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. Charles Darwin was the first to propound theory of evolution at the physical level by means of natural selection. Darwins theory concerns biological evolution, at the physical or bodily level. It does not concern evolution at the level of the psyche or consciousness. Darwin propounded survival of species at the biological level through process of adaptation. However, 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. Darwin had proposed that those who survive in the conflict are the only fittest ones. But, it is now accepted that both conflict and cooperation gives birth to co-evolution at the biological level. The evolution at the psyche level is the subject matter of another field known as Evolutionary Psychology. Evolutionary psychology deals with evolution of memory, perception, language, cognition, thinking, and feeling. Sensation, perception and conception are part of evolutionary growth in the psyche. From Amoeba to Man, the evolution is from sensation to conception at the psyche level. Man has become conscious. Man is more conscious than the preceding life forms. There are several attributes of man, which is not part of the animal world. For example, man is the only animal who rapes. No animal ever rapes except man. Man is the only rapist animal in the world. Aristotle defined man as a rational being. However, animals can also reason in their own way, the difference is only of degree. Another mysterious attribute of man is laughter. No animal laughs, no trees laughonly man laughs. Laughter is the most mysterious thing in man. It is the super most glory of man. Man can be defined as the only laughing and weeping animal. Anger exists all over. Sex exists all over. It is not so mysterious. If we want to understand sex, we can understand animal sex. All that is applicable to animal sex will be applicable to man. Anger, violence, aggression, possessiveness, jealousy everything exists in animals more purely than human beings. But everything is confused in man. That is why behaviourists study rats to study mans behaviour. But, rats cannot laugh, they cannot weep. Laughter and weeping exists 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. This is the distinctive quality of human mind.

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All animals are serious, and all serious people are animals. Similarly, boredom and restlessness is another distinctive quality of man. Only man feels bored because only man is conscious. The more sensitive we are the more alert, the more bored we feel, and a mediocre mind does not feel bored. Consciousness is the cause of sensitivity, emotion, feelings. Further, no animal can commit suicide. It is only mans prerogative to commit suicide. Anguish, anxiety, moods, boredom, laughter, sadness etc make man different from other life forms. These are human qualities. Man suffers because of this dilemma. To be or not to remains an eternal question for man. This dilemma of man is beautifully described in Srimad Bhagvat Gita. Man is a duality between past and future. The past means animal and the future means divine. Between the two, man is torn apart. Science deals with the animal in man, the dead past. Charles Darwin and others look at the man as evolving from animals; they deal only with the past. There concern is not with the potential in man, the divinity that he can become. Religion looks into mans possibility and finds man is not only animal, but also divine: man is God. Both are true. The conflict between science and religion is futile. Their directions, their methods of work, their fields are very different. Man can find peace only in two ways: 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. But one fundamental law has to be understood, nothing can go backwards. Time does not move backwards. The 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. Hence, all efforts of man to become animals and find peace are doomed to fail. Through alcohol, drugs, sex one can momentarily drown human sufferings, become animal but that would be momentary only. The only way is to grow towards divine; the only way is to move forward. But religion is not a welcome enquiry. It is boring. Therefore, faith has to be developed. Faith is often understood as Trust. That is not correct. A faith based on belief is blind; faith that grows out of intense enquiry becomes experience and an unshakable trust. Belief is intellectual; faith is emotional, intuitive, of the heart. With reason duality remains. Science means reason, doubt; religion means trust, faith. Reason cannot be of any help in the inner discipline. Belief is infra-rational, it is minus reason, supra-rational is a plus thing, and it is plus reason. Supra-rational is trust. For a supra-rational man, life is more than reason. Reason is accepted, there is no denial of it. Reason is good as far as it goes, it has to be used, but life is not finished there.

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Life is a bigger thing; reason is only a part of it. Belief is borrowed; trust is earned by ones inner growth. Trust has no element of doubt in it, belief creates a division, one part of the mind believes, the other part denies. Belief is always in somebody elses ideology, trust is our own potentiality. Organized religions are belief systems; they do not allow reason or enquiry about truth. Science can conclusively prove that realty is not based upon any belief system. That is why science can shake the foundation of any belief system because it concludes through experimentation. That is why heliocentric theory of Galileo was finally accepted although he suffered inquisition and was forced to spend his life under house arrest due to opposition from the Church. So was Charles Darwin who by propounding the theory of evolution created doubt in the scripture against the statement that it was God who created man in his own image. The latest discovery of God-particle is once again a movement in the same direction of denying God as a creator. Reason and Science have shaken the very foundation of organised religions belief system. Man is therefore in a dilemma. If he follows the established system of belief in God, he is, to some extent, relieved of his responsibility in times of grief and misery. But, if man follows science, it does not help him because science only contradicts established faith, it does not provide any solution to the human anxiety and misery. That is the tragedy before the modern man. The two world wars have shaken faith in scriptures and a benevolent God. God appears to be cruel and not benevolent. That is why Friedrich Nietzsche had to make the statement that God is dead. Science has failed to provide any solution to human misery. Trust is neither a belief system nor a part of scientific reasoning. Yes, reasoning and science can definitely help in our understanding the world of matter, the world of objects. And, through this understanding man can move ahead to understand the human psyche and the consciousness. Quantum mechanics has helped to improve our understanding of matter. Matter is no longer viewed as a thing, a substance. Matter underneath is pure energy, a movement, a process, non-substantial. Therefore, the Aristotelian logic of cause and effect in the world of objects has given way to the Principle of uncertainty in the microscopic world of things. Science no longer speaks in terms of certainty. Its language is more of a mystic now than that of the Aristotle. Mystics language is not that of the ordinary human logic. Mind thinks in linear terms, from point A to point B to point C, Mystic takes a quantum jump from A to C without passing through B. Life is not linear; it takes quantum leap that is why it is not comprehensible by the ordinary human mind. Trust in existence goes against the mind, because mind chooses and trust is choice less. What is, is, and cannot be otherwise. That is trust. That is the whole truth, not partial truth of the world of science and reasoning.

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