The Heart's Reason: Hinduism and Science
“Science enables us to understand the laws and principles by which the universe is constructed, and that is no trivial accomplishment...but there is always the question of meaning.”
The main idea of this broadcast is that, unlike Christianity, Hinduism has no apparent conflict between Faith and Science. Raman says that in Hinduism there is a clear understanding of the difference between religious knowledge and scientific knowledge. That the scientific question why is different from the religious question why because one is concerned with the physical and the other is concerned with the spiritual. Both are legitimate questions to ask, but some of the deeper theological questions about why are we here, why was the world created, what is the purpose of the universe…are questions that "we will probably never find answers which are unanimously acceptable."
When many would describe the relationship between science and religious faith as a cognitive dissonance, V.V. Raman would disagree and call it an experiential consonance. "It is possible to distinguish between what we understand and explain in the logical and analytical framework and another level of experience from deep (spiritual) involvement." This broadcast also sites the Bhagavad Gita, which in one of its most essential teachings says roughly translated that, the most important realization is that beneath and beyond the physical world is a spiritual reality, and it is only when one realizes this that he has fully lived the human life.
V. V. Raman says that Science and Religion don't contradict one another and both are necessary, because science seeks to explain the rules of how the universe works, and religion seeks to explain why the universe works and its meaning.
"Science enables us to look at human events in human terms. Religions in that context enable us to look at human events in religious, or trans-rational terms. Both, in a way, are meaningful and illuminating."
There is a difference between irrational knowledge and trans-rational knowledge. The deep messages of religion are not rational but they aren't irrational either. They are trans-rational, and it is necessary to have a rational (scientific) knowledge of the world and a trans-rational (spiritual) knowledge of the world, in order to life a fully human life.
Listen to this Interview with V. V. Raman