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Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies Volume 23 Article 9 January 2010 Vidyaranya Swami's "pañca viveka" and Thomas Aquinas' "quinque viae" in the Light of Today's Science Klaus K. Klostermaier Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2010) "Vidyaranya Swami's "pañca viveka" and Thomas Aquinas' "quinque viae" in the Light of Today's Science," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 23, Article 9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1461 The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Klostermaier: Vidyaranya Swami's "pañca viveka" and Thomas Aquinas' "quinque viae" in the Light of Today's Science 1 Vidyara:Q.ya SwamI's paiica viveka and Thomas Aquinas' quinque viae in the Light of Today's Science Klaus K. Klostermaier Professor Emeritus, University of Manitoba "Brahman cannot be seen, but through entries under the term 'proofs of god.' Its reasoning1 and revelatio~ its extremely long Wikipedia article ranges widely existence can be ascertained. " and includes Christian and Hindu proofs of the Vidyara:r;tya (1268- 1350), Pancadasi VI, existence of God as well as traditional and 1673 contemporary arguments against it. It is not my intention in this paper to roll out "From the effects of God it can be the entire problematic connected with the issue of demonstrated that God is." 'proofs of god' or to deal with the historical Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Summa contexts to the Pancadasf and the Summa theologica I, 2, 2 ad 34 . theologica. To do so would require a book-length essay. Nor do I wish to cover the entire spectrum "Man knows at last that he is alone in the of Christian and Hindu contributions to this universe's unfeeling immensity, out of which problematic.1o I simply found it intriguing to he emerged only by chance." juxtapose the quintet of Vidyar~ya's patica Jacques Monod (1910-1976), Chance and vivekas and of Aquinas' quinque viae and to NecessitY attempt figure out how they would hold up to present-day scientific arguments. IN the context of recent attempts to shore up "Natural Theology" flourished in the 18th atheism with philosophical and scientific century, when the foundations to many of the argumentsQ the construction of rational proofs for modem sciences were laid. It was popular in the existence of God is receiving renewed English universities at a time when most of the attention. Over against the assertion of some science teachers were also members of the clergy. scientists that religious belief is both unscientific William Paley's (1743-1805) Natural Theology or and irrational, philosophers and theologians argue Evidence of the Existence and Attributes of the that the study of nature itself offers. a great deal of Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature evidence for the existence of a Creator. They are (1802) was used as a standard text at Cambridge supported by numerous reputable scientists, the University for half a century. Charles Darwin also authors of book titles like The Language of God7 read it and Richard Dawkins, perhaps the best­ or The Mind of Gocf and many others. It is known contemporary 'scientific atheist,' alluded to noteworthy that Google has over two million one of its inore famous passages in the title of his Klaus K.Klostermaier, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Distinguished Professor,,,5:Emeritus, University of Manitoba, is the author of numerous books and articles on Hinduism, e.g. A Survey of Hinduism, SUNY, 3rd edition 2007 and Hinduism: A Short Introduction, Oneworld: Oxford, 4th printing 2008. He has been engaged in Hindu-Christian dialogue since the 1960s (cf. Christian and Hindu in Vrindaban, SCM London 1971). One of his major interests has been the SCience-Religion dialogue. He team-taught graduate courses in this area with science-faculty and was the recipient of a Templeton Foundation Course Award (1995). Among his publications in this area is The Nature of Nature: Explorations in Science, Philosophy and Reli~ion, Theosophical Publishing House: Adyar, 2004. Journal ofHindu-Christian Studies 23 (2010):28-39 Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2010 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 23 [2010], Art. 9 ri ! VidyaraJ;lya Swfu::nI's patica viveka and Thomas Aquinas' quinque viae 29 The Blind Watchmaker. Some later Protestant At the time of Thomas Aquinas there was no theologians rejected Natural Theology as organized or institutionalized atheism in the West. l1 unbiblical , but today it is experiencing Aquinas' arguments to prove the existence of God significant revival and revitalization.12 Woltbart look more like an exercise in philosophy than as Pannenberg, a Lutheran theologian, published in , part of an existential debate. His (largely 1993 a collection of essays under the title Towards imaginary) opponents used some of the same a Theology of Nature: Essays on Science and arguments that modern atheists are proffering: if Faith. 13 Alister E. McGrath, an Anglican an infinitely good and all-powerful God existed, theologian with a solid background in science, there should not be so much evil in the world.21 recently published a series of lectures under the Since all things in this world can be explained title The Open Secret: A New Vision for Natural naturally without recourse to the notion of God, Theology.14 In his textbook fScience and Religion there is no need to postulate a Creator. Aquinas he devoted an entire chapter to "Proofs for God's attempted to prove the existence of a Creator-God Existence. ,,15 with the help of the then commonly accepted In Catholic circles Thomas Aquinas' "Five Aristotelian four causes: efficient, material, formal ' Proofs for the Existence of God"16 have remained and final. The atheists of his time - the addressees popular throughout the ages. They were a staple in of the proofs - seem to have been few and fairly texts on Theologia Naturalis. a branch of the unsophisticated. They certainly were not philosophical propaedeutics to theology proper. organized and had no institutional basis. The The recently published Catechism of the Catholic position of the Church was too strong to allow Church17 states unequivocally that: "The existence effective contradiction. of God the Creator can be known with certainty The task that confronted VidyaraJ;tya, the 14th through his works. ,,18 Christian apologists, who century Hindu aclirya, appears to have been more used philosophical and scientific arguments to difficult There was no central Hindu authority prove the existence of God, thereby attempted to 'that prescribed a dogma-based faith and there show that their faith had a reasonable foundation. were a great many different Hindu cosmogonies In India, Hindus were engaged for many and theologies. VidyaraJ;lya had to face a mature centuries in polemics with the Buddhists who Buddhist scholastic tradition that had worked out denied a Creator and 5ln all-embracing divine its positions with, considerable philosophical providence on the basis of empirical knowledge acumen. Apart from certain conventions, there and logical, arguments. Buddhist and Hindu was no commonly accepted philosophical canon scholars passionately debated this issue,? which and no agreement on epistemology?2 The dominated Ind~an philosophy for over a ,iliousand Buddhists operated largely with arguments based th years. Santarak~ita's TattvasaIiJ.graha (8 century) on commonsense logic, quite persuasive 'even for - summarizing centuries of Hindu-Buddhist ordinary people.23 Vidyaranya, convinced that controversies on a ,great many critical issues - tarka (formal logic ) was not sufficient to settle the contains many chapters that refute Hindu notions matte?4, resorted to viveka (differentiation) to of creator and creation.19 ,Sankara (8th century?) in make his case.25 It was out of the question to his Brahmasiitrabha$ya devotys considerable construct a proof for the existence of transcendent space to a refutation of several Buddhist brahman based on the perception of,sense-objects: positions.2o The Buddhist teaching of siinyata' as the ontological uniqueness (a-dvaita) of brahman ultimate ground of all phenomena appeared to be would forbid such a procedure. In his Paiicadasi in direct conflict with the Vedantic affirmation of VidyaraJ;lya differentiates the immaterial from the brahman as saccidiinanda. If Buddhists considered material, the eternally existent from the transient universal 'emptiness' as the last truth about the and thus reveals both its reality and its difference world, the Vedantins emphasized brahman as the from the things of sense-experience, the basis of real ground of everything. In that tradition the Buddhist atheistic argument. He explains that VidyaraJ;tya offers his proofs for the existence of the purpose of his exercise was to offer easy brahman - ultimate reality. access to Brahman-knowledge for those "whose hearts have been purified by service at the feet of https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol23/iss1/9 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1461 2 Klostermaier: Vidyaranya Swami's "pañca viveka" and Thomas Aquinas' "quinque viae" in the Light of Today's Science 30 Klaus K. Klostermaier the guru. ,,26 This "moral qualification" is usually accepted as authoritative, must be corrected by left out in the contemporary debate! factual evidence, when available. Aristotle certainly still deserves respect for his manifold VidyaraJ).ya's and Aquinas' Proofs (~ contributions to the world of philosophy, but some of his presuppositions are no longer acceptable in Vidyaranya's opus magnum, the PaficadasP, the light of the findings of contemporary Physics is divided into three parts containing five chapters and Astrophysics.
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