Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 297
BELIEF IN THE UNSEEN comparatively higher stage of certainty belongs to the area of scientific enquiry. There too, we can find examples of complete agreement among scientists on many a concept which has come to stay and as such is accepted as universal. For instance, about the chemical composition of water there are no two opinions. One cannot suggest that with the passage of time its formula will change and a new formula may be discovered to replace it, such as H₂O5 instead of H₂O. . Evidently there are limitations to the possibilities of change in the human understanding of things. The main body of scientific knowledge, once knowledge, once established and stabilized, remains essentially the same except for some fine modifications in the fringe area. How atoms are bonded to atoms and molecules to molecules, which bonds are weak and which are stronger, and how to utilize this knowledge to synthesize new chemicals, are matters which are well-understood. The continuous flow of new information does not alter their established patterns of behaviour. The knowledge of man in this area of research grows without challenging the universally accepted fundamentals. It becomes evident from this that the truth of any scriptural observation can indeed be verified to a large measure of certainty when compared with such secular knowledge as has stood the test of time, age after age. . Again, there are things which become certainties, not because they have been tested over a long period of time, but because their truth is universally demonstrable. All new ideas and discoveries pertaining to natural laws and behaviour of matter fall into this category when proved through experimentation in different laboratories of the world. It is to such established truths that we refer when we testify the truths of spiritual claims by applying them to the touchstone of scientific discoveries. 289