Sambodhi 2009 Vol 32

Author(s): J B Shah, K M patel
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 19

Vol. XXXII, 2009
Major progress linking modern science and...
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greatly advanced by deeper investigation into Vedic science, such as Sankhya and Ayurveda which address fundamental ontological issues (17, 1). The matter-mind-consciousness ontology in modern science
Inflationary big bang theory is the consensus model of the origin of the universe in contemporary cosmology. In this theory, the universe emerged instantaneously from literally nothing as randomly fluctuating quantum fields that congealed into stars, planets, and living cellular organisms that eventually developed higher-order, conscious cognitive processes. This theoretical framework is associated with the fragmented reductive physicalist paradigm in mainstream modern science that the whole is created from combining the parts, a bottom up mattermind-consciousness ontology from more basic, lower-order to emergent higherorder functions (1). The general model of the ontology of consciousness in modern science is that it is an emergent property of complex interactive neural networks in the physical brain. In this view, consciousness and mind exist only on the basis of physical matter and ultimately are nothing other than physical processes (1). The reductive physicalist or materialistic paradigm in mainstream modern science has attempted to describe a causally closed clockwork physical universe. In this paradigm, mind and consciousness have no actual place or causal role as ontologically real levels of existence in the physical world. Fundamental parts or bits of quantized energy/particles somehow gain proto-conscious mentality in neuronal cells that interact in networks to generate conscious mind. Protoconscious mentality is theorized to emerge spontaneously through Darwinian evolutionary processes, either from complex neuronal interactions or to be inherent in cellular structures somehow emerging from inert matter (1). This paradigm does not explain how the closed physical chain of cause and effect could unlink itself and insert a causally efficacious conscious observer at any level of physical existence. The conscious observer ends up being powerless and epiphenomenal, or even a non-existent misperception.
Consistent with this view, the evolution of higher-order conscious human behavior does not mean that humans are evolving toward anything other than meaningless survival; there is no place for intrinsic values of any kind. Fundamental paradoxes remain in this paradigm, such as the 'hard problem' of consciousness, free will, life emerging from inert matter, order emerging from fundamental random disorder, and ultimately everything emerging from nothing (1).