but how long is it going to take to find out about what is happening. We just have to learn that it is not a battle for reason anymore, but is just a matter of time. So, there is no question of asking the question Reason or Time. The appropriate question would be Reason, but when?
Inspite of all this, I just cannot agree more when somebody says that there is a power greater than us. I can never dismiss that as a figment of imagination, because there are certain things which control us and which is beyond our realms of understanding. Faith just overrides anything and everything when science fails to reply. It is upto us to know how strong we are when we believe in something.
At the end of the day, we can come to a conclusion that there never was a war between faith and science, though many of them may not agree with this. Science cannot fail but it is just that it needs time to understand the different facets of nature. So, if somebody questions your faith, ask them to wait!
Great post, Praveen, love how you ended it...perfect! When I was younger (and argumentative) I would love to argue with my teacher (I went to a Catholic school) who loved quoting this verse from the Bible "Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe". I couldn't understand her blind faith and never resisted the opportunity to tell her so. She would have loved your post.
ReplyDeleteNice.
ReplyDeleteLR: Glad you liked it. As a brash youngster, I used to laugh at some of the ununderstandables. But, with the ravages of time, I have learned to accept the unacceptable :-) Time keeps teaching a lot of new things.
ReplyDeleteVyas: Thanks man!!!