Science, Technology and Religion

Man has made everything subservient to him through his intellect, scientific progress and reasoning, by arranging and manipulating everything around him. His ambitions thrive only on this subordination. Appearance has become far more important to him than the truth of being. He lost the eternal truth of the spirit and Creation in its basic elements, and has clung since earliest times to unrealistic doctrines of sects and cults. Due to his self-delusion, he valued enslaving and false doctrines far more than all the laws and commandments in their truth and wisdom. Man has lost his knowledge of the most ancient truth and wisdom, namely, that he is the criterion for all Creative things, in creation of Creation's own perfection within itself. We are turning our backs on faith, concluding that science has rendered the spiritual life no longer necessary, and that traditional religious symbols can now be replaced by engravings of the double helix i.e. genome, the question prevails whether man become the GOD ?. Both of these choices are profoundly dangerous, both deny truth both will diminish the nobility of humankind. Many of us are under illusion man can conquer anything with science and technology. We need realistic pictures of what the future might bring in order to make sound decisions. Increasingly, we need realistic pictures not only of our personal or local near-term futures. I feel our life is an unpredictable journey; predictability does not necessarily fall off with temporal distance. It may be highly unpredictable where a traveller will be one hour after the start of her journey, it is impossible to predict that after five hours whether he will be at his destination. Many believe in human predictions with astrology, future readings with so many

occult sciences may turn to be true, but can never predict the events of tomorrow. While our knowledge is insufficient to narrow down the space of possibilities to one broadly outlined future for any human, we do know of many relevant arguments and considerations which in combination impose significant constraints on what a plausible view of the future could look like. Technological change is in large part responsible for many of the secular trends in such basic parameters of the human condition as the size of the world population, life expectancy, education levels, material standards of living, and the nature of work, communication, health care, war, and the effects of human activities on the natural environment. Always there is a conflict of interest in both religion and science and technology. However there are religious impulses underlying the drive of technology which has characterized modernity religious impulses which might affect otherwise secular atheists, too, if they aren't self-aware enough to notice what's going on. In this way, unnoticed premises or attitudes will prevent technology and religion from being incompatible. Perhaps technology itself is becoming religious on its own, thus also eliminating incompatibilities. Always the western philosophy strived hard to make man comfortable with advances in science and technology. Although currently obstructed by secular language and ideology, the contemporary resurgence of religion, even fundamentalism, alongside and hand-in-hand with technology is thus not an aberration but simply the reassertion of a forgotten tradition. The challenge then, is how to make wise use of the technology, while at the same time be wary of its potential to be destructive to community and a sense of submission to one's faith. Technology never met the needs of human race on peace and spirituality on a deeper cultural level; however these technologies have not met basic human needs because, at the bottom, they have never really been about meeting them. They have been aimed rather

at the loftier goal of transcending such mortal concerns altogether. In such an ideological context, inspired more by prophets than by profits, the needs neither of the mortals nor of the earth they inhabit are of any enduring consequence. Education is usually the answer with most things and it probably is here also. As they see technology used for good and an ability to do things quickly around the world and cause change faster than can be done without technology, they may be more apt to embrace, and bring in religion and science together. Some ancient roots of technological conflicts derive from religions' divided minds over the goodness of the material world. Technology constitutes some portion of the religious believer's identity -- and if one judges by people's behaviour, the technological component can take on tremendous importance. India offered the world a truly global citizen in Swami Vivekananda. He declared that man's quest for peace would remain incomplete so long as the West failed to acknowledge the spiritual and civilizational advances made by India and blend these thoughts with the ideas of modernity and progress. Yet, one could argue that just because postmodernist intellectuals have taken a position against the Enlightenment-style use of science as a cultural weapon against the authority of the traditions does not automatically make them an ally of the religious right. One could, after all, justly criticise the role of science and technology in furthering Western exploitation of the colonies and perpetuating patronising attitudes toward the natives. Religion like

Science and Technology is a tool, like a knife. You can use a knife
to cut a fruit or to kill your neighbour; nobody can really design a knife that can't kill, if the knife is to perform its more positive function. And religion and technology, like a knife, surely has positive functions. This may reflect our deficiencies as a species more than any absolute truthfulness of the belief systems used, but history

shows that religion mixed with technology can make people happier and more productive and catalyse truly useful breakthroughs. Believing in both Religion and Technology is only option; otherwise the Humans will not progress. Email doctortvrao@gmail.com