Meandering through hinduism and science

We are taught from a very early age to believe that everything is made up of something. Then we learn that it is possible to discover the basic building blocks. Classical science talks about matter being made up of something, while the concept of matter assumes that

there is something called “nothing”. After all the basic definition of matter is something that occupies space … or makes a dent in a three dimensional vacuum. Of course, “pure vacuum” exists only in outer space.

There is a natural human tendency to seek order, a tendency borne out of a primeval need:

self-preservation, and when one surrounds oneself with the known it is less threatening.

In 1962 Thomas Kuhn wrote a book entitled “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” in which he stated that scientists work in a system, which he called “normal science”. In normal science, the theories are accepted without question, and most research is intent on finding different applications for the accepted theory. The theoretical system is a “paradigm” which everyone assumes is true. After a while some problems arise in trying to apply the paradigm, but this does not shake the confidence in the theory. Only when a significant number of problems pile up does a “revolution” occur. In this revolution

the entire paradigm or theoretical system is discarded and a new paradigm or theoretical system is brought in. Everything must now be interpreted in light of the new paradigm. Then this new paradigm becomes the “normal science” and everyone assumes it is true. Atleast till another theory comes along.

Kuhn’s philosophy was quite different from the previous approach, which stated that science progressed by gradually building on previous work.

Kuhn’s philosophy stated that it was a revolutionary, not a gradual approach which scientific development used.

It seems to be proved by the revolution that Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity caused. The theory showed that mass is a form of energy.

“Energy is a dynamic quantity associated with some form of activity or process”

Sticking with this definition for the time being, instead of thinking of a particle as a static object, we must think of a particle as a dynamic pattern of energy. Going further, it would mean that there is a finite amount of energy involved in a process that manifests

itself to us as mass, a manifestation we recognize as a particle, be it an electron or positron or whatever.

Now it might make sense of actually stopping thinking of everything around us as specific things but as manifestations of energy processes. There is nothing but energy. We are all energy. And there is no beginning and no end .. energy was not created and energy will not die out.

This ties in with the Hindu idea of the universe if a parallel can be drawn with the holy trinity of brahma (the omniscient/theunchanging), vishnu (the creator), shiva/mahesh (the destroyer).

For a moment let us consider the laws of thermodynamics.

The laws of thermodynamics are special laws that sit above the ordinary laws of nature as laws about laws or laws upon which the other laws depend (Swenson & Turvey, 1991)

According the the first law or the law of energy conservation all real-world processes involve transformations of energy, and that the total amount of energy is always conserved.

Basically, the amount of energy in the university is constant. Energy can change from one form to the other thus both creating new forms and destroying old forms. At the end of the

day the forms have no substance in isolation.

Which sounds a lot like the concept of “maya”.

Originally published on ] t h i n k [ (tootb.blogspot.com); recovered from the Wayback Machine.