Huff Post: by Maurici Garrido.
Religious traditions are often criticized for providing untestable elements in their books of wisdom. Among these elements, the soul’s existence is one of the most debated in talks between science and religion. But is the concept of the soul really so vague and does it really have no empirical evidence for a practical theory? Vedic philosophy and quantum mechanics may bring interesting ideas to consider.
To declare that there is no soul, just because we can’t directly see it with our current instruments, is akin to saying that there are no quarks because we can’t detect them directly in our labs. Both the soul and the quarks’ existence can be inferred indirectly by their effects (living symptoms and consciousness in the case of the soul; particle interactions in the case of the quarks). Even though there are other theories in science describing the origin of consciousness and living symptoms, these remain very unsatisfactory and many times philosophically dismissive. Furthermore, the wealth of data regarding topics like reincarnation gathered by careful scientific studies such as those of Dr. Ian Stevenson from Virginia University can hardly be accounted for by any explanation other than one involving some notion of what is here referred to as atma.
Categories: Faith