I had read Professor Bhide's earlier book entitled "1 in Science, Religion and Every-day Life" and had many occasions to listen to him on various philosophical themes. I was very much impressed because I found that he, a scientist, is talking on a theme, which had engaged the Upanishadic philosophers thousands of years ago. The Upanishadic philosophers' inquiry was directed towards getting an answer to the similar questions viz., Who am I? which had been the inquiry of Professor Bhide in this book. The readers, therefore, will enjoy how a scientist is looking towards the problem of identifying the "Referent of I through a different method namely, the scientific method of inquiry. The Indian Philosophers too, were trying to trace the origion and evolution of the World of our experience in which the Referent of I is a member, but of course, through a different method of spiritual inquiry. Here is an occasion for the readers to verify the results of the two different methods.
Since the book is written also for general readers, who have little knowledge of technicalities of science, I am sure, it is going to be very useful and refreshing even to scholars of language and philosophy. I am thankful to Professor Bhide for allowing us to bring out this volume as a publication of the Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit, University of Pune. I wish that many more such writings emerge from the pen of Professor Bhide, which will help in bridging the gap between philosophers and scientists.
The amazing success man achieved in this relentless and unending enquiry is attributable as much to the inherent and irrepressible curiosity in him to know and understand himself and the surrounding vast, dynamic and vibrant universe with tremendous variety and variability as to the strength and power of science that he developed over the last three centuries. From the austere point of view of science, the evolutionary history of the universe is just an illustrative example of the validity of the laws of science. So deep is the conviction that the universe evolved strictly in accordance with the laws of science which were possibly ordained by God but discovered by man on this earth that led Stefan Hawking one of the most celebrated cosmologists of the day to say Science seems to have discovered a set of laws that within the limits set by Heisenberg uncertainty principle tells us how the universe will develop with time. These laws may have been originally decreed by God but it appears that He has since left the universe to evolve according to them and does not interfere in it".
Science has been unbelievably successful in not only tracing the birth of the universe with a big bang but also to unravel its evolution, frame by frame, as it were, since its notional birth. It is indeed reassuring to be able to tell not only what would be the size, temperature and composition of the universe at any point of time but also able to say how the first living cell, our last ancestor, took shape out of abiogenic matter some 3.7 billion years ago to proliferate into this bewilderingly complex biosphere.
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