Religion, science and me...

“Take this book. It has all the answers.”

There was a famous gentleman who taught maths in the Italian town of Padua, and of a certain religious text (which happens to be the biggest bestseller of all times) he had one notion which has struck me as, what I can best describe as ‘bold’.

“Written by the ignorant for the ignorant”

This gentleman was Galileo Galilei. It is possible that I am not qualified to quote this long deceased man, for I had to look up the spelling of his name. But, I am qualified to endorse what he said. For I immediately felt a kinship to him, when I read this, whether a person of his stature would feel a similar kinship to me is doubtable. Coming to the issue I did want to address, I wanted to write about the brilliant propogation of the scientific backwaters that is conducted by some religions. That, religion and science, are not bossom buddies, is an irrevocable fact. There was a time when great thinker hesitated to express their views in fear of contradicting the words of this bestseller. For the curious soul, I would like to mention that this bestseller is yet to make its appearance in paperback.

Many people say that the story in this book….you know what… we will give this book a name…lets call it ‘The older promise’ (which eventually was broken by a newer one). Yes, where was I? Ahh..the stories in the book…so some people say that they are only allegorical, but some take it quite literally. I am one of those mere mortals who fail to see the greater message…You can call me an infidel..or something like that…I have always wondered how could you fit all the species in the world on a boat…and sometimes I have wondered which has more truth to it…Jurrasic park or ‘The older promise’. The latter is relevant because if the world was created in seven days….then that leaves very little time for evolution…(Damn Mr. Darwin, that blasphemer!!! How could he suggest that men and monkeys are related. We don’t even look alike!!!)

There was a science book I once read and it spoke of the dating of matter using half lifes of certain radioactive substances. Unless there is some heavy-duty dilation and contraction of time going on, ‘The older promise’ is off by a few billion years when it comes to the concept of genesis…but we all know that time passeth at different speeds in the house of the lord….


Science cannot explain everything, the point is it doesn’t try to…it’s a constant work in progress. There was also once a wide held belief, because ‘The older promise’ said that the earth was at the center of the universe. Along came, Copernicus and blasphemed and then some…what do you know the earth is but an insignificant speck of cosmic dust. The third rock from the sun. Facts upheld have fallen…the book will yet never fall..or will it?