Science at the Crossroads - Theosophy.Net2024-03-28T20:37:54Zhttps://theosophy.net/forum/topics/science-at-the-crossroads?commentId=3055387%3AComment%3A130631&feed=yes&xn_auth=nohi -
The Pride of saying "I h…tag:theosophy.net,2013-10-12:3055387:Comment:1305062013-10-12T21:19:40.755ZJohnhttps://theosophy.net/profile/JohnEMead
<p>hi -</p>
<p>The Pride of saying "I have never wavered in my beliefs" needs to be replaced by a quote by Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll)</p>
<p>"<em>Why,</em> <em>sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast</em>"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Monks integrating Math and Science into monastic training.. a new requirement.</p>
<p>see my next post.</p>
<p>hi -</p>
<p>The Pride of saying "I have never wavered in my beliefs" needs to be replaced by a quote by Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll)</p>
<p>"<em>Why,</em> <em>sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast</em>"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Monks integrating Math and Science into monastic training.. a new requirement.</p>
<p>see my next post.</p> Dear John,
Interesting topic.…tag:theosophy.net,2013-10-12:3055387:Comment:1306312013-10-12T18:22:15.113ZGovert Schullerhttps://theosophy.net/profile/GovertSchuller
<p>Dear John,</p>
<p>Interesting topic. I've had my sights on the work of the Dalai Lama in the field of science already for a while because of the involvement of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Varela" target="_blank">Francesco Varela</a>, a Chilean neuroscientist with a raining in the philosophical school of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_%28philosophy%29" target="_blank">phenomenology</a>.</p>
<p>Varela was the co-founder with the Dalai Lama of the …</p>
<p>Dear John,</p>
<p>Interesting topic. I've had my sights on the work of the Dalai Lama in the field of science already for a while because of the involvement of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Varela" target="_blank">Francesco Varela</a>, a Chilean neuroscientist with a raining in the philosophical school of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_%28philosophy%29" target="_blank">phenomenology</a>.</p>
<p>Varela was the co-founder with the Dalai Lama of the <a href="http://www.mindandlife.org/" target="_blank">Mind & Life Institute</a> promoting dialogues between science and Buddhism.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dalailama.com/messages/buddhism/science-at-the-crossroads" target="_blank">article</a> by the Dalai Lama, from which you quoted, also has the following great quote:</p>
<p>"Because of this methodological standpoint, I have often remarked to my Buddhist colleagues that the empirically verified insights of modern cosmology and astronomy must compel us now to modify, or in some cases reject, many aspects of traditional cosmology as found in ancient Buddhist texts."</p>
<p>Somewhere <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/27043-if-scientific-analysis-were-conclusively-to-demonstrate-certain-claims-in" target="_blank">else</a> he made a similar point:</p>
<p>"If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.”</p>
<p>I think this is a refreshing perspective, something Theosophists should also emulate. For me this means, and that's just my conclusion, that Theosophy as presented by Blavatsky and later Leadbeater, will have to be evaluated from the scientific view and that certain ideas will have to be let go off. For example, the claims regarding Atlantis and Lemuria will have to be abandoned in the face of the scientific theory of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics" target="_blank">plate tectonics</a>. Or the claim made by Blavatsky about the ancient Gallic town Bibracte that it was the 'Thebes of the north' and housed 40.000 students of occultism will have to abandoned too in the face of archeological findings about which I wrote somewhere <a href="http://www.alpheus.org/html/articles/esoteric_history/Bibracte.htm" target="_blank">else</a>. Or the claim about humanity's very old age and the idea that some primates were degenerated humans in the face of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoanthropology" target="_blank">paleoanthropology.</a></p>
<p>I know there are valiant efforts made by some Theosophists like <a href="http://davidpratt.info/#Hi" target="_blank">David Pratt</a> and <a href="http://www.theosconf.org/" target="_blank">International Theosophy Conferences</a> in the face of modern science to defend and rescue Balvatskyan ideas, but I'm not convinced.</p>