Re:The Best is yet to come

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavatas,

Namo Narayana.

 

Sri. Sampath writes:

 

1. There seems to be a serious schism in the basic outlook here isn*t it?

Science seems essentially "forward looking" while Religion seems forever

"backward-looking"?

 

Response:

 

-Whether one thinks the *best is yet to come* or not is a function of his or

her notion of the nature of reality. Given an ordered array of notions about

the nature of reality, from most pragmatic to most idealistic, one can fit the

materialistic notion of reality into the slot designated as most pragmatic and

Vedantic notion of reality into the slot designated as most idealistic (all

other notions fall somewhere in between.)

 

-Thus, a schism is natural; however, the characterization of the schism is not

as simple as outlined in your post (i.e., science versus religion.) While the

materialistic notion and the vedantic notion coincide with the endpoints of the

ordered array, the religious notions falls somewhere in between. Both the

vedantin and the leaders of western religions (Islam and Christian) may not feel

that the best is yet to come, but their reasons for having such an opinion

differ.

 

Aside: (Vedanta is more than a religion; It is a combination of philosophy and

religion. The philosophy of Vedanta represents a rational and systematic

theory, on the nature of the ultimate reality, which gives the Vedanta texts

absolute authority in matters beyond the realm of perception. The religion of

Vedanta is concerned with the means of realizing the ultimate reality. Both are

essential.)

 

ramanuja dasan,

Venkat

KrishNarpaNam