Image courtesy: http://www.johnletran.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/religion-vs-science.jpg
The book by Aryabhatta was ridiculed! The library of Alexandria was burned to ashes! Copernicus' works were declared heretical! Bruno was burned at stake! Galileo was put under house arrest for the rest of his life! Darwin's theory were/are laughed at!
Found the common link between all of the above? No? OK, I will tell you. This day, probably you realize that those were heinous acts. Acts full of foolishness, ignorance and stupidity. Those were stupid people who did those things, no? what I know is that they were the people in power and men of stature. And invariably those were the believers. The believers of faith. Of Almighty!
Aryabhatta gave the eastern world the number zero, calculated the value of pi to five significant digits (2500 years ago), might have concluded that pi is irrational, and the title of his book, which rightly mentioned that the earth rotates on its axis, was changed to "The Heavens" from "The Earth" to emphasize that whatever he wrote he meant them for the heavens and not earth. The logic was, according to the scriptures the earth stands still! The priest of the Royal Court brought up the change!
During the medieval ages the library of Alexandria was one of the richest source of knowledge containing books on astronomy, medicine, natural sciences, biology, mathematics and on innumerable other subjects collected by scholars over hundreds of years. An epitome of ancient learning. Legend has it that the conquering Arab Army when reached Alexandria the Arab commander Amr ibn al'Aas asked the Caliph Umar what to do with the library. The Caliph ordered him to burn all the books, 'For they will either contradict the Quran, and thus are heretical or will agree with it, in which case they are superfluous'. That was the army and the caliph of the second most abundant believers of faith.
The earth revolves around the sun was all that he said. In March 1616 Roman Catholic Church's Congregation of the index issued a decree suspending De Revolutionibus (the book written by Copernicus)until it can be corrected on the grounds that the earth moves and the sun doesn't was "false and altogether opposed the Holy scripture". Magister of the Holy Palace "expressed his desire to stamp on the Copernican Doctrine". People of faith as oppressor again?
In his book De l'infinito universo e mondi ('on the infinite universe and worlds') Bruno claimed that there was not just one sun at the centre of the universe, but the universe was full of them, planets revolve those suns and the living beings inhibit those planets. For this and the so called other heresies Bruno was burnt at stake in 1600. No prize for guessing who the juries were!
Galileo Galilee! Regarded by many the father of the modern experimental physics was the inventor of telescope, the giver of the law of inertia and the theory of relativity. He supported the heliocentric model of the cosmos and hypothesized that all the body falls at the same rate on the surface of the earth. Seen by many as one of the academic giants, he was house arrested for some of his work in astronomy. The Pope doesn't hesitate to pass on the (wrong) judgment!
We were ape, ages and ages ago. Laugh all you want at this, your ancestors will remain apes, perhaps a tad foolish than the rest! The truth that we evolved from a single celled organism could not be falsified. The respectable all knowing church might have declared the book a work of heretics, but is having a hard time with its own versions. The book by Charles Darwin, 'Natural Selection', remains a cornerstone of the field of evolutionary science and a work of wonder. You know who mocked the book most? The believers did!
These are but a few incidences, the famous ones. There are innumerable such instances of tyranny, torturing, suppressions and injustice by the people of faith. The history is laden with such stories of cruelness and foolishness. People were executed because they said something that the people of faith didn't like. Something which went against their age old beliefs. And hence they served the justice, or so they said.
Every institution of the people of faith has played their role in obstructing the path of science. The followers of Jesus even more so. The hand of their institution is colored deep with the blood they shed for their beliefs and faith. Others can't claim to have an unstained palm either. The time has veiled their doings, their injustice has been all but forgotten by the commoners but the stupidities of their doings still thrive in their veins. Some has risen above that covering of foolishness and out if the darkness of the ignorance. Most, though, detest the taste of it. Bitter that it is to their guts! What is more stupid is, despite the historical embarrassments majority continues to resist it, avoid the bounties of science and look with suspicion at the fruits the science has borne for them before groping is with furious hunger and greed. Acceptance of admiration is yet very far.
The believers blame science for the innumerable wrongs it has brought in the world. The monsters that it has created. They seem to forget that science also control those monsters and feed the mouth of billions of believers. If it weren't for science, sun would still be the only source of light, lightening would still be a mystery, diseases would still be curse of the Gods and people would have been dying in millions because of some stupid plants called Salmonella, Vibrio and Anthracis.
No, the truth is that the science has transformed the way of life, has made it better and far more comfortable than it ever has been. And it has nothing to be blamed for. People of faith on the hand...well! they are the one who killed in thousands because others didn't believe in what they did. They are the ones to take up the arms at the slightest hint of opposition. They are the one to force their beliefs on the people. They are the one who hindered and the justice most.
Has science ever taken up arms against anyone? Have the people of science ever conspired to raise an army and blood the soils? Has the followers of science ever killed a person of faith jut because the latter didn't believe in what they did? And the worst of all, has ever a preacher of science killed another preacher because he believed in different set of laws than him? Can same be said about the people of faith? The believers? No! No! No! No! And a big NO!!!
No they didn't do it; instead of resorting to violence they sat and discussed the issues. Looked critically at the evidences and then reached a conclusion. Not all might have agreed on the same thing always, but at the end of it all no head was beheaded, no hands were amputated, and no threats were made!
Can the same be said about the people of faith? Remember the decades long crusades? Judge yourself!
It is true that the religion has transformed the lives of many. Has turned a cold hearted murderer into a docile creature, has given millions a hope to cling on to and continues to do so, something science find very hard to accomplish. But also have a bloody past and a history of imposition, of forcing things on people. Not to mention the fragile facts it is built on and the lies it loves to cradle.
Science stands in stark contrast to it. While the people of faith continue to debate who created the world, the science works relentlessly towards creating a better world!
This is how similar they are rather dissimilar. To be a ‘person of faith’ or a ‘believer of science’, the choice is yours. But if you end up being ridiculed for your faith by the facts try not to blame the science!
Ahmad Ryan
No comments:
Post a Comment