{"id":3251,"date":"2007-04-09T12:54:45","date_gmt":"2007-04-09T11:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3251"},"modified":"2007-04-09T12:54:45","modified_gmt":"2007-04-09T11:54:45","slug":"free-will-and-scientific-preaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3251","title":{"rendered":"Free Will and Scientific Preaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ananta Ram das<\/strong> (H\u00e9ctor Rosario, Ph.D.)<\/p>\n

Dandavat pranams. All glory to Sri Sri Guru-Gauranga.<\/p>\n

I have watched with great concern the decline in the standards of scientific preaching as devotees fall prey to scientific or philosophical arguments they cannot correctly counter. As a result, they either lose faith in Caitanya Mahaprabhu\u2019s teachings or try to integrate their misconceptions into the philosophy, thus deviating from the acaryas.<\/p>\n

Before going any further, let me state my conviction that a faithful reading of Srila Prabhupada\u2019s books will give us all the necessary tools to defeat any philosophical opponent. But for that to take place, honesty and humility on our part are the most important factors. (Of course, this faithful reading will also lead us to follow the four regulative principles and to chant a minimum of sixteen rounds of the maha-mantra daily.)<\/p>\n

There have been two recent postings on Dandavats that deceptively portray good news with regard to scientists believing in God. But the question arises as to what kind of God they believe in. I have had recent exchanges about God with a mathematician\/philosopher of international stature and with an equally prominent scientist. These exchanges have been quite fruitful and I summarize the arguments I used which have made them take the philosophy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu seriously, even if they do not become devotees in this lifetime.<\/p>\n

Many of these scientists who believe in God either believe in some kind of impersonal god or some kind of an evolving god. I should add that many of them, like Genome Project Director Dr. Francis Collins, believe in \u201cTheistic Evolution,\u201d which incorporates Darwinian evolution into their philosophy. The question that most troubles them is the problem of evil. They see the omnipotence of God as inconsistent with God\u2019s absolute benevolence. Unable to reconcile the existence of evil with the omnipotence and absolute goodness ascribed to God, they opt to drop the requirement of omnipotence as they feel more comfortable doing so than with dropping God\u2019s absolute goodness.<\/p>\n

Regarding an evolving god, to say that God evolves seems to put him at the whim of an objective nature (apparently more powerful than Him) that determines Himself. Under this prism, it seems that God has been reduced to a mere sorcerer who may know much, have some power, and might even be eternal, but who is nonetheless subject to higher forces.<\/p>\n

Many people see God as a supplier of pleasure if you pay the market price (in the form of penance, prayer, mercy, and what have you). Yet, such a god seems to be no better than a harlot. In contrast, we see God as someone we can choose to serve without any other motive than to love Him. Whatever comes out of that relationship, if anything at all, just let it be.<\/p>\n

If God is the Creator of all that exists and the origin of all that be, then He must be the origin of evil itself. This is where many religions either collapse or look for alternatives to explain the question of evil.<\/p>\n

God is the origin of everything, good or bad [See purport to BG 10.4-5]. In fact, he is the origin of evil itself \u2013 via free will. The question is now, why do souls possess free will? <\/p>\n

Free will is the (limited) ability to choose. God is the possessor of absolute free will (complete independence), whereas souls, as part and parcel of God, have only a limited amount of said free will (incomplete independence). Hence, as His manifest absolute benevolence, we possess free will and can either choose to walk towards God (and love Him) or walk away from God (and rebel against Him). Free will allows for the possibility of a loving relationship with God, for love rarely, if ever, exists in slavery. When we misuse our independence, however, all kinds of havoc run loose. <\/p>\n

As a result of our actions, we take on different bodies to collect the fruits of said actions, be they good or bad. The problem of evil is no longer a problem, but a mere consequence of free will, which in turn exists as a primary constituent of God’s infinite potencies. Thanks to free will we can relish a relationship with God.<\/p>\n

At this point, if these scientists honestly consider themselves theists and have devoted some time to serious philosophical deliberations, you may refer them to Teachings of Lord Caitanya or to any other book Krishna dictates from the heart. Let Srila Prabhupada and the Vaishnava acaryas continue the preaching.<\/p>\n

I pray these realizations have been of some value to devotees, and to scientific preachers in particular. We know scientific preaching is very dear to Srila Prabhupada and it will certainly please him if we can honor his legacy.<\/p>\n

Hari bol<\/p>\n

— H\u00e9ctor Rosario, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Mathematical Sciences University of Puerto Rico, Mayag\u00fcez Campus PO Box 9018 Mayag\u00fcez, PR 00681<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Ananta Ram das<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have watched with great concern the decline in the standards of scientific preaching as devotees fall prey to scientific or philosophical arguments they cannot correctly counter. As a result, they either lose faith in Caitanya Mahaprabhu\u2019s teachings or try to integrate their misconceptions into the philosophy, thus deviating from the acaryas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}