Vedanta and the Quantum lingo soup

For all their ignorance and lack of real interest in science and practical reasoning, Hindu fundamentalists still cannot resist flirtation with emerging and advanced concepts of science and advanced physics, especially those relating to the sub-atomic world. Since concepts of quantum physics or quantum mechanics have attracted attention in the press, Hindu fundamentalists don't wish to be left out of this curiosity bandwagon. 

While quacks like Deepak Chopra have acquired a head-start  in this race of parading scientific pretensions, the Indian upstarts of the Hindutva fold are keen to pull their own punches. Regardless of whether their basics or rudiments of elementary science are strong or even of a respectable standard, conservative Hindus want to jump into and muddy the already troubled waters of quantum physics. It is as if the fools of quantum quackery rush in where the angels of science fear to tread. 

And how can Hindutva ingenuity stop itself from seeing patterns and connections between the fuzzy world of quantum science and the fuzzier world of Vedanta. Despite all the conservative Hindu protestation of a westernized reductionist science, they are very much keen the courting its appeal and pleading for recognition of scientific status for their moth-eaten religious texts of the Vedas and the Upanishads. If the theories of astro-physics, nuclear physics, engineering and medicine can be imagined to exist in the Vedas, why can't the laws and science of quantum physics be read into the fantasy folklore of the Upanishads. 

But the way in which these people makes such claims is too hilarious to be described and is worth re-look.  Below is a comment highlighted from a responder to my article on Vedanta in Nirmukta

I have divided his response into 4 paras. It is in the 3rd para of the comment that he makes a wild swing at Quantum quackery lingo. In that incoherent babble, he is trying to make a connection between quantum science and Vedanta. Displaying utter ignorance of both elementary science and quantum theories, this defender of Hindu conservatism only succeeds in brewing a 'Quantum lingo Soup'.

Each of the comment paras below are illustrations of interesting rhetorical fallacies. 

Para 1 is case of unrelated and presumptive accusation of disguised religious proselytism

Para 2 is a case of making hyperbolic claims of relevance and validity of Upanishads using poetical words and phrases, when we are not in a poetry class or contest.

 Para 3 is of course the desperate quantum quackery spin to rescue the Vedanta from its sin and curse of mediocrity and absurdity 

Para 4 is apart from poor use of figures of speech, desperate and over-the-top deepity (absolute transcendental universal consciousness), poor historical perspective on Vedic/Upanishadic evolution (The Upanishads are the latter part of the Vedas) and typical Sales pitch of Hindu scriptures (that will equip a person to graduate to the stage of seeking Upanishadic wisdom, by practising which true liberation is guaranteed)

Still I have highlighted the more extravagantly hilarious and fanciful parts of this commenter's defense of the inanity of Vedanta.

With that note, I reproduce the comment below and my original response to it, after that.

The “arguments” put forth against the “inanities of the Upanishads” smack of being of the same kind and class of logic as are used by paid armies of evangelists to convert Hindu poor and gullible to Christianity. Indeed it should not be surprising if such elements are behind this and similar articles targeting Vedic system of sociology-politicia-religious thought that has stood the ravages of time, for deriving some negative benefits of creating doubts and confusion even in the minds of those who have come to lay faith – after expending a large part of their lives to get a glimpse of THE TRUTH using science and rationalism, – since it gives them immense, indescribable solace, and also push the fence-sitters onto the side of science-supremacists.

The ‘ultimate’ truth is unprovable as to its existence by any human methods of proof like counting, measuring or other mathematical or scientific methods of observation, recording, curve-fitting, or functional expression. The Upanishads or the Vedanta (‘witw’ end’) proclaim the infinitely tantalizing nature of any conscious effort to decode the mysterious That’ by saying — ya to vaacho nivartante, apraapya manasaa saha. The Upanishads that the author in his wisdom elected to castigate as just bundles of inanities are the one and the only source of eternal and universal wisdom that complement the purely ‘this worldly’ religions that turn out to be formulations for orderly conduct of society with particular god-specifications like Jesus THE SAVIOUR, Mohammed THE Prophet, etc. they (the Upanishads) spell out the broad disciplines of a spiritually gifted mind of men who keep trying and getting closer to the ultimate truth as the ideal objective in their mortal physical existence.


It is, however, clear that the foundations of science, of which math is a virtually indispensable tool, are beginning to shake [not the place here to elaborate, but suffice it to say, hitherto unexpected and mysterious phenomena like action at a distance, (‘spooky’ action), violations of time dimension in the particle world, dark matter and dark energy constituting what we believe as THE material universe are acting as impenetrable barriers that demand, as it were, that man should just rent content with the use of the simple discoveries, invention, and devices for individual and mass convenience goods. Great pioneers like Tsiolkovsky have hinted that it will never be possible to break through the space and time barriers or to “observe” the “existence of other dimensions of THAT, neither in its material nor in its spiritual, aspect, except through the constant and continuous efforts of the human consciousness through whatever means he may employ.

The Upanishads are the latter part of the Vedas, dealing with spiritual, liberating truth and its realisation for actual liberation and union with an absolute transcendental universal consciousness, while the former part comprising the Braahmanas, Samhitas and Aranyakas may be described as a source of knowledge of healthy materialistic existence that will equip a person to graduate to the stage of seeking Upanishadic wisdom, by practising which true liberation is guaranteed, a subjective state of true bliss and satisfaction for which there can be no objective observation or a certificate from an authority as we have come to understand.

My original reponse on the comment-trail: 

Mano,
I will respond to this para by para:

Response to Para 1: 

Comparing secular critics of Vedanta to Christian missionaries is lame conspiracy theory mongering without any basis or care for fact-checking. So no one is surprised by your veiled references other than you.


Also it appears that you have not gone thru many of the comment trails that extend the critique of Vedanta beyond what the article attempted.

The accusation of a science supremacist bias or tendency is also misdirected and inaccurate as the article and most of the critical follow-up have mostly used empirical methodology of logic, reasoning and holding up of the claims of Vedanta to tests of knowledge, coherence and evidence, with very little recourse to science and lab experimentation analogies.

Unlike what you claim, people have not come to faith after spending most of their life by using science and rationalism. Most people of India including you have already wasted most of their life in trifles and inanities of faith and devotion, and when you are exposed to glimpses of science and rational thinking, don’t want to have it or give it a chance.

If ignorance, self-deception and slavery of cultish practices and rituals  are indeed the “immense, indescribable solace” of a gift and legacy of Vedanta for the masses, my condolences and best wishes to them and you

Response to Para 2: 

This is the typical and standard escape clause of spiritualist apology that something which cannot be proved or conclusively falsified is true and real and shifting the burden of proof to the disbelievers instead of honestly saying that they choose to believe in fantasy.


Response to Para 3: 

Pseudoscience and quantum quackery does not amount to shaking any of the foundations of science.

Please care to explain what you mean by the term “violations of time dimension in the particle world” and how does it materially change our relationship to time

Pepper-spraying of terms like

• “action at a distance”
• ‘spooky’ action
• dark matter
• dark energy

does not necessarily mean that either you or Vedanta know, understand or have any connection with science, modern cosmology, quantum theories or behavior of phenomenon at the sub-atomic level. 

You have to do a better job than merely copy-pasting quantum quackery lingo. If according to you, the material universe is acting as impenetrable barrier, in what way is the nonsense in the Vedanta penetrating these barriers?

Response to Para 4: 

I have heard this Sales pitch so many times that I have lost count of it. The only puzzle that no Hindu/Indian apologist wants to answer is that in spite of these sources of knowledge of healthy materialistic and spiritual existence, why is Indian society still nowhere near either healthy materialistic or spiritual existence