Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Science Explained

I was looking up Ayurveda, and was surprised to read that veda means "science!" Not a science that changes its theories and its findings every few years based on theory, experiment, and outcome - no. Not that sort of science. The science of Veda is an ageless, eternal knowledge built on siddhantas - fundamental unchanging principles.

In other words - not "science" so much as "dogmatic superstition."

In the old days I always heard veda meant "way," not "science." But there you go. These days they say it means "science." People think science is a more impressive word to use, I guess. You know what, though? Just because you think a word sounds better, doesn't mean you should use it. You can't use a word just because you like the impressive connotations - you can't pick the wrong word at whim, and then throw the real definition out the window! Substituting your own whimsical definition: "Oh 'science' doesn't mean that anymore, it means this because I'm using it like this." That doesn't fly!

I have a little theory that veda does not mean "science." It means "way."

Oh, and another thing: Jesus Christ is not a scientist. Assuming you're a Christian Scientist, and assuming Jesus Christ is what you say he is - then the one thing he categorically is not, is a scientist! A scientist is not someone who automagically knows the fundamental truth of all things. A scientist is someone who is forced to grope for the fundamental truths about things, his way illuminated only by past theories, past experiments, past outcomes.

Oh, and yet another thing: in that last sentence, when I say the word "his" - that is gender neutral. I don't care whether you think so or not. The intent of the speaker is what governs meaning in language, not the hysterically-biased overreactions of the listener.

Which is still not to say that you can just pick the wrong word and use it at will, to mean something else. As we've already established...that doesn't fly.

I forget what "Ayur" means, but it's not really important at this point.

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