© 2007, Sachin Nandha, www.globalchange.org.

uk

Our Thinking
Our Folly
By Sachin Nandha, DeMontfort University, 2006

Eastern Philosophy and Spirituality, or as they say in the ivory towers – mysticism, is incredibly relevant in
2006, because the world’s cultures are being globalised. That is not to say that they are becoming
homogenised, but rather we as a human race are coming to terms with the interwoven-ness of our planet.
Our universities in the UK often stench of snobbery, and reek of ignorance when it comes to accepting the
oneness of the world, I have often wondered why that is? A few academics still consciously, and most
unconsciously, believe that the world of ideas, invention, discovery, religion, metaphysics and language all
somehow began in Greece, Rome or Palestine, and the rest of world was somehow disconnected from all
this.

What could be more untrue? The ancient world was rich with discovery, ideas and evolution, both of the
mind and body. India and China were its pioneering states, and all of Euro-Asia has always been
interconnected. At the time of Socrates and Aristotle, Persia had toll roads and freeways, not for cars of
course, but for traders. The Persians were centuries ahead of Greece in road construction and state
organisation, as well as having established a common civil code, in other word, a common culture. Just as
in antiquity, the Euro-Asian world is driving another globalisation. The East is waking from its deep
slumber, while we in the West are suffering from an arrogance that will haunt future generations to come.

Our folly, I believe, lies in our thinking. Furthermore, at the heart of our folly is modern materialist science,
which has come to be in a kind of dogmatic state, which people like Stephen Hawking has called
“Scientism”. Scientism is not scientific. Scientism is a religion, a belief system like any other, it is not fact
based, but ideas orientated. Its high priests are people like Wilson, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, and
many others, who “triumphetically” announce that they know what reality is – that they hold the key to
truth, or least to understanding it. Up to this point its fine – but where it becomes dogmatism, and
unscientific, is when these so called intelligent thinkers begin to idealise the conception that anything which
does not fit into their narrow perception of reality is wrong. Those who belong to the church of Scientism
(note not Scientology – which is altogether a different conundrum), say that any other approach is simply
wrong, partial, or at best fits into a primitive kind of mysticism. What is part parcel of this belief system is
that the East has little, if anything at all to offer us. Essentially, it says that there may be some nice
religions in the East, who propagate non-violence, but when it comes to the real stuff, well they simply don’t
have what it takes! People like these are plainly false.

As anyone who knows me will tell you I’m no religious fanatic, nor am I God fearing. Rather, I see the
evangelical nature of thinkers who believe in Scientism as dogmatic. What these people fail to tell us in
their sermons, is that industrial science is only one part of the whole of science! There are other approaches
within the scientific world, there are alternative interpretations to the same facts, and material or industrial

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 © 2007, Sachin Nandha, www.globalchange.org.uk

science is not the last word. In fact, in a hundred years from now, we may look back and realise that this
belief in Scientism was mechanical meddling to the processes of nature, which resulted in our downfall.
What’s more is that Scientism is reductionist. Whereas, the world, I believe needs a far more holistic
approach, one where science has its place, so does quantum mechanics, and spirituality, by which I do not
mean religious spirituality, but the science of looking inwards. I do not feel we should be discarding the
achievements of Scientism, but rather putting it in context with evolution and world history. What I believe
we need, here in the West, is to look at the East, or rather the ancient East. We should look to places like
China, where they had invented gun power, the same invention that took Europeans into global conquest
mode, centuries before, but didn’t use them for world domination and the subjugation of other cultures. We
need to understand that Chinese sailors had reached the Americas centuries before Columbus, but decided
not to invade and brutalise an entire civilisation. Why is this? Where lies the difference?

We, here in the West have indeed developed materially, technologically and militaristically, but we have left
behind a global life style which is unsustainable. Simply put – we cannot keep living the way we are, we are
destroying every living system on this planet, we are polluting and eradicating the very life forces that
sustain us. What we need is a complimentary system, where the outward progress of Scientism is
accompanied by the inward psychological science of the East – especially the Hindu & Buddhist East, and not
the Religious East. The inward psychological science of the East would check the hyper-testosterone driven
outward science of the West. It goes something like this – if a person is primitive inwardly, that person
cannot utilise the outward material science for the common good – rather they would use it to satisfy their
own greed, for war and self preservation. Hence, we need an education system that trains the inner world,
as well as the outer. Essentially, what I am saying is that material, industrial science can only save us,
when those who command it are in self control.

If we are to genuinely make a change on our planet, then we here in the West, need to change our thinking.
We need to take a look at the way in which we run our universities, our departments, and see the type of
research we are conducting. Far too many universities are driven by greed, and greed has lead them
towards chemical research, petro-chemical research, genetics for warfare, and other defence orientated
industries. Too many bright academics are ignorant of their own research – why? Well, I believe because
they are inwardly unsure, they are spiritually wayward and lack basic emotional intelligence. Where will this
change come form?

In short, it must come from the marriage between Western material science and the inward psychological
science of the East.