RELIGION AND SCIENCE

RELIGION AND SCIENCE Are They Irreconcilable? Scientists have never had any difficulty in being scientists in the laboratory and art lovers outside. By the same token, it is also quite possible to be religiously and scientifically inclined at one and the same time. INDIAN scientists are often believed to have split personalities. When they are in the laboratories, they follow the rules of science, the scientific methodology, and the culture of doubting things, which is the crux of science, and when they are at home, they are highly religious, follow all the religious traditions and have complete faith in God and religion. It is believed that this split personality or dichotomy is responsible for their inability to produce first rate science and win major international accolades like the Nobel Prize. This is what Mr Dilip Salwi wrote in his review of a biography of Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam (Hindustan Times, August 8, 1992). The biography was penned by Mr Jagjit Singh who was chosen by Dr Abdus Salam himself for this task. There is little logic in the contention that India’s scientists fail to reach the top because they happen also to be men of firm religious persuasions. Whether this constitutes having a dual personality or a dichotomous lifestyle is immaterial. What truly needs to be clearly understood is that science, per se, when correctly defined, does not state religion to be an obstacle to reaching the top rungs of the scientific ladder. Just consider how many luminaries of the West, besides being scientists by profession, have shown strong religious proclivities in their private lives; the more notable examples being Isaac Newton, Arthur Eddington, and James Jeans. The same holds true for the arts. Many distinguished scientists have been keenly interested in music, painting and diverse other art forms, but this has in no way detracted from their abilities as scientific thinkers. Although science is based on mathematics and calculation, and art is based on imagination and personal taste, these two spheres are more complementary than diametrically opposed in the cultivated mind. Scientists have never had any difficulty in being scientists in the laboratory and art lovers outside. By the same token, it is also quite possible to be religiously and scientifically inclined at one and the same time.