Science vs. Religion: Mangalyaan and Essence of Fallacy

Was religion always so important or has its sudden association with Entrepreneurship given it a boost?

Not a lot of Indian achievements have guarded the Book of Records, nor a lot of Indian movies have won Oscars. Few Indian attainments have led to prompt national pride as much as the success of ISRO’s Mangalyaan or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) to Mars. Media gushed, Twitter and Facebook celebrated while every politician and celebrity congratulated ISRO for days. The last comparable Indian gush was the cricket World Cup victory in 2011. And a triumph in India, as comparable to a crucial cricket victory is undoubtedly on of its kind.

It might sound exaggerative but make no mistake, to place a satellite in the Mars orbit at the first attempt is no small feat. Additionally that it was done on a $75 million budget, the cheapest Mars mission so far, makes it even more noteworthy. The ardor of ISRO staff along with cutting-edge science made the mission successful. The pride we Indians hold at the success of MOM is justified to the largest extent and could not be compared to any other success of science so far. But a question still persists, has the success of MOM completely entangled us into believing and respecting science at its crowning of existence? Have we accepted the hold of science on all our activities?

Indians have a hallucinating relationship with science. On one hand, we want our kids to take science subjects in school. Exams to get into top engineering and medical colleges are among the toughest in the world. Choosing the best colleges and careers, comes as the most difficult task to be done in life. Our students get top scores in science and mathematics, pushing cut-offs higher and higher. If some alien from say Mars were to see this, he would think India is a land obsessed with science. And yet, in many ways we are completely unscientific; being our knowledge limited to books, and our reasons of perceiving this knowledge completing ending with the accomplishment of the money desire.

Superstition here is not just a feeling, but a fear. More superstitions exist in our country than any other. Most of us have been fed curd and sugar right before a science exam, as a sign of luck. As if some audit department of God above is noting who are the kids who ate it and hence makes them deserving of a simpler exam. Our fears can either lead us to death, or end us up becoming a vague business for a random unit which does not share this sense of fright with us. Babas, astrologers, horoscopes abound. Temple visits are associated with guilt, and often include some sort of a transaction. Place some money in front of the idol and in return some luck will come your way, implying that is how God thinks about us. Maximum movies, leaving a few exceptions, all the daily soaps have done enough homework to enhance this fear in us to this level. And we have hence, created business for millions out there who were waiting to suck the money out of common man’s pockets.

Keeping a huge heart and ignoring the non-taxable money involved, religious ceremonies spill out on the road, leaving behind a trail of filth and noise pollution. As if one of those Gods, if existent, wanted this state to be that of pleasure and would grant the best blessings on seeing filth, dirt and pain all around us. We have made this a classified information which has to go through many departments before it reaches the ultimate power. We have gods for rain. If a crop suffers due to lack of rain, it is obviously an act of the rain gods. It is not the culpability of the irrigation department, which may have had decades of funding that filled every person along the line of sight in the department but couldn’t stabilize irrigation in the area. If there are floods in Uttarakhand it is God’s rage, and doesn’t have anything to do with poor environmental planning and unchecked construction.

If I believe in one God and somebody else in another, the other person is separate from me. If people who believe in my God die, it is more terrible than if people who believe in the other God do. And by any chance, if you are an atheist in this country, you belong to a race other than mankind, and your death will take you to hell, wherever that place exists.

I don’t want to go on and on. All I am trying to say is, do we take the greater message from the ISRO mission? Do we change anything about ourselves? Do we for the smallest of things, try to change our beliefs?

On sickness, we take pills created by scientists. For the sake of unlimited communication around the globe you follow fiber lines created by scientists from almost all domicile. I write this and you read it, by all mediums that were created by scientists. And yet, would you say we Indians have a scientific temperament?

The answer is no, we don’t. We want our kids to study science, because it enables them to do professional degrees that will help them get a job; gets them to earn money, gets our families settled, we live our lives peacefully and want to visit a pilgrim before dying to make contact with our favorite God. We want to use science for our selfish interests, but want the option to reject it when it doesn’t suit our purposes. For example, gay rights have a scientific basis. However, we don’t like those findings and so we bring all sorts of other arguments against them.

If you broaden the definition of science to logical thinking, we fail even more. Almost any argument of tradition, morality, culture and even misplaced patriotism is considered superior to science, if the latter rocks the boat. For some reason, you bring your discussion to the riots of Gujarat in 2002 and you would find 6 million opinions to the situation’s past, present, its post-mortem. This does not mean we have lost logic, but we have segregated our logical thinking to religious aspects more than to science.

We want to celebrate ISRO and MOM. Well, if we really do want to congratulate ISRO, the best contribution we can make is to give science a little more respect in our lives. At its core, science involves logical thinking and a questioning attitude, until a logical and rational solution is arrived at. Questioning definitely on the basis of science.

We do not have to spurn religion. Religion and science are in conflict sometimes. There is always an alternative of coexistence of some things together; and with coexistence I do not mean occurrence of a priest at some medical college to teach his secret prayers and heal the patients. Existence of both the things together means, being able to isolate the use and application of one at a time. However, given how deeply religious we are, it is unlikely we can shift over to becoming a purely scientific nation. And in most cases, making science and religion coexist simply involves having a sense of faith to guide you on the path of positivity and goodness; while at the same time using common sense and reasoning to do what is best for you and society. The only change is required in the ideology that chooses what has to be done at what time. Once we perfect that selection process, the co-existence becomes effective and peaceful.

Development encourages us, and scientific achievements indeed develop us. India is surely moving itself towards being science orientated, but the time factor has made it a little slow. The existence of both together would somehow create dilemma, but Indians considered to be the most intelligent species around the globe; can handle this patiently and meritoriously.

Let God create faith in our hearts, while Science fashion thoughts in our mind.