January 7, 2019 (bbc.com)
• Under Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP party in India, pseudoscience has moved from the fringe to the mainstream. Academics are embellishing science with instances of Hindu mythology and religious-based theories. And the hard-line Indian scientists don’t like it.
• Mainstream Indian scientists have criticized speakers at conferences, such as the recent 106th Indian Science Congress, for making irrational claims including: Hindus invented stem cell research thousands of years ago; the ancient Hindu epic, Ramayana, revealed that India had 24 types of aircraft and a network of landing strips in modern day Sri Lanka; Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were both wrong and that gravitational waves should be renamed “Narendra Modi Waves”; cosmetic surgery was practiced in India thousands of years ago (as evidenced by the Hindu god Ganesha – whose elephant head is attached to a human body); the Hindu god, Brahma, discovered dinosaurs and documented them in ancient Indian scriptures; and that nuclear tests were conducted in the sub-continent more than 100,000 years ago.
• Lawmaker Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank prompted outrage in 2014 when he said that “science is a dwarf in front of astrology”.
• The Indian Scientific Congress Association expressed “serious concern” at these types of remarks. Critics say that while ancient texts should be read and enjoyed – it was nonsense to suggest they represented science. Indian economist Kaushik Basu said, “For a nation to progress it is important for people to spend time on science, mathematics and literature instead of spending time showing that 5,000 years ago their ancestors did science, mathematics and literature.”
• [Editor’s Note] There is evidence to suggest that much of the advanced technologies described in ancient texts, particularly Hindu texts which contain abundant references to ancient technology, are more real than myth. But this threatens mainstream science which doesn’t want us to imagine any type of technology beyond the status quo, because this is reserved for the elite and powerful who regularly employ advanced technologies in their secret space programs and secretive breakaway civilizations. The elite would prefer that we wallow on the surface of this planet using our regulated electrical power sources and petroleum-based combustion engines while they benefit from anti-gravity, electro-magnetic propulsion, warp drive, temporal drive, dark energy, zero-point energy, wormholes, portals, stargates and other ‘exotic’ technologies in their off-planet endeavors. I applaud the new wave of academics and scientists who refuse to be constricted by the limits placed on our society by the disingenuous elite who have manipulated our Earth society over the past century.
Scientists in India have hit out at speakers at a major conference for making irrational claims, including that ancient Hindus invented stem cell research.
Some academics at the annual Indian Science Congress dismissed the findings of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.
Hindu mythology and religion-based theories have increasingly become part of the Indian Science Congress agenda.
But experts said remarks at this year’s summit were especially ludicrous.
The 106th Indian Science Congress, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, runs from 3-7 January.
The head of a southern Indian university cited an old Hindu text as proof that stem cell research was discovered in India thousands of years ago.
G Nageshwar Rao, vice chancellor of Andhra University, also said a demon king from the Hindu religious epic, Ramayana, had 24 types of aircraft and a network of landing strips in modern day Sri Lanka.
Another scientist from a university in the southern state of Tamil Nadu told conference attendees that Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were both wrong and that gravitational waves should be renamed “Narendra Modi Waves”.
Dr KJ Krishnan reportedly said Newton failed to “understand gravitational repulsive forces” and Einstein’s theories were “misleading”.
Critics said that while ancient texts should be read and enjoyed – it was nonsense to suggest they represented science.
The Indian Scientific Congress Association expressed “serious concern” at the remarks.
“We don’t subscribe to their views and distance ourselves from their comments. This is unfortunate,” Premendu P Mathur, general secretary of Indian Scientific Congress Association, told the AFP news agency.
“There is a serious concern about such kind of utterances by responsible people.”
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