Examine the Sikh reponse to the challenges of science. A

intro

within sikhism there is respect and recognition for scientific discoveries, yet sikhs hold the belief that their guru granth sahib contains all knowledge about the universe

dr d.p. singh states that “science and religion in spite of being autonomous undertakings are like contemporary forces that operate in tandem”

P1 - Big Bang Theory

the scientific theory of the big bang states that the universe ebgan as a single cosmic explosion about 13.7 billion years ago

they gave evidence for this that the universe is expanding and that the universe has cosmic background radiation, from the energy left over from the big bang, whic is spread all over the universe

scientists claim that after the big bang , clumps formed into huge clusters of matter, and then these clusters became galaxies of the universe

sikhs would repsond to this with their ideas of creation from the guru granth sahib

“he created the sun and the moon ..many millions are the fields of creation and galaxies, showing that their ideas of creation dont conflict with the big bang theory

both depict monism that the universe began from a singular point, and the universe expands

teh guru granth sahib says “he has expanded his expansion of creation many times”

sohinder singh sachdev states “a religion deals with absolutes while science and scientific theories deal with probabilites and scientific investigations”

P2 - Evolution

darwins theory of evolution and natural selection states that all creatures are subject to variation, which means that a process called ‘surivival of the fittest’ can occur, where those with better adpated genes can survive, and those without die, allowing the better genes to be passed on, e.g. giraffe long encks

sikhs would respond that it is possible that evolution occured, but only if god was in complete control of the process, as god cares for all living things, and is is charge of the birth, life and death of everything within his creation

the guru granth sahib says that “he created the creation and watches over it”

sohinder singh sachdev states “the sikh religion seems to enither endorse no contravene such scientific theories as the origin of species by Charles Darwin”

Owen Cole also states “sikhism has no difficulty coming to terms with scientific theories of evolution they find them congenial to the belief in an expanding universe derived from the mind of God”

P3 - String Theory

string theory is the idea that reality is made up of infinitesimal vibrating strings

according to this theory as the strings vibrate they twist and fold, and produce effects in many tiny dimensions that humans interpret as everything from particle physics to large-scale phenomena, like gravity

sikhs respond to this as being entirely true, as they believe that “waheguru spoke once and there was creation” insinuating that the universe began from a sound

sikh philosophy says that everything within the creation contains vibrations and the frequencies of the vibrating strings could be argued to be similar to this

the guru granth sahib states “god created the universe with one sound” this is supported by the 5 shabads, in which Naam is a continuous vibration, where as one steps down the 5 planes of existence the frequency changes creating “Panj shabad”, and that “attuned to the true guru you shall recieve a place of honour in the court of the lord”