Major sectors of Christianity and Islam have made it clear that they’re not going to be best friends with science anytime soon. But at least one of the major religions is extending an olive branch. New Scientist reports that:
More than 30 Tibetan monks, plus a handful of nuns, will be collaborating with a team from San Francisco’s Exploratorium (”the museum of art, science and human perception”) to build exotic machines to create patterns from sunlight using cardboard, dowels, reflective sheets of mylar and electronic components.
If all goes to plan, the monks will return to their monasteries and start spreading the joys of scientific exploration among other followers of their religion.
The project is the latest reflection of the monks’ spiritual leader’s fascination with science. In the Dalai Lama’s 2005 book The Universe in a Single Atom, the Nobel peace laureate argued that science and spiritual inquiry have much to learn from one other.
According to an Exploratorium press release, the Dalai Lama has been exploring how cosmology, neuroscience, and other fields interrelate with Buddhism since childhood (His Holiness does tend to be precocious). Now he’s setting his monks on an “ambitious” mission to “share not only in the traditions of Buddhism, but…also in Western scientific inquiry and evidence on the physical plane” with a goal of “shap[ing] these already highly educated monks into science leaders.”
Now if we could just get the Pope to follow suit…
Related:
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RB: This Week’s God-Science Face-Off: Rick Warren v. Sam Harris
RB: God 0, Atheism 2: Hitchens Eats Another Religious Figure for Lunch
RB: Annual Creationism Conference Takes “Scientific” Approach
January 12th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I bet those peabrains receive the best medical care in the West while spewing their hatered for medical advancements.
January 12th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Well, I gotta say this is nice, but it is sort of skewed. Buddhism as practiced in India, Thailand, and other countries is not really much of a philosophy. Buddhism is chocked full of tales of mythical creatures, gods, traditions, ceremony, and all the other mystics bits and pieces.
The exorcise the monks in the reference are going through will not challenge their religion, nor would it question a Christian’s.
In the US, Buddhism is indeed somewhat a philosophy. That Dali Lama is a great man, but his Buddhism is not in general the same thing. There are sects in Buddhism as their are in any religion.
Science and Buddhism is indeed reasonably compatible. But you can still find a Buddhist that is against science or practices and believes is mysticism. It isn’t as crazy as the so called ‘Christian’ or ‘charismatic’ movement and ant-evolution nuts, but be careful because religion is religion, just a matter of degree.
The one thing that separates Buddhism from the other religions is that it has little witnessing or forced conversion or real penalties for opposing views. This is important because this is the crux of why science and religion for the cross barkers. If one thing is assumed to not be true, then non of it can be true. One rusty link in the chain will break the chain. Science is a huge threat just because it asks us to question.
Buddhism, even with all the mysticism buts the philosophy bits on top. Just follow the teaching of Buddha as well as you can and the rest is up to you. It encourages questions.
You want to know what the two primary aspects are of ninety percent of buddhist temples in Thailand? They are schools and centers of the community. The reason for most buddhists is that they grew up in the religion. It grows because people are born into it, just like any other religion.
Pointing all this out because it is important to understand that Buddhism is just a milder and more friendly religion. It is rarely just a philosophy. Like any religion it has the same issues. Painting it as the only religion that is compatible with science is a bit disingenuous.
The anti-science is hardly Catholic. The pope isn’t pushing intelligent design. Get to the key issue, people hate change. It is just that religions don’t like change because that makes them wrong because of what they practiced or believed in the past.
Want to see a busy place? Visit a 400 year old temple in Bangkok - and that’s relatively new! The traditions and trappings are mostly unchanged for more than the past 800 years. I highly recommend a trip to Thailand to study it up close. It is fascinating. We should just be careful of assuming it is somehow different from all the rest.
Back to where I started. The science the monks in the reference are going through will not challenge their religion or core philosophy, nor would it question a Christian’s. Bet it would be simple and fun in most sunday school classes. Now get a Buddhist in Thailand to disprove the gods prior to Buddha or a Baptist to go on a fossil hunt, that would be progress.
January 12th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
How is creating “…patterns from sunlight using cardboard, dowels, reflective sheets of mylar and electronic components” practicing science? Sounds like a craft project to me. I’m certain neither Christains nor Muslims would feel that making pretty pictures with sunlight was a major doctrinal threat.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
The Baha’i Faith not only embraces religion but holds that science and religion are “the two most potent forces in human life.”
`Abdu’l-Baha, whose visit to the United States one hundred years helped instill views about the unity of humamity and oneness of religion into modern thought, emphasized the unity of science and religion as a core Baha’i teachings: “Religion and science are the two wings upon which man’s intelligence can soar into the heights, with which the human soul can progress. It is not possible to fly with one wing alone!”
The implications are manifold, ranging from a recognition of our inability to even understand the teachings of religion without subjecting them to scrutiny through application followed by empirical review to a recognition that our ability to engage in scientific inquiry is one of the strongest proofs of the existence of God.
Stephen F.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
[…] Melissa Lafsky has a nice post for Discover about how Tibetan Buddhist monks will be doing science-y type stuff in San Francisco: Major sectors […]
January 13th, 2009 at 12:58 am
There ARE Christians and Muslims practicing hard science every day, only, they aren’t as vocal about it as the anti-science Christian movement is. But arguing that Buddhists are pro-science because 30 monks are making yard art and that means Buddhists are more pro-science than Christians is like saying that blondes have more fun than brunettes because you saw two blondes at a bar last night.
No mention is made of the religious affiliation of the “team from San Fransisco’s Exploratorium.”
January 13th, 2009 at 2:28 am
Well all i want to say is that WHY FEW IN THIS WORLD ARE ALWAYS AFTER AN ARGUMENTS & NEGATIVE THOUGHTS.?? What i all understand from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings and Buddhism is that know the ultimate realities before implementing all into your life. Before implementing the words of Buddha, just do necessary research and experiment needed.
January 13th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
[…] press site, the story has been picked up by a couple of news sources (here, and here), so it might be good to give a little information about our group and what we intend to accomplish […]
January 14th, 2009 at 3:42 am
Keep in mind that while these experiments might seem simple, these monks likely haven’t had much science education and there are some significant language barriers involved. You can’t expect them to being having in-depth discussions about string theory as an entry point into education.
This is also part of a larger program. A few months ago, a small group of monks from the Gaden monastary came by my temple while visiting different universities in New England. There goal was to absorb as much science as possible.
The Buddhist approach is that our religion is a means to understand ourselves and science is a means to understand our world. Even HH the Dalai Lama himself has said “If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change.”
http://dalailama.com/page.102.htm
http://www.dalailama.com/news.5.htm
Thanks for shedding some light on this Melissa. It’s a great opportunity for the monks to learn about science and a great opportunity for people in the US to see that religion and science can and should be complimentary not in conflict. Hopefully there is continued funding available to bring more monks to the US for education or send tools to India, Bhutan and Myanmar to improve STEM education.
January 14th, 2009 at 4:28 am
At the core of Buddhism are the 4 Noble Truths, which requires Buddhists to seek and overcome the source of their discontent. There are no gods to placate, deities to hide from. Any mysticism practised are just various methods employed to this end. As a practising Buddhist, I can say that I welcome scientific discoveries. There is no field of science that contradicts the beliefs I derive from Buddhist teachings. Indeed, readings in quantum physics and psychology help me to understand Buddhism better, while Buddhist teachings help me apply scientific discoveries in a manner that is beneficial. If science had been better informed by Buddhism, it would have invested more in nuclear medicine and not invented the bomb.
January 15th, 2009 at 11:53 am
@Daniel:
Buddhism IS a philosophy. Like any other inquiry into the human condition, some Buddhist philosophies blended with ancient Shamanic religions and the like. i.e. - Zen Buddhism is a blending of Taoism and Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is a blend of the native Tibetan Bon (pronounced “pern”) and Buddhism.
Again, Buddhism, at its core is truly a philosophy. The Dalai Lama is also heavily invested in science, as are many Tibetan Buddhist Monks (as Ian Muir mentioned.). Many have donated their time and resources to Brain science, acoustics and other pursuits.
Also, check out HHDL’s “The Universe in a Single Atom”, it’s quite interesting.
February 13th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
[…] point to thoughtful practitioners of Buddhism. As a whole, Buddhist communities seem to be far more open to science and its worldview. This is particularly emphasized by the Dali Lama’s statements about adapting Buddhist views to […]
May 24th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
[…] be true that is disproven by scientific evidence, the scientific evidence wins. Even the Dalai Lama said so: The Buddhist approach is that our religion is a means to understand ourselves and science is a […]