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I think that science is limited because of its need for observation. In order to study something we need to be able to observe it. Therefore if something cannot be seen then science denies its existence completely. But we already know that there is an entire spectrum of light that the human eye cannot see. The only reason we thought of exploring other wavelengths is because we knew that there were wavelengths we could see. So the wavelengths of the visible spectrum were our starting points. In this manner there maybe so many things that we have never studied, because we cannot see them and there is no starting point for us to even think about their existence. Birds regularly use ultraviolet light to hunt and even to attract a mate. In class we had a discussion about whether animals live in another universe, and I think that we share the same universe; it is only our different abilities that allow us to see a different aspect of it.

            I don’t think that science can give us the complete truth, but I do think that it brings us closer to the truth. An example of this is a problem faced in quantum mechanics. Light is both a particle and a wave that allows us to perform observations. The light particle however is larger than an electron. This is a problem because if we want to observe an electron and we direct a light particle at it, the very act of observing the electron perturbs it. So all we know is where the electron was, and all we can do is estimate where it could be, but we can never know the electron’s exact position. Also we will only know how the electron behaved after it was perturbed, we will never know how it was before we threw the light particle at it. In this way science does bring us closer to the truth, but it never gives us the complete truth. Therefore we can say that there is a limit to how much we can learn.

            Hinduism however, says that it is possible to learn about everything in one lifetime. Science again can only bring us closer to the truth, hence we will be able to learn about the chemical, physical and biological aspect of something, but we will never know the complete truth. Let’s take water as an example. Hinduism says that we could learn about the chemical, physical and biological aspect of water, but we will never know how it feels to be water. According to Hindu philosophy, the soul is nothing but energy trapped inside a physical form and when we gain enlightenment through meditation, we are able to free the soul from the body and become part of the universal soul/energy. Since we are now energy, we are able to penetrate anything and gain complete truth.