Role of Science
Then, what is the role and position of science? Faith comes first and science follows it. We take the step of faith and science follows it. Faith comes first and we move forward. Science follows it, analyzes the situation and makes us think logically the step we had taken by faith. It is like a steam engine and the coal wagon attached to it. Before the advent of diesel engines, we had steam engines in the Indian Railways. I am showing the picture of “Rocket”, a simple steam locomotive made by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1829 (Plate 1).
The engine had a boiler in the front to produce steam and the steam was used to push the pistons in the cylinder. The reciprocating movements of pistons were transferred to the flywheels via piston rods and crankshafts. This caused rotation moved the engine forward. Behind the boiler, engine driver and helpers stood on a small platform and behind them, a coal wagon carrying coal was attached. The driver and helpers removed the coal from the wagon with a shovel and fed the boiler to produce steam.
- Plate 1. “Rocket” a simple steam locomotive made by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1829 (Courtesy: Wiki Commons)
This example is shown here to explain how faith and science work. The steam engine is faith and initiates the forward movement. The coal wagon attached to the engine cannot move by itself but it can power the engine. Similarly, faith takes first step and science follows it with logic and analysis to confirm the step. This confirmation comes with time.
Another way to challenge those who ignore faith is to ask, “Show me a scientist who can say that his forefathers started eating rice and wheat after analyzing the nutritive values in them?” I have not met one scientist until today who did this. The man started eating these cereals by faith. Later on, science followed and found its nutritive values. Similarly, Ayurveda, the ancient mode of treatment practiced in India, came into existence by faith. Some people, especially the Rishis, started using certain plants by faith. Then they may have observed the results and confirmed their results. When they started using plants for some diseases, they started it by faith. Then, like scientists, they may have observed the reaction of it on different people and came to some conclusions. They presented it in Sanskrit slokas and recorded it on the best media available to them at that time (engraved on palm leaves). Hence we cannot say that Ayurveda does not have any scientific basis. Modern western science ignored it till recently because they could not explain the science behind it on the cellular or molecular level. Until today, science could not understand an Ayurvedic system of medicine and only recently the modern science succeeded to group different human physiological systems into “Vatha, Pitha and Kapa”. With all the advancement of modern science, till now science cannot explain all the rationale behind the Ayurveda treatment. Here again, faith came first and science followed it. Reversal of this order takes us nowhere.