21 Dec 2006 @ 09:26, by Shreepal Singh
The culture of New Civilization is the culture of science. It cannot be otherwise. And, the culture of science is the culture of truth. So far, there is no problem. But the problem arises the moment we are called upon to define the truth according to science. Science stands for truth but this commitment of science to truth is subject to one condition. This condition is that a fact aspiring to be certified by science as truth must fit itself into its rigid frame of (scientific) investigation. This rigid frame of scientific investigation is elegant but a monolithic concept oblivious of its shortcomings. Chiefly, these shortcomings are twofold. Firstly, science by the very nature of things can advance one step at a time. Whenever it encounters a problem, which it is called upon to resolve, it scans the available knowledge on the subject concerned, builds a hypothesis that uses that available knowledge as known factors of the hypothesis and proposes a new hypothetical solution to the problem under study. We know that at the time Newton discovered gravity and laws of its mechanics, it was not possible for science to speculate about gravity as the curvature of space as propounded by Einstein later on. To make this speculation possible, the classical physics needed the deadlock of explanation presented by the so-called Minto Morley dilemma. Today, there are several facts crying for explanation by science but there is no required preceding knowledge available on the foundation of which science could offer a hypothesis. Secondly, science is still classical in its character as opposed to relativistic in nature. It still applies the concepts and techniques in its investigative field that are classical in approach, though theoretically it has accepted the creed of relativity. The moment it applies this relativistic concept in its approach and thinking, all bizarre things happening in Nature would become scientifically possible.
We have dealt with this classical character of scientific investigation in our earlier article (please refer to my article on scientific experiment, hypothesis, theory and law) and it is not necessary to repeat those things here.
In its commitment to truth, science has to realize and admit that there are some facts that are hard realities of truth but are not admitted so solely because they are not amenable to scientific explanation based on present scientific knowledge. This realization and admission on the part of science would enlarge the domain of truth and delimit the scope of “scientific nature” of its investigation. Such an attitude on the part of science would enhance its prestige as truth seeker rather than diminishing its stature because it is truth alone that has given a part of its aura to science.
This realization – the realization that there are some facts that exist there but are not scientific in nature – is already there on the part of science today. Its very movement, that is, the rapid progress of science, is hastening the moment of their admission. The more science uncovers the secret mysteries of Nature, the nearer would be the moment of dawning of New Civilization.
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