2 weeks ago
Indian mechanism marrying science and faith hollows out both
Some people in India try to show that very old religious books already knew about modern science.
A historian wrote an opinion essay saying this idea actually hurts both science and religion.
He gives examples, like a professor who said characters from an old story were made using stem-cell technology.
Another leader said the scientist Charles Darwin was wrong and should not be taught in schools.
The historian explains that these ideas can never be proven wrong, like a game you always win.
He says real science must be open to being tested and corrected.
Scientists once checked an old book about flying machines and found the machines could not fly.
He also thinks religion becomes weaker when it needs science's agreement to be believed.
He worries that treating science like a list of facts to pick from is bad for learning.
In the end, he says mixing science and faith carelessly makes both weaker.
Historian of science Pranav Sharma argues that the dominant way science is praised in the Indian subcontinent — as a witness agreeing with scripture — hollows out both science and faith.
At the January 2019 Indian Science Congress in Jalandhar, Andhra University vice-chancellor G Nageswara Rao said Gandhari's 100 sons were the fruit of stem cell research and that Ravana kept two dozen types of aircraft in Lanka.
In 2018, Union minister of state Satya Pal Singh said Charles Darwin was wrong and should be removed from the syllabus because nobody had ever seen an ape turn into a man.
Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation has told Mumbai audiences for three decades that evolution is an unproven conjecture science will one day abandon.
The essay cites a 1974 Indian Institute of Science study finding the Vaimanika Shastra described unflyable machines, and Basim Musallam's 1983 finding that the Quranic embryology sequence matches Galen's four stages.
- Who
- Historian of science Pranav Sharma wrote the essay; it examines claims by G Nageswara Rao, Satya Pal Singh, Zakir Naik, Basim Musallam and Maurice Bucaille.
- What
- An opinion essay arguing that mechanisms used in India to show scripture and science agree actually hollow out both, because the claims are designed to be unfalsifiable.
- Where
- India, including Jalandhar, Aurangabad, Mumbai and Bangalore, with the author writing from New Delhi, India and Paro, Bhutan; historian Basim Musallam is based in Cambridge.
- When
- Exact publication date not stated; the essay cites events from 1974, 1976, 1983, 2015, 2018 and January 2019.
- Why
- The author argues that a science that only confirms scripture destroys scientific literacy, while a god ratified by scientific consensus loses independent standing, making the marriage of the two a subtle extinction of both.
Concordists
Critics of concordism
Scripture as anticipating science
Concordists
Ancient scriptures already contain modern science — stem cells, aircraft and embryology — so modern findings vindicate religious texts.
Critics of concordism
These claims have been falsified: Indian Institute of Science engineers found the Vaimanika Shastra's aircraft unflyable, and the Quranic embryology sequence matches Galen's second-century stages.
Teaching evolution
Concordists
Satya Pal Singh says Charles Darwin was wrong and evolution should be removed from the syllabus.
Critics of concordism
The essay treats this as the 'nascent science' mechanism — an unfalsifiable claim that science will one day agree with scripture rather than evidence deciding the matter.
What should ground religious faith
Concordists
Science confirming scripture strengthens and defends faith.
Critics of concordism
Demanding scientific proof hollows out faith; the author argues a god ratified by scientific consensus becomes a hostage to physics, and cites Kierkegaard's claim that the demand for objective proof marks the loss of faith.
Key facts
- Author
- Pranav Sharma, historian of science (opinion essay, edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
- Event
- 106th Indian Science Congress, Jalandhar, January 2019
- G Nageswara Rao's claims
- Gandhari's 100 sons from stem cell research; Ravana kept two dozen types of aircraft in Lanka
- Satya Pal Singh (2018)
- Called Darwin wrong and asked for him to be removed from the syllabus
- Zakir Naik / Islamic Research Foundation
- Called evolution an unproven conjecture for three decades in Mumbai
- Vaimanika Shastra study (1974)
- Five Indian Institute of Science engineers found the aircraft unflyable and the text dictated around 1900-1922 by Subbaraya Shastry
- Basim Musallam (1983)
- Quranic embryology sequence matches Galen's four stages from the second century
- Maurice Bucaille (1976)
- Launched the concordist enterprise locating modern embryology and cosmology in Quranic verses
Quotes
G Nageswara Rao
Vice‑Chancellor of Andhra University
“"Gandhari’s 100 sons were the fruit of stem cell research and test‑tube technology."”
theprint.in
Satya Pal Singh
Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development
“"Charles Darwin was wrong and should be removed from the syllabus, since nobody had ever seen an ape turn into a man."”
theprint.in
Sources
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