Dear Peter,

thank you. Allow me to put forward my views too.

1. The Buddha lived in the Iron Age, when the most advanced technology was probably iron horse chariots. I wouldn't even bother with Science too if we are still living in the Iron Age. In such primitive age, man may had mastered basic tool-making skills, understanding of the natural phenomenon was elementary at best, and often mixed up with myths and legends, which we wouldn't even call Science.

2. Many of the questions the Buddha refused to answer, I am sure scientists today would be skeptical about them too. When they are not, scientists approached these questions rationally, rather than philosophically. Science today is in every facet of our modern life, from keeping our drinking water is safe, to ensuring that planes do not fall from the sky.

3. Understanding Science, I believe, would help a meditator better understand and comprehend life experiences and natural phenomenon.

4. Depiction of the Buddha varies among different Buddhist cultures and communities.

5. The venerable Ajahn Chah was well-respected by the Thais, and had a large global following. Most of his followers know that Ajahn Chah was born in 1918 to a poor rural family in northern Thailand. Many respected the venerable for his austerity practices, not for lack of knowledge in Science. I think it isn't appropriate to bring him into the picture.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Peter Tomlinson wrote:

> Science is appropriate to answer secular, i.e. lokuttara matters.  Lord Buddha did not much concern himself with such.  Isn't it true that He often refused to respond to questions about whether ther was a god, whether the sould was eternal or non eternal etc.  I mention Culamalunkyaputta Sutta here.  And wouldn't we see in the simile of the poisoned arrow the trap of conflating science with Dhamma?  Lord Buddha isn't concerned with those issues of the origins of the Universe, brain science whether there is or is ot "self".  
>
> What I say here isn't a bad attitude towards science or any "modern" point of view.  Simply they are incapable of solving the problem of existence which only Buddha Dhamma approaches wisely and effectively if one wishes to end samsara.
> Science has no such interest or indeed wisdom and viriya to achieve.
>
> Lord Buddha is the little brown fat guy in funny robes.  And believe me I think Ajahn Chah and others would fulfill that picture nicely.