Belief, Reason and Trust

Vishnu Ratna What is man? What makes man different from rest of the living beings on this planet? Is it biology? Is it Psychology? In the entire evolution of life on this planet, man is the culmination of natures mechanical process of collective biological evolution. Evolution takes place at two levels, biological physical! and psychic mental!.Evolution at the physical level is collective, biological. "harles #arwin was the first to propound theory of evolution at the physical level by means of natural selection. #arwins theory concerns biological evolution, at the physical or bodily level. It does not concern evolution at the level of the psyche or consciousness. #arwin propounded survival of species at the biological level through process of adaptation. $owever, later discoveries proved that natural selection is not the only cause of adaptation and evolution% there are other non&adaptive causes such as mutation and genetic shifts. #arwin had proposed that those who survive in the conflict are the only fittest ones. 'ut, it is now accepted that both conflict and cooperation gives birth to co&evolution at the biological level. (he evolution at the psyche level is the sub)ect matter of another field known as *Evolutionary Psychology+. Evolutionary psychology deals with evolution of memory, perception, language, cognition, thinking, and feeling. ,ensation, perception and conception are part of evolutionary growth in the psyche. -rom .moeba to /an, the evolution is from sensation to conception at the psyche level. /an has become conscious. /an is more conscious than the preceding life forms. (here are several attributes of man, which is not part of the animal world. -or e0ample, man is the only animal who rapes. 1o animal ever rapes e0cept man. /an is the only rapist animal in the world. .ristotle defined man as a rational being. $owever, animals can also reason in their own way, the difference is only of degree. .nother mysterious attribute of man is laughter. 1o animal laughs, no trees laugh& only man laughs. 2aughter is the most mysterious thing in man. It is the super most glory of man. /an can be defined as the only laughing and weeping animal. .nger e0ists all over. ,e0 e0ists all over. It is not so mysterious. If we want to understand se0, we can understand animal se0. .ll that is applicable to animal se0 will be applicable to man. .nger, violence, aggression, possessiveness, )ealousy everything e0ists in animals more purely than human beings. 'ut everything is confused in man. (hat is why behaviourists study rats to study mans behaviour. 'ut, rats cannot laugh, they cannot weep. 2aughter and weeping e0ists only in man. If we have to study laughter and weeping, we have to study humanity% there is no other way it can be studied. (his is the distinctive 3uality of human mind.

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.ll animals are serious, and all serious people are animals. ,imilarly, boredom and restlessness is another distinctive 3uality of man. 6nly man feels bored because only man is conscious. (he more sensitive we are the more alert, the more bored we feel, and a mediocre mind does not feel bored. "onsciousness is the cause of sensitivity, emotion, feelings. -urther, no animal can commit suicide. It is only mans prerogative to commit suicide. .nguish, an0iety, moods, boredom, laughter, sadness etc make man different from other life forms. (hese are human 3ualities. /an suffers because of this dilemma. *(o be or not to+ remains an eternal 3uestion for man. (his dilemma of man is beautifully described in ,rimad 'hagvat 7ita. /an is a duality between past and future. (he past means animal and the future means divine. 'etween the two, man is torn apart. ,cience deals with the animal in man, the dead past. "harles #arwin and others look at the man as evolving from animals% they deal only with the past. (here concern is not with the potential in man, the divinity that he can become. 8eligion looks into mans possibility and finds man is not only animal, but also divine9 man is 7od. 'oth are true. (he conflict between science and religion is futile. (heir directions, their methods of work, their fields are very different. /an can find peace only in two ways9 he becomes an animal again& then he will be one, then there will be no division, then again their will be peace, silence and harmony. 'ut one fundamental law has to be understood, nothing can go backwards. (ime does not move backwards. (he trees cannot be reduced back to the original seed. Evolution goes on and on and there is no way to prevent it or force it backwards. $ence, all efforts of man to become animals and find peace are doomed to fail. (hrough alcohol, drugs, se0 one can momentarily drown human sufferings, become animal but that would be momentary only. (he only way is to grow towards divine% the only way is to move forward. 'ut religion is not a welcome en3uiry. It is boring. (herefore, faith has to be developed. -aith is often understood as (rust. (hat is not correct. . faith based on belief is blind% faith that grows out of intense en3uiry becomes e0perience and an unshakable trust. 'elief is intellectual% faith is emotional, intuitive, of the heart. With reason duality remains. ,cience means reason, doubt% religion means trust, faith. 8eason cannot be of any help in the inner discipline. 'elief is infra&rational, it is minus reason, supra&rational is a plus thing, and it is plus reason. ,upra&rational is trust. -or a supra&rational man, life is more than reason. 8eason is accepted, there is no denial of it. 8eason is good as far as it goes, it has to be used, but life is not finished there.

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2ife is a bigger thing% reason is only a part of it. 'elief is borrowed% trust is earned by ones inner growth. (rust has no element of doubt in it, belief creates a division, one part of the mind believes, the other part denies. 'elief is always in somebody elses ideology, trust is our own potentiality. 6rgani;ed religions are belief systems% they do not allow reason or en3uiry about truth. ,cience can conclusively prove that realty is not based upon any belief system. (hat is why science can shake the foundation of any belief system because it concludes through e0perimentation. (hat is why heliocentric theory of 7alileo was finally accepted although he suffered in3uisition and was forced to spend his life under house arrest due to opposition from the "hurch. ,o was "harles #arwin who by propounding the theory of evolution created doubt in the scripture against the statement that it was 7od who created man in his own image. (he latest discovery of *7od&particle+ is once again a movement in the same direction of denying 7od as a creator. 8eason and ,cience have shaken the very foundation of organised religions belief system. /an is therefore in a dilemma. If he follows the established system of belief in 7od, he is, to some e0tent, relieved of his responsibility in times of grief and misery. 'ut, if man follows science, it does not help him because science only contradicts established faith, it does not provide any solution to the human an0iety and misery. (hat is the tragedy before the modern man. (he two world wars have shaken faith in scriptures and a benevolent 7od. 7od appears to be cruel and not benevolent. (hat is why -riedrich 1iet;sche had to make the statement that 7od is dead. ,cience has failed to provide any solution to human misery. (rust is neither a belief system nor a part of scientific reasoning. <es, reasoning and science can definitely help in our understanding the world of matter, the world of ob)ects. .nd, through this understanding man can move ahead to understand the human psyche and the consciousness. =uantum mechanics has helped to improve our understanding of matter. /atter is no longer viewed as a *thing+, a *substance+. /atter underneath is pure energy, a movement, a process, non&substantial. (herefore, the .ristotelian logic of cause and effect in the world of ob)ects has given way to the *Principle of uncertainty+ in the microscopic world of things. ,cience no longer speaks in terms of certainty. Its language is more of a mystic now than that of the .ristotle. /ystics language is not that of the ordinary human logic. /ind thinks in linear terms, from point . to point ' to point ">, /ystic takes a 3uantum )ump from . to " without passing through '. 2ife is not linear% it takes 3uantum leap that is why it is not comprehensible by the ordinary human mind. (rust in e0istence goes against the mind, because mind chooses and trust is choice less. What is, is, and cannot be otherwise. (hat is trust. (hat is the whole truth, not partial truth of the world of science and reasoning.

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