About the author:
Dr. Viswanathan Raghunathan (born 1954) is an academic, author, columnist, hobbyist and a CEO. Since 2005, he has been the CEO of GMR Varalakshmi Foundation. Earlier he was President, ING Vysya Bank (2001-2004) and Managing Director, GMR Industries Ltd (2007-2008), GMR Group. He has been an Adjunct Professor at the Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, since 1990, where he lectures in behavioural finance every year. He taught finance and accounting at IIM, Ahmedabad from 1982 to 2001, where he held various positions, including Chairman, Post Graduate Programme. He is the author of Duryodhana (Harper Collins, 2014), Locks Mahabharata & Mathematics (Harper Collins, 2013), Ganesha on the Dashboard(Penguin 2012), The Corruption Conundrum And Other Paradoxes And Dilemmas (Penguin 2010), Don’t Sprint The Marathon (Harper Collins, 2010), Games Indians Play (Penguin 2006), and several other books in Corporate Finance. Raghunathan is also a columnist of long standing, especially with The Economic Times, and has authored over 500 papers and articles. He also blogs for The Times of India and has held a cartoon column briefly with The Financial Express in the past.[citation needed] A graduate of Panjab University, Chandigarh, Raghunathan obtained his doctorate in finance from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Raghunathan is a Tamilian, born and brought up in Punjab and Haryana, and spent much of his early schooling in Jammu & Kashmir
Take on the essay :
The conclusion we need to draw from the essay is that we must have a rational, questioning but not skeptical approach to the issue of religion, rituals, God and faith.
Raghunath discusses scientific temper and religion, scientific temper in everyday life, how to develop scientific temper, the convergence of religions, the responsibility of ushering in scientific temper, and proposes a more evolved religion.
In the section 'Marrying Religion with Scientific Temper' the author wonders whether it is possible for religion, based on faith, to be consistent with science, based on reason. Either way, for millennia, humans have turned to religion in times of trouble. It is only in times of stress, fear or insecurity, a constant presence of which, in the form of a struggle for dignity of life and the most basic amenities, that makes a large swathe of our subcontinent hold on to religion, even in its worst manifestations. (In this manner, religion in India plays the same role that psychiatry does in the United States.) The cause and effect of this is that religion has seeped into politics, intensifying the necessity to "marry" science and religion.
The paragraph:
We recognize that, fundamentally, he objective of all religions is to bring out the best in mankind: faith, compassion, empathy, solicitude, patience, non-violence, love, ethics, morality and any other virtue one can think of. If so, it seems most unfortunate that we should perennially be wrangling among ourselves in the name of god! Religions often fail in their objective, it would seem, because they lack scientific temper -
(is very similar to The Concept of God by The Mystical Unicorn )tells us that while the intention (motive, goal, objective etc) of religion was noble, the execution has failed in the achievement of these goals. Raghunathan argues that scientific temper in religion is the missing link.
Raghunathan then notes an observation - religion is concerned about the philosophies of life and seeking the truth about the universe, and science is involved in increasing our knowledge about the universe. He then urges the learned and the religious to have the scientific temper to ask the question - how can religions ignore science?
In the section 'Scientific Temper in Everyday Life' Raghunathan makes four important points:
1. Education and training have to be such that scientific temper extends the rational thought process to as many areas of life as possible, including areas of faith, contradictory as it may sound.
2. Methods of scientific inquiry are not esoteric - they are compatible with common sense and everyday life. Essentially, scientific temper is not difficult.
3. We almost never try to find answers to our everyday problems using scientific temper, because we do not have the scientific temper to approach any of our challenges from a problem-solving perspective. In our fatalism, we accept our situation without questioning.
That is, we need to change our attitudes from "we are like this only" and "jugaad" to actually doing something about the problems we face. The questions he asks in the previous paragraph support this.
4. Lastly, Raghunath reminds us that suppositions are not solutions, conjectures not clarifications, premises not propositions and belief and faiths not absolutes.
Also, he says that scientific temper is more of a necessity than science because as scientific temper develops, science will take care of itself.
The next section, 'How Do We Begin Developing a Scientific Temper' talks about how, predictably, education is the solution.
Raghunath proposes many changes in the education system, legal set-up, corporate world and society that would bring in a change in mindset across the country, beginning with the children.
Listing them down now:
making the methodology of science integral to literacy
encouraging: raising questions in a classroom, using every day science to answer everyday problems
teachers need to teach how to question
teach the science behind magic tricks
teach that everything must be questioned, and nothing accepted without question
teach that there is truth and major deceit in the ancient texts
education must protect women and old people alike, who are routinely subjected to heartrending torture in the name of witch-hunting and exorcism, in the not-so-remote parts of India, as documented routinely in the newspapers
education needs to make a clear distinction between history, religion and mythology
necessity: a scientific temper among the people to accept such scientific methods to reason social issues, which is not possible without adequate education on a scientific temper
important that the educated among us are particularly well aware of this need; including the fourth estate (the media)
"in any modern society, freedom of belief and faith should be paramount. But on a greater plane, shouldn't a true modern society raise the very bar for belief and faith?"
Raghunath then proposes a number of reforms by which education can make religion more academic, choice-based, and devoid of non-scientific mumbo-jumbo
particularly attacks magical thinking
The Convergence of Religions
The absolute and innate truth of religions, if they exist, have not cut across all religions and formed a unifying theology of humanity, leading to a more enlightened way of life encapsulating our contemporary understanding of the universe. The same is not true for science. It cuts across human barriers - it is universally applicable, unchanging, consistent.
There is a need for twenty-first citizens to think beyond narrowly defined beliefs, faiths and practices. Not only do most religions "continue to refuse entry to the true knowledge of the universe into the ambit of their belief system," but religious hate is responsible for most international discord. "Much of [this] has to do with the fact that religions haven't found a common theme to work together for the greater good of humanity by assimilating within them some scientific temper."
The Responsibility of Ushering in Scientific Temper
Science constantly questions its hypotheses, reject the wrong ones and accept the right ones by applying rigorous, objective and reliable scientific methods to its hypotheses. This openness to a questioning of its assumptions and assertions should be emulated in religion to make for a more scientifically tempered society.
"If only we approached our attitudes and mores with scientific temper, we could take direct control of our lives with our own efforts and be masters of our own destinies Instead we take the passive and fatalistic attitude that whatever happens to us is preordained.."
A More Evolved Religion?
Faith conventionally in God but should be in human efforts
may have god-given talents or potential but upto us to make the most of it by taking charge of our lives and assuming responsibility for them
logical reasoning, systematic deduction and continuous learning gleaned from observing the nature of the universe
this universal religion would not resort to a god of the gaps or the belief that the working of god can be seen in all those things that science cannot explain
would not revolve around a hypothetical punishment in the hereafter for transgressions committed in this life - religion and civic life will be interwoven such that behavior that maximises the benefit for mankind would be encouraged through religious and civic education
Nature of the god of the universal religion:abstract, impersonal, serves purpose of meditation aimed at stress reduction
Understanding of followers: meditation is to calm nerves, not a substitute for actual work
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