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From: "Santosh Helekar" <[email protected]>
Why are these advocates of one particular religion poking their nose
into brain science? Why don't they stick to what they are ordained to
do - preach their faith to their followers and to those they hope to
convert?
***Totally wrong. Theologians are not "poking their nose" by speaking of
soul,
but scientists are "poking their nose" into religion and theology by denying
soul
in the name of Science. I have already repeated ad nauseam that the research
of scientists
is confined to the phenomenal world. Science cannot either prove God and
soul
or disprove.
What is offensive from the standpoint of a universal intellectual
pursuit such as science, as well as from the perspective of other
religions is that they are advising others to be cautious about
scientific findings that contradict their own parochial beliefs. The
clear implication is that their own religious beliefs about the
natural world take precedence over hard scientific evidence.
***Christianity is not "parochial", it is open to all. It speaks of Man
and of the Universe in the light of Revelation.
There is not scientific evidence that there is no God, no soul.
Contrast this medieval censorship and interference in non-religious
affairs based on the dogma of one solitary religion to the
open-mindedness and deference shown to science by Dalai Lama who
addressed a gathering of neuroscientists a few years back...
***To speak of God and of soul is not to interfere in "non-religious
affairs".
That is precisely where Science ceases to operate, and Religion reigns.
This is not "medieval censorship", it is contemporary thought.
On the philosophical level, both Buddhism and modern science share a
deep suspicion of any notion of absolutes...
http://www.mindandlife.org/dalai.lama.sfndc.html
**If Science can dispel superstitions, it is most welcome.
Science has its limits. The Church works together with the Pontifical
Academy of Sciences.
Pius XII has been speaking to scientists on scientific subjects, even about
the splitting of an atom
and the ethical values, and has been well accepted by them.
Dalai Lama, who showed his interest in Science and wrote a book on The
Universe in a Single Atom,
spoke in November of 2005 at the annual meeting of the Society of
Neuroscience
on the influence of meditation, which is a mental activity, on the brain's
circuitry.
Buddhism focuses on mental techniques.
But Dalai Lama said that he rejects the so-called "scientific materialism",
namely that the idea of consciousness is no more than a series of chemical
reactions in our brain.
At that meeting Richard J.Davidson, professor of psychology of the
University of Wisconsin at Madison,
who presented a study on emotions, on brain circuitry, on insular cortex,
said that many scientists have shown
it is possible to do research on evolution and still believe in God.
That is what I have been saying all the time.
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
