Buddhism – Inconsistencies with Science

Revised March 4, 2018; December 16, 2020

1. We all are impressed by the scientific advances made during the past 100 years or so making our lives easier and more productive. I am actually a cheerleader for scientific and technological advances.

  • Physics had been my passion since my high school days, and that changed when I started learning Buddha Dhamma several years ago.
  • I still love and work on topics of interest in physics (and science in general). Fortunately, I am finding that those two interests are not mutually exclusive, and there is significant overlap. In fact, this section is the result of my two overlapping interests.

2. The following posts discuss cases where current theories of science are not consistent with Buddha Dhamma. I believe that science will recognize the primary nature of the mind in the future and will discard the current notion that the mind (consciousness) arises out of inert matter.

Neuroscience says there is no Free Will? – That is a Misinterpretation!

The Double Slit Experiment – Correlation between Mind and Matter?

Vision (Cakkhu Viññāṇa) is Not Just Seeing

Mystical Phenomena in Buddhism?

Buddhism and Evolution – Aggañña Sutta (DN 27)

Many other issues relating to life discussed in the section: “Origin of Life

3. Despite advances in science and technology, there is much about the human mind that science does not understand, and has not even begun to understand. Western science is based on the five physical senses, leaving out the most important one, the mind.

  • At the present time, in 2016, scientists have the wrong view that consciousness originates in the brain.
  • All scientific theories relating to the mind are based on this wrong hypothesis. However, Buddha Dhamma says not only that the mind is a sense of its own, but it is the most powerful of all six senses.

Here is a post from the Abhidhamma section that has a deeper analysis of the brain-mind connection:

Brain – Interface between Mind and Body

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