Dear Gunnar, DC, Nina and Peter,

I think we have to give due credit to science. If the world is still mainly agricultural, we probably had long run out of land for farming. When population grows, consumption increases. Science has increased food yield, for instance, and allowed the "alarming" human population growth rate until now. The world will now has to address issues of sustainable growth, not only the economy, but also human population and the environment. We all know the consequences when food runs out, especially if it should happen in rich and powerful nations, with or without science; marginalisation, poverty, starvation, social unrest and wars are only steps away.

Any credible historian of science will duly inform you that progress in scientific discovery is a natural course of human progress. It is human nature to ponder about the mysteries of life and the universe, and investigate the natural world around him. The abilities to learn and adapt, and to create and use tools are not only restricted to humans, but we are more capable in these tasks than other animals. Among humans, few have the penetrative insight of the Buddha to see beyond life and the physical environment which enables it. However, when the human mind is liberated from the unreasonable confines of religions (I mean it), when knowledge is acquired in an objective, rational and neutral manner, we get modern science. How this newly acquired scientific knowledge is managed and applied in our lives is not the responsibility of science, but ours.

It is not only one particular facet of life that science has improved, other than food yield and communication, medicine and health care, transportation, education and research, and many others. In fact, the people I would least expect to criticise Science are Buddhist monks and nuns, followed by Buddhists. I can see no precedence in the Buddha's teachings of criticism of social development and progress, and the (scientific) causes leading to such development and progress. Buddhists should support social progress, especially sustainable social progress. Monks and nuns' livelihood also depends directly and indirectly from such developments. We live at a time two and a half millennium after the Buddha. Even though sangha members still largely follow a simple life-style as the Buddha, there is little doubt that scientific progress has also greatly improved the overall well-being of monastic communities, especially those of considerable size.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Gunnar G�llmo wrote:

>> Science (human) is avijjaa and not vijjaa.

> N: That is true, because it does not lead out of the cycle of birth and death, it cannot eradicate defilements.

Worldly knowledge is not liberating vijjaa, but it can be used to support it.