Truth is generally believed to the understanding of a Fact , Event , reporting them.
Truth Quote Mahatma Gandhi.
The attributes of Reality are Truth Consciousness and Bliss, as enumerated in Indian Philosophy.other Religions , Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity,Judaism and Islam also speak of these as the Attributes of God, though by different names.
When one thinks of Truth, speaking what is, what is a Fact, is what one comes to one’s Mind.
Life does not consist of only Speech.
One performs actions, which repeated become Habits, and then there is the Thought process.
Where do we find Truth in these and what are its characteristics?
Truth is perceived from the perspective of the individual.
Everyone looks at it or reports it from one’s angle.
Then what is Truth?
Truth has many facets or perspectives which can be perceived and in fact is perceived to suit one’s dispositions.
How does one find the attributes of Truth is all its glory?
Hinduism classifies Truth into Twelve Categories,Types.
This is explained in the Bruhat Purana.
They are:
1.Amityavada-Not speaking facts.
Here again there is a problem.
There are times when speaking the fact harms the speaker , the listener and those who are not involved in any way.
One can not afford to speak at all times to every one at any place.
There are instances when keeping quiet or divulging information in such a way that it does not hurt any one involved.
This post is meant for people who believe in God , not for those who believe in Love, though not have seen it,yet deny God.
We in our normal lives, imagine we have no time to think of God,( yet we do have time for TV and Politics); it is much more difficult to think of God when we lie dying when your senses are leaving you and you are in pain.
Bhagavad Gita Sloka.
Hindu Sastras declare that one becomes what one thinks of at the time of Death.
So the Sastras enjoin one to name their children in the name of God.
By calling out to them,though you do not mean it,you call out God and He remembers, for Fire will singe you whether you are aware of it or not.
What name is to call out as Death stalks.
The One who guides you at and after Death is Lord Vishnu, the protector.
He is the Ultimate Ruler of Death in His Name Govinda.
Govinda is the name which is very dear to Lord Krishna, an Avatar of Vishnu.
The name is to be called out.
When and if you can not call this Name. those around you are required to recite the Vishnu Sahasranama or Om NamaSivaya.
Yet there is an important ceremony to be performed by the eldest son at the time of Death of his parents.
He is to keep the head of the parent at the time of dying on his left thigh and chant this mantra.
sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah
Abandon all varieties of Religion, Dharma and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction and grant you Salvation. Do not fear.
Here Lord Krishna uses the rarely used form of address to speak to Arjuna.
That is ‘Ma Sucha’
This is a term of endearment by a Father to his son.
Krishna does not use this term anywhere to address Arjuna , in the Mahabharata, not did he use this term to anybody in the Puranas, including His children.
At one point Krishna declares in the Bhagavad Gita that it is very difficult to understand the term Dharma or its implications , under different circumstances.
Dharma may be loosely translated as Righteousness; it is much more than this, please read The Gita.
The Different types of Dharma.
Varna Dharma. Duties prescribed for your natural disposition.
Asrama Dharma, Duties applicable to your station in life, as a Bachelor, Married Man, semi retired from family and totally renounced.
Duties are also prescribed for special circumstances.
And there are exceptions too!
When Krishna says leave all Karmas, He means that one should mentally renounce the fruits of actions, better still even the performance of Action
This is the Karna Mantra.
Of all the senses, at the time of Natural death, the ears give out first.
So at the early signs of death’s approach, this mantra is to recited.
Those who call themselves Rationalists say they disprove God by a mere statement that God does not Exist.
They declare that They can not perceive Him, so He does not Exist
This often is the One Liner Argument.
Other than this their arguments are in the form of rebuttal and abuse and ridicule of those who say God exists.
Let me examine how constructive the arguments are for disproving God.
Let us begin at the Philosophical Level.
1.Perception.
One can not see God, hear Him feel Him, so He does not exist.
This argument belongs to Perception as a means of Knowledge.
If one were to accept this yardstick of one experiencing every thing by oneself, then one can not prove anything.
One can not prove he will die for he has not experienced Death.
One can not prove Hunger, Sex for One does not see hear these.
Rather one feels.
Feelings by themselves are not perceivable.
They are known by their external manifestations, like being Happy, Sad.
Feelings are inferred.
Again senses themselves are not infallible.
Renes Descartes , in his masterly analysis, quotes the experience of senses thus.
You keep your hands in cold water for five minutes, then dip them in Hot water,
The warmth takes longer to become effective when compared to normal circumstances.
One can do this the other way, keep them in warm water and dip later in cold water.
Here, what exactly the senses convey and which one is correct?
If one were to say I am aware that I dipped my hands in hot/cold water earlier,therefore I am able to distinguish the error of my understanding her.
The fact that you understand that there was an error, means the senses do commit errors .
Are the perceptions of things the same for every one for a particular object?
For that matter, are we,or our senses consistent in conveying the information to us?
How does a Blind Man prove there is Light?
If you admit the has deficiency. one can also say we also have deficiencies in perceiving things for which our senses are not equipped.
Do we Perceive Atoms?
Do we see air?
The earlier we do believe in, because Science tell us so.
In the latter, we feel air.
So we proceed to the next instrument of Knowledge, perception being inadequate.
(for more on Perception, read my post on Perception under Indian Philosophy,Hinduism)
2.Testimony.
Atheists dismiss the Testimony as being not proven.
Reason?
They are not proved or authentic.
One does not know his Great Grand Father.
We do believe he lived.
Because our Fathers have told us.
Similarly one has to believe in Testimony unless proved otherwise by personal experience , not by Logic alone for Logic is faulty.I shall discuss it here later)
What is the authenticity we are talking about?
Support by other Books?
If we can not believe the earlier ones, why should we believe in the latter?
How does one learn a Language?
Through others, Testimony.
Why do we not deny Language?
Because we feel it is essential
Who gave you names for things and why should they be correct .
If you deny Testimony as a source of Knowledge, you should deny tit altogether.
Not in bits and pieces as it suits you.
3.Inference.
Inference is built on Logic.
What is Logic built on?
Mind, which you have not seen or can perceive.
This is Logical?
If one were to say that the Mind is perceived because of its functions or effects, then one should also believe in God as the primary Cause.
In Logic there are two vital elements,
One is induction and another is Deduction.
Induction is the process by which you come to a general statement(Genus).
The next is Deduction, which proceeds by linking the Genus to individual case.
Let us see an example.
All men are mortal.
Socrates is Man.
Therefore He is Mortal.
The General Statement that All Men are Mortal does not conform to Logic.
We have not checked all the things that were born, are born or would be born and verified that once born they are certain to die.
This is called the Inductive Leap.
On what basis in this allowed?
Logic again depends on the Law of Uniformity of Nature.
Law of Uniformity can not be proved for the same reason as in the Syllogism stated above.
There is no guarantee that The Gravitational Force will be there to-morrow.
Law of Causality is again built on The Law of Uniformity of Nature.
Moreover, One Cause may produce more than one result and one result may be due to many Causes.
How does one link a particular Cause and Effect?
I shall be writing on this from the Indian Philosophical point of view, Parinama Vada and Vivarta Vada later as it is a complicated topic.
I shall be dealing with the other instruments of Knowledge like Intuition in the future, along with rebuttal for Atheists 50 Arguments point by point.
It might also of interest to know what the basis is for Axioms ,.
Those are assumptions of Science that can not be questioned.
They give it a fancy name for it,
‘Self Evident’
If science is perfect and the end of all, why so frequently it changes its Theories?
So far as information goes, the Scientists have been rushing in ships, planes the moment a Solar eclipse is announced, with a pompous statement that the investigation would solve many mysteries of the Sun and enhance our knowledge of the Sun.
Yet the information about the Sun is the same as it was .when I was in High School, in the early sixties.
Creative Giants like Shakespeare, Milton,William Wordsworth,
Great Military strategists Alexander the Great,Napoleon Bonaparte.
I am deliberately omitting fools like Sri Adi Shankaracharya,Varahamihira, Arya Bhatta,Charaka,Vararuchi, Susrutha,Kalidasa,Patanjali …….
It is easy for a fool to deny.
It requires wisdom to prove.
It is easier to deny facts by saying I have not seen it.
But one believes in a great Grand Father whom one has not seen.
They have not defined what Religion is in this Study. but they define Religiosity.
Seems that they have taken Christianity as the basis.
And what are the representative sample of Culture,Ethnicity parameters that have been taken into account?
Einstein On God.
”
A piece of University of Rochester analysis, led by Professor Miron Zuckerman, found “a reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity” in 53 out of 63 studies.
In old age above average intelligence people are less likely to believe, the researchers also found.
One of the studies used in Zuckerman’s paper was a life-long analysis of the beliefs of 1,500 gifted children with with IQs over 135.
The study began in 1921 and continues today. Even in extreme old age the subjects had much lower levels of religious belief than the average population.
The review, which is the first systematic meta-analysis of the 63 studies conducted in between 1928 and 2012, showed that of the 63 studies, 53 showed a negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity, while 10 showed a positive one.
Only two studies showed significant positive correlations and significant negative correlations were seen in a total of 35 studies.
Religiosity is defined by the psychologists as involvement in some (or all) facets of religion.
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)
Copernicus was the Polish astronomer who put forward the first mathematically based system of planets going around the sun. He attended various European universities, and became a Canon in the Catholic church in 1497. His new system was actually first presented in the Vatican gardens in 1533 before Pope Clement VII who approved, and urged Copernicus to publish it around this time. Copernicus was never under any threat of religious persecution – and was urged to publish both by Catholic Bishop Guise, Cardinal Schonberg, and the Protestant Professor George Rheticus. Copernicus referred sometimes to God in his works, and did not see his system as in conflict with the Bible.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1627)
Bacon was a philosopher who is known for establishing the scientific method of inquiry based on experimentation and inductive reasoning. In De Interpretatione Naturae Prooemium, Bacon established his goals as being the discovery of truth, service to his country, and service to the church. Although his work was based upon experimentation and reasoning, he rejected atheism as being the result of insufficient depth of philosophy, stating, “It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.” (Of Atheism)
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Kepler was a brilliant mathematician and astronomer. He did early work on light, and established the laws of planetary motion about the sun. He also came close to reaching the Newtonian concept of universal gravity – well before Newton was born! His introduction of the idea of force in astronomy changed it radically in a modern direction. Kepler was an extremely sincere and pious Lutheran, whose works on astronomy contain writings about how space and the heavenly bodies represent the Trinity. Kepler suffered no persecution for his open avowal of the sun-centered system, and, indeed, was allowed as a Protestant to stay in Catholic Graz as a Professor (1595-1600) when other Protestants had been expelled!
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Galileo is often remembered for his conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. His controversial work on the solar system was published in 1633. It had no proofs of a sun-centered system (Galileo’s telescope discoveries did not indicate a moving earth) and his one “proof” based upon the tides was invalid. It ignored the correct elliptical orbits of planets published twenty five years earlier by Kepler. Since his work finished by putting the Pope’s favorite argument in the mouth of the simpleton in the dialogue, the Pope (an old friend of Galileo’s) was very offended. After the “trial” and being forbidden to teach the sun-centered system, Galileo did his most useful theoretical work, which was on dynamics. Galileo expressly said that the Bible cannot err, and saw his system as an alternate interpretation of the biblical texts.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Descartes was a French mathematician, scientist and philosopher who has been called the father of modern philosophy. His school studies made him dissatisfied with previous philosophy: He had a deep religious faith as a Roman Catholic, which he retained to his dying day, along with a resolute, passionate desire to discover the truth. At the age of 24 he had a dream, and felt the vocational call to seek to bring knowledge together in one system of thought. His system began by asking what could be known if all else were doubted – suggesting the famous “I think therefore I am”. Actually, it is often forgotten that the next step for Descartes was to establish the near certainty of the existence of God – for only if God both exists and would not want us to be deceived by our experiences – can we trust our senses and logical thought processes. God is, therefore, central to his whole philosophy. What he really wanted to see was that his philosophy be adopted as standard Roman Catholic teaching. Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon (1561-1626) are generally regarded as the key figures in the development of scientific methodology. Both had systems in which God was important, and both seem more devout than the average for their era.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and theologian. In mathematics, he published a treatise on the subject of projective geometry and established the foundation for probability theory. Pascal invented a mechanical calculator, and established the principles of vacuums and the pressure of air. He was raised a Roman Catholic, but in 1654 had a religious vision of God, which turned the direction of his study from science to theology. Pascal began publishing a theological work,Lettres provinciales, in 1656. His most influential theological work, the Pensées (“Thoughts”), was a defense of Christianity, which was published after his death. The most famous concept from Pensées was Pascal’s Wager. Pascal’s last words were, “May God never abandon me.”
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
In optics, mechanics, and mathematics, Newton was a figure of undisputed genius and innovation. In all his science (including chemistry) he saw mathematics and numbers as central. What is less well known is that he was devoutly religious and saw numbers as involved in understanding God’s plan for history from the Bible. He did a considerable work on biblical numerology, and, though aspects of his beliefs were not orthodox, he thought theology was very important. In his system of physics, God was essential to the nature and absoluteness of space. In Principia he stated, “The most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”
Robert Boyle (1791-1867)
One of the founders and key early members of the Royal Society, Boyle gave his name to “Boyle’s Law” for gases, and also wrote an important work on chemistry. Encyclopedia Britannica says of him: “By his will he endowed a series of Boyle lectures, or sermons, which still continue, ‘for proving the Christian religion against notorious infidels…’ As a devout Protestant, Boyle took a special interest in promoting the Christian religion abroad, giving money to translate and publish the New Testament into Irish and Turkish. In 1690 he developed his theological views in The Christian Virtuoso, which he wrote to show that the study of nature was a central religious duty.” Boyle wrote against atheists in his day (the notion that atheism is a modern invention is a myth), and was clearly much more devoutly Christian than the average in his era.
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Michael Faraday was the son of a blacksmith who became one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. His work on electricity and magnetism not only revolutionized physics, but led to much of our lifestyles today, which depends on them (including computers and telephone lines and, so, web sites). Faraday was a devoutly Christian member of the Sandemanians, which significantly influenced him and strongly affected the way in which he approached and interpreted nature. Originating from Presbyterians, the Sandemanians rejected the idea of state churches, and tried to go back to a New Testament type of Christianity.
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
Mendel was the first to lay the mathematical foundations of genetics, in what came to be called “Mendelianism”. He began his research in 1856 (three years before Darwin published his Origin of Species) in the garden of the Monastery in which he was a monk. Mendel was elected Abbot of his Monastery in 1868. His work remained comparatively unknown until the turn of the century, when a new generation of botanists began finding similar results and “rediscovered” him (though their ideas were not identical to his). An interesting point is that the 1860’s was notable for formation of the X-Club, which was dedicated to lessening religious influences and propagating an image of “conflict” between science and religion. One sympathizer was Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton, whose scientific interest was in genetics (a proponent of eugenics – selective breeding among humans to “improve” the stock). He was writing how the “priestly mind” was not conducive to science while, at around the same time, an Austrian monk was making the breakthrough in genetics. The rediscovery of the work of Mendel came too late to affect Galton’s contribution.
William Thomson Kelvin (1824-1907)
Kelvin was foremost among the small group of British scientists who helped to lay the foundations of modern physics. His work covered many areas of physics, and he was said to have more letters after his name than anyone else in the Commonwealth, since he received numerous honorary degrees from European Universities, which recognized the value of his work. He was a very committed Christian, who was certainly more religious than the average for his era. Interestingly, his fellow physicists George Gabriel Stokes (1819-1903) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) were also men of deep Christian commitment, in an era when many were nominal, apathetic, or anti-Christian. The Encyclopedia Britannica says “Maxwell is regarded by most modern physicists as the scientist of the 19th century who had the greatest influence on 20th century physics; he is ranked with Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein for the fundamental nature of his contributions.” Lord Kelvin was anOld Earth creationist, who estimated the Earth’s age to be somewhere between 20 million and 100 million years, with an upper limit at 500 million years based on cooling rates (a low estimate due to his lack of knowledge about radiogenic heating).
Max Planck (1858-1947)
Planck made many contributions to physics, but is best known for quantum theory, which revolutionized our understanding of the atomic and sub-atomic worlds. In his 1937 lecture “Religion and Naturwissenschaft,” Planck expressed the view that God is everywhere present, and held that “the holiness of the unintelligible Godhead is conveyed by the holiness of symbols.” Atheists, he thought, attach too much importance to what are merely symbols. Planck was a churchwarden from 1920 until his death, and believed in an almighty, all-knowing, beneficent God (though not necessarily a personal one). Both science and religion wage a “tireless battle against skepticism and dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition” with the goal “toward God!”
Scientists who were Atheists.
Ernst Abbe (1840–1905): German physicist, optometrist, entrepreneur, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he laid the foundation of modernoptics. Abbe developed numerous optical instruments. He was a co-owner of Carl Zeiss AG, a German manufacturer of research microscopes, astronomical telescopes, planetariums and other optical systems.[1]
Zhores Alferov (1930–): Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed significantly to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics. He is an inventor of the heterotransistor and the winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.[2][3]
* I have received quite a few comments, most of them to my email personally.
In general, people seem to agree.
Probably they feel it is embarrassing to them to state this in Public,as this, I feel unnecessarily.
Those who disagree, in email and in the comments, do not address the points I have raised in the post.
One comment says that
”
Science is a process, not a body of knowledge. Theories change because scientists continue to learn more about nature. Religion is the opposite of science. Religion does not require evidence.
Of course, many scientists believe in God. That does not prove that God exists; it just means that scientists are human and look to faith when they reach the limits of their knowledge.”
I am replying this in the Post rather than in the Comments to enable readers to respond to the thought.
That ‘Science is not a body of Knowledge’ is new to me.
Precisely what I am driving at.
Science is an attempt to understand with a system.
Philosophy is called the Mother of all Sciences as it examines the fundamentals of Science.
Religion is not the opposite of Science.
It supplements Science,especially Indian Philosophy.
Religion provides Proof.
We do not follow the methodology while we do it for Science.
Religion is the understanding of the self and the Universe with what one possesses ,which Science does not attempt to examine.
There are reports that a new language is being formed.
Residents of Lajamanu in remote Australia speak a new language which is exciting linguists around the world. Picture: News Limited. Source: News Limited T’S spoken only by a few hundred people living in a tiny desert community, and almost exclusively by those under the age of 35. But the discovery of a new language in remote Australia is causing a ripple of excitement among linguists around the world. Lajamanu, with a population of around 850, lies on the northern fringe of the Tanami Desert, 870 kilometres south of Darwin and 560kms southwest of Katherine by road. It is one of the Northern Territory’s most westerly communities and its original language, Warlpiri, is spoken by about 6000 people in the region.
“The striking thing about Light Warlpiri is that most of the verbs come from English or Kriol, but most of the other grammatical elements in the sentence come from Warlpiri,” O’Shannessy told LiveScience.
Lajamanu is essentially an isolated enclave. There are no fully paved roads, and a small plane delivers the mail each week. A supply truck also visits once a week to deliver goods to the town’s only store.
Walpiri itself is spoken by only about 6,000 people in the region, according to the Daily Telegraph. Kriol is another language recently created in Australia, first spoken in the country’s Northern Territory and Western Australia in the 1800s.
O’Shannessy says Light Warlpiri likely originated when workers from Lajamanu were employed on nearby cattle ranches. When those workers returned home, they began speaking in a mixture of Warlpiri, English and Kriol that eventually evolved into its own language.”
How does a Language originate?
I am not entering into a Linguistics Discussion nor a detailed study of the subject, but a simple fact.
sarva-dharman–all varieties of Dharma; parityajya–abandoning;mam–unto Me; ekam–only; saranam–surrender; vraja–go; aham–I;tvam–you; sarva–all; papebhyah–from sinful reactions; moksayisyami–deliver; ma–not; sucah–worry.
Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and theologian. In mathematics, he published a treatise on the subject of projective geometry and established the foundation for probability theory. Pascal invented a mechanical calculator, and established the principles of vacuums and the pressure of air. He was raised a Roman Catholic, but in 1654 had a religious vision of God, which turned the direction of his study from science to theology. Pascal began publishing a theological work,Lettres provinciales, in 1656. His most influential theological work, the Pensées (“Thoughts”), was a defense of Christianity, which was published after his death. The most famous concept from Pensées was 
You must be logged in to post a comment.