{"id":42776,"date":"2015-03-31T14:49:03","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T21:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=42776"},"modified":"2015-03-31T14:49:03","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T21:49:03","slug":"science-nay-sayers-in-the-west-and-their-cultural-counterparts-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/03\/31\/science-nay-sayers-in-the-west-and-their-cultural-counterparts-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Science Nay-Sayers in the West and their Cultural Counterparts in Sri Lanka."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Galileo nearly got burnt at the stake for heresy when he claimed that the Earth orbited around the sun instead of being the fixed center of the God-created Universe. At that time most people were science Nay-Sayers. A century before Galileo, when Christopher Columbus defiantly sailed\u00a0 West seeking Eastern India, most people\u00a0 believed that the Earth was flat, as was evident to the eye. This view was common to almost all cultures, be it Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese or Hebrew. Today many of us happily believe that people are well informed in this age of the internet and Google.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, the very opposite\u00a0 is also true. Rich counties like the USA\u00a0 or the Oil Kingdoms are not educated societies. Fundamentalist religions remains powerful and science Nay-Sayers are well funded and articulate. While the Western nations spend billions in\u00a0 scientific research, the average citizen prefers to use the fruits of science (i.e., technology) while\u00a0 refusing to come to terms with\u00a0 what he\/she finds incomprehensible, counter-intuitive and often going against traditional beliefs and practices. Instead of expecting to build an improved world using science, Science Nay-Sayers take a very distopian view of\u00a0\u00a0 modern knowledge.\u00a0 They, like their counterparts during Galileo\u2019s times,\u00a0 seek\u00a0 to find solace in returning to traditional ways\u201d, even though Humpty-Dumpty cannot be be put back, with some 22\u00a0 million new people ( population of Sri Lanka!) added to the global population every two month!<\/p>\n

Flat-earthists and science as Patta-Pal-Boru\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The rejection of\u00a0 information which is supported by over-whelming\u00a0 evidence has\u00a0 been greatly facilitated with the growth of the\u00a0 internet\u00a0 with its wired free-thinker\u201d cults who want to rid themselves of the shackles of science\u201d\u00a0 with its demand for evidence\u00a0 regard as `\u201dinfantile\u201d, unreasonable\u201d, or even authoritarian\u201d. Even the shape of the earth is contested. The concave-earth\u201d\u00a0 is hollow and\u00a0 we live inside it, facing the sun, moon and\u00a0 planets at the center;\u00a0 the stars are an illusion.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mendis, a Peradeniya philosopher of the 1960s argued that\u00a0 directly perceived understanding has credence over abstract constructions fantasized\u201d by the mind. His seminars were dead serious about\u00a0 the earth being flat. The nearly spherical-earth belief is rejected as\u00a0 a\u00a0 strongly held urban myth\u201d or a Rudyard Kipling story.\u00a0 Mendis, a Catholic philosopher,\u00a0 held that all truth comes from God. So Mendis quit\u00a0 his University\u00a0 and became a Trappist monk.\u00a0 Philosophers who hold extremely\u00a0 idealist solipsist positions have been known from ancient times.\u00a0\u00a0 Modern science skeptics like Bruno Latour or Nelson Goodman even regard science as a dangerous conspiracy hatched against society. I have discussed some of these in chapter 2 of my\u00a0 book entitled\u00a0 A physicist\u2019s view of matter and mind\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dr. Nalin de Silva come two decades after Mendis, with a baggage of\u00a0 physics, Buddhism and Sinhla Jaathikathvaya\u201d (roughly, nationalism\u201d). Dr. Silva’s command of Physics has been increasingly shaky, with his recent claims of a mass for the photon, based on his misunderstanding of Einstein’ s famous equation (see the Lankaweb article. https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/03\/17\/the-accepted-meaning-of-einsteins-emc2-the-mass-of-the-photon-and-some-misconceptions-about-them\/<\/a> )<\/p>\n

Dr. Nalin de Silva\u00a0 is known in Sri Lanka for his claim that science is\u00a0 a\u00a0\u00a0 Patta-Pal-Boru\u201d (fully-fermented lie). Dr. Mendis referred to abstract mental constructs as fantasies\u201d or urban myths\u201d. Dr. Silva\u00a0 also rejects abstract knowledge.\u00a0 Knowledge\u201d possessed by all\u00a0 ordinary people (the ‘pruthagjana’), i.e., those who have not become\u00a0 Arhanths,\u00a0 is really false knowledge or Musa \u201d ( lies). He\u00a0 forgets that\u00a0 one of the precepts in Buddhism is to not to utter ‘Musaa-vaada’. This is impossible to practice\u00a0 if the prutagjanas know only Musa!.\u00a0 Dr. Nalin de Silva (who is a pruthagjana), claims that only\u00a0 the Arhanths have true knowledge! This is simply the paradox of the Cretan who said that all Cretans are liars!<\/p>\n

Dr. Silva’s\u00a0 pruthagjana uses the sense data coming from his five senses and from the mind to make abstract constructions, or kathandara\u201d (stories) which in the end become formulated into Patta-pal-boru\u201d (fully-fermented lies).\u00a0 This rejection of scientific knowledge is also\u00a0 condemned\u00a0 as\u00a0 Western science\u201d linked to the culture of the Judo-Christian religions\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 That modern science was a struggle against the myths of Creator-based religions is well known to historians of science. In fact, the Buddha was one of the earliest thinkers to emphasize the importance of the experimental method in the Gnana Sutra\u201d, where it is asserted that truth must be tested, just as a noble metal (e.g., Gold) has to be distinguished from a base metal by testing it on the touchstone (for a discussion of this, see Tchirbatsky’s book on Buddhist Logic\u201d, Vol. 1).<\/p>\n

Although eastern science\u201d is also based on Musa\u201d, that Musa\u00a0 is preferred by Dr. Nalin de Silva. After rejecting science as abstract and falsely based on induction\u201d, Dr. Silva embraces the occult sciences and claims to be currently studying \u201dextra-sensory perception\u201d. His notoriety here is in his trust of the words of a lady, a Pruthagjana,\u00a0 who hears the voice of God Natha\u201d, the God of the Naga tribes, absorbed into Buddhism as a Bodhisatva (as evident from a stone Inscription found at Mihintale).<\/p>\n

Pesticides,\u00a0 Wi-fi radiation and\u00a0 Cancer claims.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Allegedly, God Natha\u00a0 revealed\u00a0 the presence of Arsenic in the Rajarata environment, as the cause of Kidney diseases among its residents. Dr. Silva chastises Dr. Jayasumana for proposing\u00a0 Glyphosate\u201d as a cause without the sanction of the God (deviyanta horaaa\u201d). There is no experimental\u00a0 evidence\u00a0 for the presence of significant amounts (e..g, even 10 parts per billion)\u00a0 of Arsenic or Glyphosate in the water table of the Rajarata. But Dr Silva\u00a0 regards that his type of knowledge is not subject\u00a0 to such authoritarian constraints as needing evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even in capitalist countries like the USA where social welfare and subsidies for the poor are treated as creeping communism,\u00a0 there is a strong distrust of big business\u00a0 and even public health or environmental policies (e.g., on global warming). A strong divide exists between scientists and the public with respect to fertilizers,\u00a0 pesticides, as well as with cell-pone radiation (wi-fi). Many members of the public oppose them in the\u00a0 belief that they cause cancer\u201d (while perhaps happily puffing a cigarette !).<\/p>\n

Even the WHO has\u00a0 yielded to NGO activism and\u00a0 declared\u00a0 the need for further rounds of investigation into the safety (or not) of\u00a0 wi-fi radiation. The\u00a0 8 billion cell-phones, laptops, tablets, etc., that used wi-fi during the last 10 years, and the lack of any authenticated cases of\u00a0 cancer from wi-fi, imply that the probability of\u00a0 cancer from wi-fi in the next 10 years is less than one in eight-billion! Einstein’s 1905 theory of the photo-effect which won him the Nobel prize tells us that wi-fi photons cannot cause the chemical changes needed for cancer. But such arguments do not move the Science Nay-Sayers propelled by public fear.<\/p>\n

Leftist groups opposed to big business\u201d\u00a0 use the public fears of fertilizers and pesticides against Agri-Giants\u201d like Monsanto by inventing evidence\u201d\u00a0 for what they perceive to be the public good\u201d. Dedicated anti-GMO activism of well established environmental\u201d organizations like Greenpeace, caused\u00a0 some\u00a0 Directors to resign in protest against deliberate mis-information\u201d.<\/p>\n

These Nay-Sayers of science\u00a0 have no hesitation of using science\u201d\u00a0 to support their beliefs. When a\u00a0 recent WHO report on Glyphosate (Roundup\u201d) was released, the anti-GMO lobby ignored the most important parts of the report and zoomed in on the non-committal claims based on statistical interpretations of the data that could be construed to mean that Glyphosate is probably carcinogenic\u201d on long exposure to it. The activists ignored the definitive\u00a0 finding that microorganisms treated with large doses of Glyphosate suffered no toxicity. Micro-organisms have no immune systems or well-developed waste elimination organs like the kidneys.\u00a0 If toxicity exists, it is most visible at that level. Instead, this was downplayed, and an incident created by demanding Dr. Moore, a supporter of GMO foods and Glyphosate to drink a glass of Glyphosate if he actually believes it to be non-toxic! Glyphosate is not a food. But even with a food like sugar, NO one should gulp down a glass of maple syrup or Palm treacle claiming that sugar is non-toxic. Many people would pass out on ingestion of such large amounts of sugar. Sugar is the favourite food of cancer cells; it causes\u00a0 type-II diabetes, obesity etc., and should be banned since our food\u00a0 provides enough of it.<\/p>\n

The news media high-lighted the carcinogenic claims in lead articles, in synch with the 63% Nay-Sayers among the lay public. TruthOut.org\u201d, an advocacy news organ,\u00a0 claimed in early 2013 that Glyphosate causes chronic Kidney disease in Sri Lanka and Nicaragua. The WHO findings of the lack of significant amounts of Glyphosate in the affected areas in Sri Lanka was not revealed. A\u00a0 hypothesis\u201d published in a\u00a0 private electronic journal\u201d with no scientific standing was enough for TruthOut. One of the authors of the paper\u201d had previously claimed that the aetiology of the disease had been revealed to her by\u00a0 divine intervention. From there, TruthOut\u00a0 was quoted by other internet Gurus\u201d like Dr. Mercola ( http:\/\/dh-web.org\/health\/RitterTruthout.html<\/a> ) .<\/p>\n

A survey by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAA)\u00a0 in January 2015 revealed that\u00a0 85% of scientists supported GMO foods,\u00a0 while more than 60% of the public OPPOSED them. Thus, although a large scientific consensus exists, the Nay-Sayers make out that scientists are at loggerheads\u201d about such matters.<\/p>\n

The Golder Rice controversy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ms.\u00a0 Shiva Vandana, (SV) is an Indian anti-GMO activist who flaunts her\u00a0 scientific credentials\u201d, thought she abandoned science immediately after her Ph.D in an arcane area of physics, and not in agriculture, biology or chemistry. Dr. Patrick Moore, an ex-Director of Greenpeace who resigned from the NGO accuses\u00a0 Ms. Shiva Vandana for indirectly causing\u00a0 the death of millions of poor Indians by her campaigns preventing the\u00a0 use of golden rice\u201d (a GMO rice that is fortified with carotene genes) in India (\u00a0 http:\/\/www.allowgoldenricenow.org\/<\/a>\u00a0 ).<\/p>\n

SV\u00a0 is against farmers\u00a0 using even non-GMO high-yield hybrid seeds that mature quickly and need less water and manure. Her position is ideological, lauding traditional methods and traditional seeds\u201d. I have argued elsewhere that traditional rice varieties must be promoted for specialized niche markets\u201d, and as a source of bio-diversity, while the new varieties are essential to feed the population (http:\/\/www.lankanewspapers.com\/news\/2012\/7\/77370_space.html<\/a> ). Followers of Shiva Vanadana in\u00a0 Sri Lanka\u00a0 turn out to be,\u00a0 strangely enough, Marxist activists like\u00a0 the late\u00a0 Sarath Fernando of \u2018Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform\u2019 . They\u00a0 have recognized that the cries of traditional agriculture and rice\u201d could be used for the purpose of organizing farmers for their objective, viz., the class struggle<\/em>. These Nay-Sayers\u00a0 reject the green Revolution\u201d of Borlug, and\u00a0 the tremendous achievements of the rice scientists of Sri Lanka at Bathalagoda and Kundasale.<\/p>\n

Anti-pasteurization and anti-vaccination lobbies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some science Nay-Sayers deny the origin of many diseases\u00a0 via microbes and other pathogens. Evil forces, Karma, divine wrath, dis-equilibrium among the\u00a0 tri-dosha,\u201d, i.e.,\u00a0 va-pith-sem (air, bile and phlegm) are blamed. Scientific medicine is rejected and alternative medicine is held to be the correct approach.\u00a0 Public antipathy\u00a0 is found, especially in the wealthy, organic-food eating upper classes,\u00a0 demanding a free-choice\u201d for themselves in regard to pasteurization of milk, the use of fluoridation of water to prevent dental disease, or the use of\u00a0 vaccines against measles and other illnesses.\u00a0 In Canada 28% of the public\u00a0 distrust\u00a0 vaccines, making the work of public health officials a nightmare. Un-vaccinated children contract the disease and create the potential for new mutants.<\/p>\n

Medical questions cannot be entirely dealt with using hard science since the human body is as yet too complex for present day knowledge. Mental processes\u00a0 have an immense impact on health but neuroscience is an extremely young science.\u00a0 Hence traditional knowledge integrated with science is the way forward, at least for now. <\/em>What science recommended regarding cardio-vascular diseases and nutrition has changed every few decades, and the public is bewildered. The Nay-Sayers of Science use this to advantage.<\/p>\n

Bottle necks and information controls.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another reason for the rise of skepticism of science is the muffling of\u00a0 science by governments. Government scientists\u00a0 in Health or Agriculture have to state things that fit government policy\u201d. Even if fish stocks are dangerously low, this cannot be revealed. In the UK, scientists were not allowed to reveal the actual situation with regard to Mad-Cow disease. Close collusion between government regulators and drug companies leads to the approval of inadequately tested drugs, or lack of penalties for hiding\u00a0 relevant data. Nuclear industry became unsafe\u00a0 as\u00a0 the regulatory agencies began to be funded by the industry itself, as happened in Japan!<\/p>\n

Evolution has of course been a favorite issue with Science Nay-Sayers. A recent survey showed that 99% of scientists believed that humans have evolved from simpler\u201d animals, while\u00a0 nearly 40% of the US public rejected it, with this latter number increasing much more in southern USA. It would be interesting to obtain data for a country like Sri Lanka, a high-literacy Asian country with a Buddhist culture.\u00a0 There is respect for science and knowledge in Traditional societies like China, Japan and India. The small but influential westernized urbanites\u00a0 and Post-modernist journalists\u00a0 are the intellectual vanguard of the Science Nay-Sayers in Asian capitals of countries like Sri Lanka or India.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, politicians ask researchers to fund their research from industry\u201d, and do industrially relevant research\u201d, while cutting\u00a0 independent funding available for research. The old idea of ivory tower\u201d universities, independent of industry or even governments, and funding their\u00a0 research using their own wealth is feasible only for a few world renowned\u00a0 universities. It is the governments and the profit motive that have politicized science and killed the hen that laid the golden eggs\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada Galileo nearly got burnt at the stake for heresy when he claimed that the Earth orbited around the sun instead of being the fixed center of the God-created Universe. At that time most people were science Nay-Sayers. A century before Galileo, when Christopher Columbus defiantly sailed\u00a0 West seeking Eastern India, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chandre-dharmawardana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}