by Dr. Surendra Singh Pokharna (Return to Table of Contents)
(Former Scientist, Indian Space Research Organization, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India)
Scientific methods developed to study the physical systems are not adequate when biological and human systems are also included because of:
(a) limitations caused by the mere definitions of conservations laws which are strictly applicable for closed isolated systems,
(b) the objective process of scientific measurements,
(c) limitations caused due to the Godel’s incompleteness theorems,
(d) limitations caused due to realization that all living systems are essentially irreversible in nature, that is they grow and decay,
(e) they are open systems, constantly interacting with the environment, compared to the physical system’s which are closed systems,
(f) human systems have memory which makes it impossible to do any scientific experimentation on them,
(g), there are micro controls in the form of thought processes which cannot be easily adjusted in any planned "scientific experiment",
(h) here cause does not determine the effect, rather effect determine the causes as these are goal directed systems,
(i) here the sum of parts is more than the individual parts and this more is not reducible into parts,
(j) human systems have free will, creativity, tendency to interact strongly with other fellow beings and the environment. Hence it is impossible to perform scientific experiments on human systems and predicting events about them from a purely scientific point of view.
To handle such complex issues, General Systems Theory (GST) is used because by its intrinsic nature, GST can give a better picture of the interconnectedness of various components of the Human-Earth-atmosphere system. Here pure physical sciences are now categorized as hard systems and subjects like sociology, religion, psychology, biology etc. are classified as soft systems. It has been developed to handle such diverse systems and is a serious attempt to reconcile physical sciences with social sciences. As per this theory, all systems are characterized by the transfer of information (knowledge) and entropy/order which are much more important than any other attribute. Even energy comes next to them. Hence religion and spirituality can also fall into this domain, as some type of system in which, there is information and knowledge transfer going on continuously.
With the development of science and technology, there is an overall increase in the entropy in the biosphere like mixing of hydrocarbons like petrol and diesel vapor and industrial wastes with air and water, flow of millions of tons of fertile soil in the sea every year, spread of electromagnetic pollutions in atmosphere due to increase in use of mobiles, internet and other electric gadgets, increase in corruption and black money due to which unaccounted money is diverted from the main economy and are not counted in GDP and so on.
At this juncture, we seriously feel that the various religious and spiritual practices developed by the ancient Indian seers like Yoga, Meditation, and other spiritual practices have a fixed goal (moksha or heaven) to achieve and are all aimed at an overall increase in knowledge of the soul (consciousness) and a decrease in the rate of entropy production in the brain and the surrounding. Hence the Indian spiritual masters talk of some kind of “Knowledge, Order and Entropy” which are similar to what one finds in General Systems Theory for the irreversible biological, social and human systems.
For more information, see the paper presented by the author in the first international conference on “Life energy, Syntropy and Resonance” being organized by WISE and held at Viterbo, Italy in the link:
http://www.lifeenergyscience.it/viterbo2013/program.htm
Email: sspokharna15 at yahoo.com
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