Thursday, November 15, 2012

How scientific are scriptures?

Many people believe that ancient scriptures have answers to all questions. Some times they show some quotes from those books and try to prove that modern scientific theories are being indicated by those text. Sometimes the logic is so much convincing that we start feeling if ancient people really had such technology.

To understand it better, first think about this question. Do you think that Orion (the constellation) was drawn on the sky? No! It is just countless random stars and we see a pattern in them because we want to see it.

Then there is a fact that most of the science starts with hypotheses then it is logically associated with proven concepts (theorised). Later with solid evidences it can become a scientific statement.

What we find in ancient scriptures (like Vedas), are either patterns that we want to see or the hypotheses. It is said that these hypotheses were invented through meditation. Even scientists make hypotheses by meditation (remember benzene structure was found in dream).


But there is a big difference here. Not all the text of scriptures was practically implemented. Whatever was implemented is widely known already for example Ayurveda, Yoga and parts of many other scientific discoveries. For example some less known text like Sushrut Sanhita which was practically used in ancient times. Apart from few such texts most of it is hypotheses and can not be considered as science until we may verify it with experimental facts.