HINTS ON PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY - 10. Swami Vivekananda.

10/02/2017.

(Delivered at the Home of Truth, Los Angeles, California )

10.1
For practical purposes, let us talk in the language of modern science.

But I must ask you to bear in mind that, as there is religious superstition, so also there is a superstition in the matter of science.

10.2
There are priests who take up religious work as their speciality; so also there are priests of physical law, scientists.

As soon as a great scientist's name, like Darwin or Huxley, is cited, we follow blindly.

It is the fashion of the day.

10.3
Ninety-nine per cent of what we call scientific knowledge is mere theories.

And many of them are no better than the old superstitions of ghosts with many heads and hands, but with this difference that the latter differentiated man a little from stocks and stones.

10.4
True science asks us to be cautious.

Just as we should be careful with the priests, so we should be with the scientists.

10.5
Begin with disbelief.

Analyse, test, prove everything, and then take it.

10.6
Some of the most current beliefs of modern science have not been proved.

Even in such a science as mathematics, the vast majority of its theories are only working hypotheses.

With the advent of greater knowledge they will be thrown away.

To be continued ...