The term scientific temper is broadly defined as a modest open – minded temper as ever ready to welcome new light, new knowledge, new experiments even when their results are unfavorable to pre-conceived opinions and long cherished theories.
Scientific temper is an attitude of logical thinking. Scientific temper is a way of life that uses the scientific method which may, consequently,include questioning and observing physical reality, testing and hypothesizing physical reality and testing and hypothesizing analysis and communication.
To what extent does ‘scientific temper’ exist in the human society? This is the basic question. The famous philosopher, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), observes, ‘Man is a rational animal – so at least I am told’.
‘Through a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favour of this statement, but, sofar, I have not had the opportunity to come across it though I have searched for it in many countries spread over three continents. On the contrary, I have seen the world plunging continually further into madness. I have seen greatnations, formerly leaders of civilization, led astray by preachers of bombastic non-sense.I have seen cruelty, persecution, superstition increasing by leaps and bounds, until we may have almost reached the point where praise of rationality is held as a mark of man as old who is not up-to-date (modern) in his habits regrettably swinging from a by-gone age.”
What are the causes of the present condition? Most people act based on traditional beliefs and customs. They neither think independently nor act rationally. Many imaginary ideas in respect of god, heaven and hell are the other causes. The Hebraic religions (i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and the Hindu religion center around the concept of god. All these religions attribute omnipotence to god. They believe that all the activities in this world are controlled by him. They also believe that the thoughts and activities of every individual arethe activities of god. This idea has a deadening effect on the spirit and the mental outlook of people.
The famous scientist, Albert Einstein (1879-1955), discusses this idea in his article, ‘Science and Religion’. He says that this idea has a decisive weakness. He also raises one basic question. ‘If god is responsible for every occurrence including human actions and thoughts, how is it possible to think of holding men and women responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty being? If god punishes and rewards human beings, will he not be passing his judgment for his own actions? This idea is not sensible. So, Einstein concludes that everyone is responsible for their thoughts and actions.
Most religions speak about the judgment-day one has to face after one’s death. They describe hell as a horrible place and heaven as a pleasant and happy place. All these descriptions are imaginary. They also prescribe many means to please god. There is no evidence to prove that god is pleased by the rituals performed by human beings. These wrong ideas make people give much importance to prayers and rituals. These imaginary ideas are the real source of all the superstitions in the human society.
The great moral preachers of humankind like Gautama Buddha, Confucius, Socrates and other varied thinkers taught only the morals one should follow. They never asked people to perform any ritual or ceremony to please god. They refused to speak about matters of the unseen world, the future life and god. They were concerned with man’s life here and now.The rest, they said, was speculation likely to do more harm than good because it takes away man’s attention from the chief objective of how he should live.
They appealed to people to use their reasoning capacity. They said that everyone needs to think critically, logically and rationally and realize the truth. They advised people to think and realize what is right and wrong. In short, all the great thinkers appealed to the people to live with scientific temper.
History asserts that only the societies where people had scientific temper have progressed on every front. For instance, when scientific temper was present in the ancient Greek society, they were more productive and creative than any other people in the world. Their contribution to philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and medicine was immense. But the societies which neglected scientific temper have become static and stagnant. This shows the importance of scientific temper. So, every individual and society need to live with scientific temper. For that transformation, what values should the individuals and the society absorb and practise? A critical analysis shows the path we should tread.
Knowledgeable Indians are aware that the Indian society is the most superstitious society in the world. For example, in no other country is idol-worship so widely and pompously practised as in the Indian society. In India, faith in astrology is strong. In no other country do people maintain old and useless cows at an enormous cost in the name of religion. In no other country do people throw half-burnt dead bodies of human beings and dead cattle into rivers and pollute them. The Ganga is the most polluted river. In the Ganga river valley, more than 50 crore people live and they depend on the Ganga for water. Keeping the Ganga water pure is vital for the healthy living of crores of people. When the condition is so, we are not ready to discard our foolish religious beliefs and enhance the purity of Ganga water. These facts prove that the Indian society is devoid of scientific temper.
How to improve the scientific temper in the Indian society? As we live as nations, let us study the means to be followed by the Indian government. The first thing the Indian Society needs to do is to become a secular nation. It needs to separate the State from religions. It must not allow religious leaders to interfere in the policies and affairs of the state. People must be given complete freedom to express their rational ideas through media without fear.
In this connection, the means followed by secular countries are good examples to emulate. These countries separate religion from the state and education from religion. They give freedom to worship. But they give freedom to make anti-religious propaganda as well. Consequently, the rational spirit is strong in those countries. Citizens of those countries are less superstitious than those in theocratic countries.
The most important thing to note is the fact that most secular countries give freedom to propagate anti-religious and atheistic principles. In many nations, there is no such freedom. Even propaganda for social reformation has been crippled there with the false accusation that such a propaganda wounds the feelings of other religious groups.
Most Islamic countries and India don’t give people the right to comment on religions. The reason they state is that it will hurt the feelings of the believers of religions. This is nothing but a cunning way to stop the anti-religious propaganda. Only if the citizens are allowed to express their ideas on all subjects including religious beliefs, will the ‘rational spirit’ develop and spread. Hence, giving the rights to comment on religions is a necessity.
Eminent philosophers state that a civilized society is one that extends freedom of thought to its citizens. They revere freedom of expression as one of the basic rights of human beings. Laying any restriction or condition is nothing but a violation of the very spirit of the freedom of expression. So, extending full freedom and right to comment on religions is essential to spread the rational spirit. Therefore, every nation needs to give this freedom to its citizens.
Extending intellectual freedom and giving all rights such as political, social and economic to all the citizens are vital. The reason is that only these rights can enable human beings to live as creative and productive human beings. Allowing intellectual freedom and safeguarding these rights are the duties not only of the rulers but also of all the individuals.
In the Indian society, a good percentage of the educated are superstitious. This shows that there is some flaw in our education and educational curriculum. That is why even the educated are not intellectuals. They lack the spirit to realise the truth in any subject.
The educational system in India should be redesigned to inculcate the spirit of enquiry in the minds of the students. It needs to instill the critical attitude in the minds of the students. It must encourage the students to ask questions and motivate them to seek answers by themselves. If it does not make the students curious and inquisitive, it ceases to be proper education.
Apart from education, media plays an important role in shaping the spirit of the people. They give publicity to many superstitions. The government needs to control the media and prevent the spread of superstitions. These are a few actions to be taken at the political level.
Basically, we must motivate our people to think. We need to inculcate the spirit of enquiry in the minds of our people. We need to make our people realise that all values and beliefs including religious ones are to be subjected to critical analysis and outmoded values, beliefs and customs are to be discarded. We need to nurture the habit of taking decisions only after critical analysis. In short, we need to have a cultural revolution in our society. These are the means to develop scientific temper in our society.