..续本文上一页uantum revolution in physics, an objective universe, independent of life, became nonsensical.
Another fundamental law of physics is called the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says that entropy always increases. In other words, life gets more disordered, even more chaotic. However, recently someone won the Nobel Prize for proving an exception, that when there is a closed system that includes life, entropy decreases! Life gives order to chaos. That disproved the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Because of life we get organisation rather than disorder. The universe is a closed system and it has got life in it. That”s why there is organisation.
When I was at university, life was what the physicists called, the ”ghost in the machine”. The ”ghost in the machine” is what messed up all the objective theories. This ghost scared the lab-coats off many a scientist!
Following Beliefs Blindly
This method that we take as science in the universities, in the labs, and in the hospitals often suffers from the same disease as religion dogmatism. You know what religious dogmatism is like. We have a belief and whether it fits with experience or not, whether it”s useful or not, whether it”s conducive to people”s happiness, harmony, and peace in the world or not, we follow it just because that”s our belief. But following beliefs blindly, dogmatically, is just a recipe for violence and suffering.
One of the beautiful things about Buddhism that encouraged me to become a Buddhist when I was young, and which keeps me as a Buddhist now, is that questioning is always encouraged. You do not need to believe. In one of the tales from the ancient texts the Buddha gave a teaching to his chief monk, Venerable Sariputta. After giving the teaching, the Buddha asked his chief monk, "Sariputta, do you believe what I just taught
" Sariputta, without any hesitation, said "No I don”t believe it, because I haven”t experienced it yet". The Buddha said, "Well done! Well done! Well done!" That is the attitude to encourage in all disciples, either of religion or science. Not to believe, but to keep an open mind until they”ve had the true experience. This attitude goes against dogmatism, it runs counter to fundamentalism, which one doesn”t only see in religion, but which one also sees in science.
”The eminence of a great scientist”, the old saying goes, ”is measured by the length of time they obstruct progress in their field”.
The more famous the scientist, the more prominent they are, the more their views are taken to be gospel truth. Their fame stops other people challenging them; it delays the arrival of a better ”truth”. In Buddhism when you find a better truth, use it at once.
The Problem with Dogmatism
There is an old story, from the time of the Buddha, about two friends who went looking for treasure in a town that had been abandoned. (DN 23.29) First they found some hemp and decided to make two bundles of that hemp and carry it away. They would be able to sell it when they got back home. Soon after they had made these big bundles of hemp they came across some hempen cloth. One of the men said, "What do I need the hemp for
The cloth is better". The other man said, "No this is already well bound up, I”ve carried it for so long already, I”ll keep my load of hemp". Then they found some flax, some flaxen cloth, some cotton, and some cotton cloth, and each time the man carrying the hemp said, "No, the hemp is okay for me", while his friend changed his load for that which was more valuable. Later on they found some silver, and then some gold. Each time one man would always change what he was carrying for something better, but the other man stubbornly kept his bundle of hemp. When they got home the man who carried the gold was very popular with his family. As for th…
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