It seems that science is the new religion that is to be followed by everyone in order to be considered educated and not to be questioned for fear of looking stupid. Though I have personally always liked this subject most, it is still just one of the many subjects of study and there is no reason why it should be held above the others (except medical science!). If anything, culinary science has done the most for the betterment of human life than any other kind of knowledge ;)
This supreme importance accorded to science and technology is largely a western notion that we have adopted blindly. We even define the countries of the world as 'developed' or 'developing' based on how industrialised they are. I don't agree with this though! Is the measure of humanity really how much we have progressed technologically? Why should that be so? Is purely being able to know more and do more important and not what you do with what you know? I say this is a western measure because it was only the West that had any real need for industrialisation because of the kind of climate they lived in. If the eastern civilisations did not make technological progress, it was because their climates were perfectly fine for a fairly decent lifestyle and they had the good sense not to shake things up unnecessarily :D Medical science I really respect and it is true that it would not be possible to this extent without the support of technology. But again, have we really solved more problems than we have created? If you ask me, the state of a civilization should be measured by its wisdom and not its knowledge because knowledge without wisdom just becomes the meaningless privilege of a few.
Another reason why I don't agree with confining oneself fully in the boundaries of science is because we have not really explored its full extent. It's perfectly ok if you wish to believe only in things that are scientifically proven but no one can confidently dismiss the rest as impossible because we really don't know. Proof of any sort is limited by our powers of perception and inference (as well pointed out in Sri Sai Satcharitra). A blind man may well mock at a person with sight for talking about colors; this is no different!
Even what we are seeing of the universe may just be a portion of it viewed from limited dimensions. A person viewing a building from the top will see it very differently (a 2D version) than a person anywhere else who will see the real 3D version. So the universe we perceive may just be a 2D version for all we know. What I am trying to say here is, let's stop pretending we really have a clue about anything :D That is why it's also a little funny how we cling to present societal norms and standards as being the ultimate guidebook on how to be a proper human being. We confidently assert that by 30 you should get married and by 33 have kids because that is how it is done, when the fact is that not too far in the past, people practised polygamy and child marriage! It's ironical how we consider the present norms will last forever when the society is changing so drastically, so rapidly. It's also ironical how we think we or our identity and memory will last forever ;)
It is a similar irony that I see in the attempt to be rational. Sure, let's be rational and objective and believe only in things that can be verified through experiments and instruments. But do you wonder who is it that's being rational here? Can your consciousness and your untold thoughts ever be proved scientifically? Should we not disbelieve in them then? Yet you know they exist! The world sure is a strange place :)
