Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Primitive Science of The Vedas - Introduction

Ask the average Hindu about why they think the Vedic scriptures need to revered and they will tell you that the scriptures are scientific and have all the knowledge that there ever is. But ask them specific questions on science - like why is the human genome littered with viral DNA or even a simple question like why is the Sun hot and where in the Vedic scriptures does one find answers for these, they will tell you that the answers are there, but one just needs to be "enlightened" to know them.

But what these people don’t realize is that they are deeply immersed in the maya of slavish adherence to authority and hence can’t know the real truth - that the Vedic literature contains primitive science. Sure, they were scientific at the time of their writing. But unlike Sanatana Dharma, science makes no arrogant claims that it is eternal or infallible. It constantly updates itself in light of new evidence and leads us to a more accurate picture of the Universe. So Vedic knowledge, stuck in a black hole of reification and reverence, is horribly out dated.

And yet Vedic apologists perform such feats of intellectual masturbation to paint scientific legitimacy on Vedic scriptures, that it would be hard not to laugh at if it were not for the sad fact that many people actually believe such nonsense. The main reason for such gullibility is ignorance about science. These people have no qualms in beatifically pontificating about how the true goal in life is the attaining of knowledge while at the same time willfully choosing not to make any effort to learn about science which is the best tool we have to know about the Universe.

For example, they point to some verse which says that the Earth attracts bodies to itself and jump up in joy proclaiming that the Vedas knew about gravity. But the Vedas before which they prostate themselves cannot tell anything beyond the observation that something attracts bodies to Earth. They can’t tell how strength of the force varies based on mass of the bodies and distance between them, and how the force causes the planets to go around the Sun and how gravity is just a manifestation of the warping of space-time by mass. And yet such primitive sources of knowledge are deemed “eternal”.

The blame doesn’t entirely lie with the Vedic apologists. Science as it is taught today does very little to endear itself to its learners. And the science presented by mainstream media isn’t any better. For example, to the average person the word evolution conjures up the image of man coming from monkeys, but not the beautiful dance of nature that transformed a replicator molecule to the wide variety of life we see today.

And hence this series, where I will show how primitive the science of Vedas is while at the same time presenting the current state of the art in that field of science. I will also show that even the metaphysics of the Vedic scriptures is primitive as it is ignorant of the latest developments in science.

It is not my intention to belittle the achievements of ancient Indians. They did some really great stuff. But my intent is to show how stupid it is to show some outdated science in ancient texts and use it to make broad sweeping claims like Vedic scriptures knew everything about everything or about how scientific they are.

Debunking of this sort is important because over the past few decades, Hindu apologists have succeeded in their propaganda of Vedic authority by muddling modern day science with the Vedas. This has led to India remaining the land of superstitions, where in the year 2011, the Chief Minister of one state thinks black magic will kill him. Any criticism of Hinduism is countered with “our scriptures are scientific and hence are perfect. Which also means Hinduism is the perfect way of life”.

Finally, I have to thank the various Hindu apologists for translating ancient texts to English so that they are accessible to more people. Though their intention was to show the beauty of the scriptures, it also serves the opposite purpose - to show how primitive the knowledge in them is. Somebody once said of the Bible that a person who has read it completely cannot help but be repulsed by it. Religious texts when fully understood by a person who hasn’t been brainwashed into being servile to authority figures, makes it easy for them to see religions for what they really are - ignorance masquerading as knowledge.

6 comments:

4d-Don said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
4d-Don said...

Hi

Good for you to "de-mystify" such false claims by those "gurus", who willy-nilly make claims to "morality", and then claim to have infallible PROOF of the veracity of their "god-inspiired" natural truths, without ever offering any such PROOF, or some accepted accuracy (in translation) and/or even "in context" verifiability.

Such is the problem with "documents" from the past using "language" ...

Language is dynamic, it is not static. Words take on new meaning with TIME. And the meaning of a word is never universally agreed upon,even in the present. (i.e. Is GRAVITY truly a force or is the effect of a geometry, as per Einstein? ... Is TIME a reality (or an illusion), or simply a measurement of the reality which is: MOTION?)

Hence the need for the science of "NUMBERS", when dealing with material which is claimed to be the TRUTH!! Even in business, one relies on NUMBERS!!

Numbers are primary for science ... words are adequate for the arts, the humanities, Religion, etc... and the other subjective "phenomena" of the marketplace, ...

Don

September 14, 2011 10:41 PM

Anonymous said...

Hahaha this is hilarious, delusion? Look who's talking? Have you even explored the holes in the theory of evolution, or researched the Vedic knowledge used in repairing the neurons in the brain today? Yet another disciple of the high priests of science, stuck in a cycle of hypocritical tired rhetoric. Main stream science IS science. Welcome to the 21st century kiddo.

Anonymous said...

WE should feel proud on Human intellect.
http://veda.wikidot.com/do-you-know

Unknown said...

Good One....

Unknown said...

I believe the author of this article has some sort of anger towards the modern day Hindu apologists and have vented it out in this article. These Hindu apologists are actually such people who get rich by cheat. Quite true. They themselves don't understand much of the Vedic scriptures. Interestingly, very few people understand science also and even science at present is also in the most primitive form. Only 1% of the total universal phenomena has been discovered by science. A huge lot lies there waiting to be discovered. But scientific applications have been discovered in tons. We find huge application of science but very little of science. So, we see planes, trains, cars, phones, computers all around and we feel that science has progressed much and we are an advanced civilization. This is actually our delusion. No major mainstream scientific breakthrough has been achieved in the past 50 years. A new generation of apple IPAD does not apply a new law of physics previously unknown to humans, nor does an advanced version of American F22 fighter aircraft. The real reason for this is that modern day scientists are all professionals and not amateurs. Professionalism dictates that one must work under an organization and work according to its whims, and also all present day organizations are business organizations that exists because of profit. In the time of 19th century the scientific community had a different environment which conduced scientific breakthroughs. So all these scientific applications in our daily lives may give us an illusion of an advanced civilization. So the fact is that science is still primitive. The Vedic scriptures are also primitive as discovered by the author. Hence how can we claim that our science is much updated than theirs. Why is it so difficult to accept the fact that Vedic scriptures are as much updated as present day science, which itself has not progressed much. The sad thing is that we did not take the Vedas seriously, so we had to reinvent the wheel.
However, the effort is not useless. Vedas are actually meant to be told and heard, not written down. So, no mathematical equations are present. Mathematical equations are needed only for inventing various applications of science and also to make understand other fellow human beings who has problem in visualizing science. This power of visualization is possessed by only great people. All scientists who discovered the famous things of science, actually did that by this power of visualization and that too in a sub-conscious state of mind. Later when they were confident of their theories themselves, did they penned it down in the form of equations and numbers, so that other dull humans who could not understand by mere thought can give recognition to their work. Vedas are also like the thoughts written down in words. Equations can be formed from them.
It is foolish to brag about science. The golden period of science is over. It was 16th century to 19th century, when most of the theories were discovered. Scientific progress does not need some 27 km long tunnel built at a cost of 9 billion dollars as it being done today. So it is not the Vedic knowledge that is stuck in a black hole of reification and reverence, it is actually modern day science instead, whose disciples consider it the biggest achievement of mankind, who thinks that all of Gods creation has been decoded by science and sometimes this reverence towards their scientific belief even leads them to question God’s existence or to define God in their own terms contrary to the teachings of religion.