The Dialogue Between Buddhism And Modern Natural Science

Science has been leading the development of human civilization for the past few centuries, bringing not only tremendous progress to individual life and society, but also mass destruction and damage to natural environment. This double-edged effect and spiritual crisis triggered by science's overvaluation of material progress, as well as the schism between reason and faith thus created, is the focus of many scholarly studies. On another vein, during the last century, some have begun to regard religion as a correction and complement to science as people become disillusioned from the dream that science is able to perfect the world. In other words, some believe that religion can give humans what science could not. The more science disappoints people, the more popular this belief may become. Accordingly, reconciling the conflict between religion and science is seen to be an effective solution to the crisis triggered by science and this is therefore enthusiastically studied.Among all religions, Buddhism, possessing the qualities of rationality, comprehensiveness and internal consistency, has been regarded as a rectification of science both in intellectual and moral aspects, and has the best potential to harmonize the relationship between science and religion. Looking through historical development, the relationship between Buddhism and science has been discussed as conflict, ambivalence, complementarity, similarity, mutual-inclusion, independence or identity. Some scholars even assert that Buddhism should not be compared with science because these two are mutually exclusive. A variety of discussions between Buddhism and science show the inherent diverseness and complication of their relationship. However, much of the past discussions on this issue, in the spirit of protecting their own belief or criticizing the opposition, have been based on a non-full-scale survey or superficial understanding, and aimed at investigating theirdifferences and in distinguishing which is superior. In view of the above, the main goal of this dissertation will be to find a friendly interaction between science and Buddhism, in which their connections with each other will be investigated and clarified, and to find a mode of complimentafy cooperation, thus maximizing the positive qualities of both Buddhism and science. A dialogue mode will be adopted to comprehensively probe into the essence of the interaction between Buddhism and modern science in finding a friendly interaction. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the defusing of modern crisis, and make progress in establishing a world view with profound meanings.This dissertation is divided into three parts: review, the dimension of dialogue, and conclusion. The past interactions between Buddhism and science are first reviewed to help us see where we currently stand and to learn from experience. Part two is a comprehensive investigation into different dimensions of the dialogue, focusing on the respective standpoints, theories (principles), and future development.The preface is an introduction to the motivation and purpose of this research, and includes explanations of why Buddhism and science are chosen to be the two sides of the dialogue, and why a dialogue is the right mode for conducting the interaction between Buddhism and science.In the first part—review, Chapter 1 surveys the historical development of the relationship between Buddhism and science by reviewing the relative researches in Western countries, Eastern Japan, and China. In Western countries, starting in late 19th century, Buddhism has been viewed as a new religion which differs in the belief and worship of the God in Christianity, and has gotten along well with science. On the other hand, after science had spread into Japan and China where Buddhism had extensively and maturely developed since ancient times, Buddhism was viewed as an out-of-date tradition and an obstacle to the modernization and progress of the country, and was criticized for having anti-science characteristics. Currently, both in the West and in the East, the further study of Buddhism has been encouraged in order to find the scientific features of Buddhism. The West is interested in the harmony between Buddhism and science and the East is eager to rectify the mistaken belief in Buddhism in order to resolve the conflict between the two. Therefore, one can draw the conclusion that the relation between Buddhism and science depends on what area they are in, and the social background at that time. Moreover, the differencesbetween "the relationship between Buddhism and science" and "the relationship between religion and science" are also discussed in this chapter. Due to the lack of contention with science regarding authority, world views, God Almighty, and reason-or-faith, Buddhism can have a very different mode of interaction with science, one without violence, compared to that of Christianity.The social and cultural background of today will be investigated in chapter 2 to clarify the present and future stand of Buddhism and science. Based on historical experience and the situation today, the meaning, spirit and methods of the dialogue between Buddhism and science are inferred. Being able to solve the spiritual crisis, set up new and constructive values for the new era, and disengage the deadlock between religion and science will be the main purpose of this dialogue. In order to achieve an effective dialogue, the spirit of respecting each other's differences, finding similarities among differences, and sharing insights from each other are indispensable and will be the guiding spirit throughout this research.In the second part—the dimension of dialogue, the dialogue formally proceeds from three aspects.First, the purpose, spirit and methods of Buddhism and science are elaborated to clearly present their bilateral standpoints. Chapter 3 presents their purpose and spirit, and chapter 4 their methods. Thus, the similarities and differences between them will be pointed out; the similarities help establish the basis of the dialogue, whereas the differences indicate possibilities of mutual illumination.The actual dialogue is the exploration of various dimensions of both subjects. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss Buddhism and modern physics; chapter 7, Buddhist view of the universe and modern astronomy, and in chapter 8, Buddhist views of life, living beings and modern life science. In each professional field to be discussed, we will sketch the achievements and constructed knowledge system of Buddhism and science respectively, and then look for likely and illuminating themes to start the dialogue.First, four topics are discussed regarding Buddhism and modern physics: the blueprint of the material world, consciousness and objectivity, existence of matter, and the interrelation among all matters in the universe. Although modern physics studies the structure and principle of matters and physical phenomena, which are different from Buddhism, with its emphasis on consciousness, some of its latestconclusions accidentally provide concrete evidences of Buddhist theory to some extent. The famous thought experiment, "SchrOdinger's Cat," partly illustrates the Buddhist "consciousness-only" principle; "Uncertainty Principle and "probability wave" help illustrate the concept of "emptiness" and "middle way," and the "EPR Paradox" and "Foucault's Pendulum" show the idea of "one is in all and all in one" in the Avamtasaka Sutra. As can be seen, both modern physics with its experimental evidences and Buddhism jointly expose some unusual insights such as: material objects lack substantial existence, are inevitably affected by consciousness, and are relative to each other. Second, in the discussion regarding the construction and evolution of the universe, Buddhism and astronomy complement each other in the appearance of the universe, impermanence, and the arrowhead of time. The similar approaches and concepts of both, such as Anthropic Principle and Karma theory, the birth-and-death of heavenly bodies and impermanence, entropy in the second law of thermodynamics, and evolution of thoughts, agree with each other and explain the human-oriented Universe, the constant motion and change of all phenomena, and the concept of time based on evolution. Finally, in life science, regarding the great controversy over gene-centered research of life, we focus on the topics of the beginning and ending of life, and the creation of life—gene or karma. Through this dialogue, one may see how the complete Buddhist theory of life can bring illumination to modern life science, which is filled with controversy, and point out some possibilities. Also, the Twelve Causal Links of life and death can provide a better explanation of life's beginning and end; the karma theory puts the gene in a new role for recording the past cause but not the true nature of life, and the kindling of awareness could show a worthwhile path to create and elevate life to a higher level.Finally, in chapter 9, the possible development of future dialogues between Buddhism and science is proposed by considering (1) the likely tendency of natural science to turn to the integration of the spiritual and matter, and (2) increasing the emphasis on scientific ethics. In (1) we focus on two aspects: one is chaos theory which has been applied in both natural and social sciences to reform the ingrained philosophy of scientific research; the other is cognitive science which unprecedentedly stretches the research scope of natural science to the study of mind. Both hint that natural science will not deny the existence and influence of mind anymore, and possibly agree with mind-centered Buddhism. How the chaos concepts are implied in Buddhism, and how the function and cognitive process of mind are analyzed from the Buddhist perspective will be specified, so that the vision of a more profound dialogue based on the common research of mind can be proposed.Regarding scientific ethics, what Buddhism may offer to prevent science from causing destruction will be discussed. In this discussion, Buddhism, which advocates compassion to all living beings and being constantly alert in fulfilling compassion and ethic requirements, can supply an ethical rule to science. Without hindering the development of science, the ethical rule proposed by Buddhism will be a preventive measure for violating ethics and human rights. Therefore, we may expect natural science to encompass the research of mind and open up a profound dialogue between Buddhist and science in the future, and the need for scientific ethics may facilitate the sustaining of the dialogue.The third part, chapter 10, draws conclusion on the substantive meaning and achievements of this dialogue between Buddhism and modern science, according to the discussion regarding possibility, content and future development of the dialogue in the second part.In conclusion, the friendly interaction between Buddhism and natural science is proposed by using a dialogue mode. With the proof of the possibility of the dialogue by considering bilateral purposes, spirit and methods, we develop the dialogue on the issues of matter, the universe, and life, and show future possibilities based on the anticipated prospect of natural science on mind research and ethics. From this extensive discussion, this dialogue shows that Buddhism and natural science can inspire each other. Science provides Buddhism with evidence and Buddhism offers science intrinsic value and understanding, thus attaining profound insights into the reality of this world.