A young reader of Back to Godhead expresses his realizations. by Christopher Stewart What is the purpose of living? Why are we here, and what should we do with our lives? These questions often plague the minds of youth. In America, where materialism is especially widespread, alienation from purposeful living is quite frequent. As a […]
Transcendental Commentary on the Issues of the Day An Eye For A Nose by Sita-devi dasi “What if scientists could distinguish scents with their eyes?” queries a recent report in one popular magazine. Researchers, the article goes on to explain, are trying to do just that. By using electrical and chemical sensors that mimick the […]
Prove that chemicals make life. Your belief is that life is made from chemicals. So prove it; then it is science. But you cannot prove it; therefore it remains a belief.
The most advanced spacecraft ever built, the orbiter Columbia, rose from the launching pad at Cape Canaveral last April 12 and propelled the United States back into the space race.
The prevailing view among modern scientists is that a human being is in essence a complex machine. According to this view, our life and consciousness have their source in the interactions of our bodily parts—neurons in the brain, organelles in the cells, and so on.
Modern mechanistic science rests on the premise that reality is ultimately reducible to a simple set of mathematical equations. Such a view fails to account for two important aspects of reality: consciousness, and complex biological form.
Science conceives the brain to be the seat of all mental functions. According to Bhagavad-gita, however, the mind has an additional component (known in Sanskrit as manah, or “material mind”) that is distinct from both the brain and the conscious self.
Since behind the logic of artificial intelligence there must be a programmer, a director, what is the sense in saying that behind the logic of natural intelligence there is no purpose, no director? That is our challenge.
Philosophies based on mundane sense perceptions lead us to believe that God must be remote and inaccessible – if He exists at all.
“Probability is the most important concept in modern science, especially as nobody has the slightest idea what it means.”—Bertrand Russell
“All reputable evolutionary biologists now agree that the evolution of life is directed by the process of natural selection, and by nothing else.” With these words Sir Julian Huxley summed up the consensus of learned opinion at the Darwin Centennial Celebration in 1959.
Science fiction writers often try to solve the problems of old age and death by taking advantage of the idea that a human being is essentially a complex machine.
In the laws of nature there are no mistakes. In railway cars there are first-class and second-class sections. If you purchase a second-class ticket but by mistake go to the first-class section, you will not be allowed to stay there. It is not a mistake: that is the arrangement.
The process of perception begins when light from an object enters the eye and is focused on the retina. This light stimulates a series of neurochemical reactions that ultimately reach the brain as a systematic pattern of pulses.
The scientists say that at one point the earth, was composed of dust particles floating in some gaseous material. Then in due course this colloidal suspension condensed, and formed the earth.
Modern scientists acquire knowledge, at least in principle, by what is called the hypothetico-deductive method. Using this method, they formulate hypotheses and then test them by experimental observation.
We say to the scientists. “Don’t waste time trying to make life. Try to make your life better. Try to understand what your actual spiritual identity is, so that you may become happy in this lifetime. This research should be done.
How have they created anything? They take the sand and mix it with some chemicals and make glass. They have not created the sand or the chemicals, they have taken them from the earth. How have they created anything?
That nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island is acting up. It’s been leaking radioactive steam since early Wednesday morning—the largest leak in history. And now they just found a gas bubble inside the thing, and they say if it doesn’t cool off, the gas might blow up.
The idea that life can be reduced to chemistry and physics has become very prominent in the life sciences. According to this idea, all living organisms, including human beings, are simply aggregates of molecules interacting in accordance with chemical and physical laws.