Science, Law & Religion - Commonality

In Science, an empirical view is adopted based only on sensory observation & logic. In Law also, only eye-witness & other evidence is allowed, disregarding heresy & opinions.

Thomas Paine, in his "The Age of Reason" also argued that much of the Bible is believed based on heresy & hence (legally) not acceptable. He extended it to all organised religions. Swami Vivekananda also argued that the same criteria used in science should be applied to religion to test & accept it. Whenever his guru, Sri Ramakrishna told any thing, Swami Vivekananda (then known as Naren), would ask "Where is the evidence?" & accept his teachings only after satisfying himself of their rationality.

So even in matters of religion, if one is lucky to be contemporary of an enlightened soul & has access to him/her, it is better to examine them first hand & then accept their teachings only if they meet the criteria of Science & Law, rather than blindly believe in the Scriptures & Rituals. The phrase "Unbeliever", instead of being a derogatory term, can be viewed as a desirable term for any progress in the spiritual path.

Science, Faith & Miracles

Dr. Alexis Carrel, a French surgeon pioneered vascular surgery especially triangulation.

In 1902, a physician friend of his, invited him to take care of patients being transported to Lourdes. Dr. Carrel was an agnostic.

On the train, he encountered Marie Bailly who was suffering from acute tubercular peritonitis & abdominal distension with large hard masses. Dr. Carrel believed she would pass away quickly.

Marie was taken to the Grotto where water was poured on her abdomen. She felt a searing pain. After the second pour it was lessened. After the third pour, she had a pleasant sensation & her stomach began to flatten. Dr.Carrel noted that after 30 minutes, the distension had completely disappeared with no discharge from the body.

Marie then sat up, had dinner & got out of bed, dressed & boarded the train next day. Arriving at Lyons, she was monitored by a psychiatrist & a physician for 4 months. After her healing, she joined the Sisters of Charity & worked strenuously for the sick & poor & died in 1937, aged 58.

Dr Carrel felt that if his presence at Lourdes became public, it would ruin his medical career at Lyons. But the news leaked out & he had to leave France (the medical fraternity at that time were ferociously anti-clerical) for the University of Chicago & then to the Rockefeller University. For his work there on vascular anastomosis, he received the Nobel Prize in 1912. When he died in 1944, he was a believer in God.

He wrote a book about his experiences at Lourdes "The Voyage to Lourdes". It was published, for obvious reasons, four years after his death.

Fast forward to the twentieth century. Dr. Samuel Sandweiss, an American Psychiatrist, visited India & Sri Satya Sai Baba. He was overwhelmed & on his return to USA, related his experiences to his brother doctors, who did not believe him. He asked them "If these things happened before your eyes, what would you do?" They unanimously replied "We won't believe our eyes!". But the point is that the whole of science, including medicine, is based on our sensory (specially visual) perception. If we  don't want to believe our eyes, what is left of Science? Is this the much vaunted "Scientific Temper"?