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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The Scientific Fundamentalism


E = mc2

This equation, among few other reasons, caused my defection from contemporary science. Once I was a true scientist. Younger, nerdier and gullible I was then. School textbooks had this knack of presenting the most interesting things in the world in the most sleep inducing forms. I was smart enough to see beyond that. Science was my religion and experiments my rituals and then energy was god, it could be neither created nor destroyed. The text books told us this, the teachers explained why and the words where etched on stone. Then in the next class we learn what Einstein said. WTF. After just writing an exam about why energy can neither be created or destroyed, Einstein said energy is created from just mass with a exponential value. Wait it did not start here. The smallest particle in nature was the molecule,nothing smaller. Then next class came the atom, smallest and indivisible. Wait it doesn't stop there, there are protons, neutrons and electrons which can be divided in the next chapter. Now a days every other year scientists keep finding smaller particles. They just made the LHC to find even more smaller particles. They just built the biggest anything ever built just to prove stuff that I learned in every level of schooling is worth crap.

I find myself among consensus science. Suddenly science has become what most people around you says is fact. There are the experts and certified specialists who communicate with the very fabric of scientific reasoning and everyday engineer rituals to prove the scientific theories they hypothesize. What they say is the truth as long as they have the government or a corporate organization backing it. Anyone who questions this is a narrow minded orthodox lunatic. Their claims are discredited and filed under fringe and psuedo science.

Another strange thing I realized is that modern science always tells is that what ever they do its the first time in human history. Indigenous sciences have been thrown out as “pagan science” and the same think after a million dollar research are released as scientific journals, by the 'white man'. For example A U.S. patent on turmeric was awarded to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1995, specifically for the "use of turmeric in wound healing." As long as I can remember Vicco turmeric cream had that nostalgic ad were a kid falls down and his mother smeared turmeric cream on his wounds. Some Indian research center sued them and finally the patent was removed. There are similar cases with neem and basmathi. My point is till then no one bothered to ask why old grandmothers used turmeric on wounds.
But here have been instances where modern scientists have conceded with the idea that they are just rediscovering or reinventing old sciences which thier forefathers itself helped to erase of the planet while on a colonization mania.
Every one quotes J. Robert Oppenheimer( so called father of the Atom bomb) quoting the Bhagwat Gita when the first atom bomb was tested. But he also something else that maybe a bit strange for the orthodox modern thinker. When Oppenheimer was asked about detonating the first atom bomb on our planet, he corrected the interviewer by saying “The first in modern times.”
either he was a Ancient astronaut theory believer or he just knew that modern science wasn't that modern at all.

Lots new age is now being linked to ancient and old belief systems. For the last few hundred years we have been reinventing the wheel. Or its just a political scam to discredit old belief systems and rearrange credit. Just like religion. When every religion says the same thing, people still debate and discredit another religion, and promote their religion in every possible method. Modern science has been doing the same. They scorned at anything indigenous, mystical religious and traditional. Their intent was good, not to be influenced by anything in the pursuit of truth. But now a days they are shielding themselves with their own orthodox systems.

The funny thing is that modern science has been proved wrong every generation. Like Newton's gravity were replaced with Einstein's relativity, then suddenly Everything is replaced by quantum theory and chaos. Since everything worked, and socio-political authorities certified these theories then no one cares about the truth.

According to some ancient Sanskrit literature, creation started from nothing (shooniya) and then BANG! “Shabda Brahman”, exploding, inflating reality happened. It grows and expands till it one day collapses to that very infinitely small dot to shooniya. Ancient scriptures goes on telling that this Brahman is everything and continues with spirituality etc etc etc...It is creation..... Well to me and many other people this explanation of vedic creation myth sounds really similar to the Big Bang Theory. The nothingness and the bang and the growth.

Om, the symbol has been stigmatized as a religious symbol by every one. The Hindus respect it and adorn their houses, wedding rings and even exam answers with it for good luck.Others scorn it considers is a cool tattoo or use it as a musical addendum. Well It actually its not anything to do with luck or gods. It supposedly represents the universal vibration, centuries old Vedic texts claim that our universe Brahman is made up of many small vibrations that cannot be seen with human eyes. Vibration!.In very recent times, modern scientists have been sitting in their government and corporate funded labs, scratching equations everywhere, looking up at the universe maybe smoking a little pot and introduced a new theory. Remember the largest anything they built, The CERN large hadron collider, One of the main functions of this multi billion dollar project is to prove this radical theory. The theory is called The string theory and it tries to unify gravity relativity and quantum theory into a single theory claiming that everything in the universe is made up of little vibrations, they visualized these vibrations as little strings called super-strings and called it string theory. Sense any Deja vu?

Same output Different styles.
Now you go to a old dusty village in India, you most probably will find an equally old tree where a fragile old sadhu with dreadlocks snaking over his head and ash smeared over his body and sometimes he would also be filling his considerably large chillum with very good weed and take large hits out of it. After you convince him to give you a hit,you get to talk with him about creation and Om. After what seems to be few blissful hours you leave this crazy sadhu under the tree and go back to your life's finery and forget the whole brahman and the vibrating Om. Next day you find you turn on your new channel you see fashionably geeky scientists claiming to have theorized the string theory, explaining his multi billion dollar experiment to see dancing lights and the verification for his newly postulated amazing theory. You then go on appreciating and congratulating modern science and technology for this mind blowing discovery. You totally forget the free hit the guy under the tree gave you, you disregard the exact same explanation of creation and string theory you got for free. The result is the same. But one was biased because of its origins and other applauded.
Theoretical physicists do the same thing as ancient thinkers did sit in a place deduce the functioning of the universe. Stephen Hawking, never went into the milky way or travailed through a worm hole to write “A brief History of time”, “How come its widely accepted without concrete scientific validation. The only true validation his theories have are on paper with lots of equation created by him and his peers which no on else can truly understand. Its the exact same verification these indigenous scientists use. They have their theories and their methods to validate it.

I talk about traditional Indian sciences cause I am an Indian and I inclined to know more about Indian sciences. Indigenous sciences exist all over the world. The Mayans have awesomely accurate astronomical calenders long before our present space age systems. Cambodians built the Angor Wat without modern architectural principles or equipment.Malabari fishermen, Viking warriors and Arab traders traversed oceans and looking at stars and listen to the sea without modern satellite tracking or weather forecasts. They were better observes and scientists, they relied on what they observed and natural not on man made equations and machinery.I am sure every other country will have similar examples.

Modern or western science have turned into something they hated from the beginning. There is a fundamental set of beliefs. There are high priests and gods who made these beliefs. Experiments are rituals to instill their beliefs on others. They have a large number of followers, who with no understanding of what or how the specific are show undeniable faith to the scientific institute. Anyone opposing their beliefs need to be shepherded to their path, or they don't enter scientific heaven and need to be persecuted. Science has become a  Religion of fundamentalists.


4 comments:

Unknown said...

nee kollamallo da!! good write!!! vibrations.. g-strings... nice!! :D

Videv said...

njan kollam!! I enjoyed making the sheldon vs Aghori comparison

Kumaran Lakshminarayanan said...

interesting....facts to rethink :P

Ananya said...

good insight... nice reading..