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Astronomy, Pseudoscience, and Rational Thinking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2016

Jayant V. Narlikar*
Affiliation:
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, India E-mail: jvn@iucaa.ernet.in

Extract

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In 1944, three years before India became independent of the British rule, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote in his now famous book Discovery of India: ”The impact of science and the modern world have brought a greater appreciation of facts, a more critical faculty, a weighing of evidence, a refusal to accept tradition merely because it is tradition”. But even today it is strange how we suddenly become overwhelmed by tradition, and the critical faculties of even intelligent people cease to function. He then went on to express the hope that ”Only when we are politically and economically free will the mind function normally and critically”.

Type
II. Special Scientific Sessions
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Pacific 2005