Nandanvana

Author(s): N L Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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Science and Religion : Conflict and Convergence :
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and status-quoism leading to institutionalisation of faith in different parts of the world. Their partial or full politicisation added fuel to the fire for wars and suspension of knowledge gaining activity and disregard for new knowledge up to the late Middle Ages. Like religion, science is also a major mental activity - a systematic, dynamic, never-ending, and pragmatic methodology for worldly knowledge. Man is first a scientist and religious next. It has no barrier but it has limited means. The Jainas suggest observation and knowledge to be simultaneous which means the two to be sister systems. If science is body, the sound mind must develop in a sound body. The super-humanistic concept and scriptural authority on worldly phenomena are the basic issues of conflict. The scientists suggest human welfare could still be done without them. Two major non-creator-concepted religions - Jaina and Buddha - are said to be the most moral today. Some proposed the concept to be psychologically beneficiary. Many experimentally proven views about worldly phenomena have gone against the scriptures. Their opposition led improvement of the image of science in man's mind. The result of conflict is charging and counter-charging, sliding down of religiosity scale and cultivation of more scientific outlook. The second Vatican council, AWR and scholars have realized these bad effects and the part played by authority in misusing these systems in their vested interests. They have developed a complimentarily approach assuming these systems to be inseparable phases of the same reality. This involves processes like (i) poly-viewing mentality of Lord Mahāvīra (ii) pragmatic delimitations of the spheres of activities (iii) sisterly treatments (iv) cultivation of scientific outlook (v) · decommercialising and de-politicising the religion and (vi) redefining the religion as the means to increase the pleasures in the world and redress the sorrows of the humanity.
References 1. V. Ferm (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Religion. London 1964, p. 646 2. D. P. Chattopadhyay: Religion and Society, Banglore 1987.
Swami Satybhakta: Satyāmrit-1, Wardha 1951, p.43 4. Philip Badcock Gove: Webster's 3rd Intnl. Dictionary, London 1959, p. 1918,
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