The godless Scientists

Demons oppose God consciousness in all respects-even to the extent of concocting their own atheistic philosophies. The Bhagavad-gita explains:

"The demons say that this world is unreal, that there is no foundation, and that there is no God in control. They believe it is produced of sex desire, and has no cause other than lust" (Bg. 16.8).

This material world, with all its complex details, is itself irrefutable evidence of the existence of God. From the grand arrangement of the stars and planets down to the intricate workings of the atom, the affairs of the material world are so perfectly planned that they couldn't possibly exist without the supervision of a higher intelligence. Unwilling to acknowledge that supreme intelligence, however, the demons conjure up various philosophical theories to deny the obvious.

The chief offenders in this respect are the materialistic scientists, who misuse their God-given intelligence to contend that there is no God in control of the cosmic manifestation. They have many theories about the creation of the universe-all of them fantastic, and all of them foolish and implausible. According to one such theory, everything began from a concentrated mass of gases. According to another, everything began from atomic interactions. Other theories postulate that vast clouds of cosmic dust coagulated to form planets. But where have the gases, the atoms, or the cosmic dust come from? The demons cannot answer. And no wonder! As the Encyclopedia Britannica admits, "It should be emphasized that no theory of the origin of the solar system has as yet won general acceptance. All involve highly improbable assumptions. But the difficulty is in trying to find a theory with any degree of probability at all." Thus, with such "highly improbable" theories the demons try to deny God as the origin and controller of the universe.

The Bhagavad-gita emphasizes not only that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, has generated the material elements, but also that He controls the material nature in all phases of creation, maintenance, and dissolution. But despite their sharp, inquisitive minds, the materialistic scientists cannot understand this fact, because their so-called intelligence has been stolen by illusion. As Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, "The foolish demons, who are the lowest among men, do not surrender to Me, for their intelligence has been plundered by My illusory energy" (Bg. 7.15).

Having failed to concoct any plausible theory to discredit the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the origin of the universe, the demonic scientists (as if to add insult to injury) also put forward godless propaganda about the origin of life. Abandoning logic and good sense, the demons say that order, by chance, arises from disorder, and that life springs spontaneously from matter. For example, according to one scenario for the creation of life, billions of years ago the earth spun off from the sun. Over many millions of years, the earth gradually cooled, and various elements interacted to create the earth's atmosphere and oceans. By chance some of these elements formed a "primordial chemical broth" of amino acids. Then, again by chance, various kinds of radiation stimulated this broth to give rise to organic chemicals, such as proteins. As a result of further coincidences too complicated to explain here, these proteins (with a little help from some accidental thunderbolts, or some other unknown cause) finally changed into living organisms.

This is supposed to be a highly evolved, sophisticated theory-made possible by the latest advances in scientific knowledge-but in fact it is the same demonic philosophy described in the Bhagavad-gita five thousand years ago: aparaspara-sambhūtam kim anyat kama-haitukam: "The demons believe that everything in this world is a product of the random attraction of various material bodies" (Bg. 16.8). Foolish demons, although sometimes honored as great scientists and philosophers, do not properly understand the workings of the material world because they do not know the difference between matter and spirit. They try to explain everything in terms of matter, and therefore they are materialists of the most blatant sort.

Even an ordinary person, however, if he uses his common sense, can see the difference between matter and spirit. For example, he need only consider the difference between a living body and a dead body. Once our spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, addressed a meeting of students and faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began by saying, "This is a great university, and you have many different departments for study and research-engineering, chemistry, and so on. But do you know the difference between a living body and a dead body?" No answer. That was something their technology hadn't gotten around to. They had only the haziest notions: in a dead body the heart isn't beating, the dead body has stopped breathing, and so on. Huge buildings, thousands of students, millions of dollars-but no common sense.

The difference between a living body and a dead body, His Divine Grace explained, is that the living body has consciousness. When a child is born dead, what's missing? All the organs are intact. All the necessary organic chemicals are present in abundance. Nothing has been ruptured or destroyed. The cells have not yet begun to deteriorate. Why, then, can't the dead child be brought back to life? The answer is that consciousness is not a product of matter and is therefore beyond the purview of material science.

This consciousness, which is the essential, nonmaterial element within the body, can never be understood by a demon. A doctor may artificially make the heart beat or the lungs pump air, but he cannot artificially create consciousness. There is no way that he can inject consciousness into a body which has died. Consciousness is spiritual, and no one can ever create it by any combination of material elements.

Of course, the demons may boast that they are "just on the verge" of creating life, but these are empty words, like the promise of a bankrupt man to pay a huge sum of money with a post-dated check. Suppose someone says, "Right now I have no money, but in a few days I'll be rich, so let me pay you with a post-dated check." Will any intelligent person accept it? Of course not. First get the money, then come back and purchase what you want. Similarly, why should we believe the so-called scientists who boast that they can create life? So far, they haven't been able to create even an ant or a tiny germ, nor can they point to even a single instance in which a living organism has been spontaneously created from matter. Yet they are proud of their hypothetical explanations of how life came from matter, and they have the unscientific brashness to boast that they can create life in their laboratories. It's time for us to stop accepting these sophisticated braggarts as scientists and recognize them for what they are-demonic rascals who are squandering their God-given intelligence and public-given funds to fight God consciousness and promote utter materialism as the Absolute Truth.