What place does religion have in the scientific age and what is its use in national and social life?

Osho, what place does religion have in the scientific age? And what is the use of religion in national and social life?

By science I mean the method of knowing that discovers the inner power hidden in matter. By religion I mean the method of knowing that discovers the inner power hidden within consciousness. There is no opposition between religion and science; rather, they are complementary. An age that is purely scientific will increase conveniences, but not happiness. An age that is purely religious will bring happiness to a few, but most people will be burdened by inconvenience. Science gives convenience; religion gives peace. Without convenience, very few can attain peace. Without peace, many may attain convenience, but they will not be able to use it. All the civilizations humanity has created so far have been incomplete and fragmented. The culture the East gave birth to stood purely on religion; its scientific side was extremely weak. As a result, the East was defeated, impoverished, subjugated. The culture the West created lies at…

Beloved Osho, I heard you say sometime ago that science is of the head and religion is of the heart. I understand that these qualities, being of a polarity, are mutually dependent. One cannot exist without the other, just as man cannot exist without both head and heart. Would not then a world scientific community bring with it, as a necessary by-product, a world religious community? Is not the vision of a world science and a world religion synthesized in your vision of the new man?

Man is not only head and heart. There is something more than both in him -- his being. So you have to understand three things: the head, the heart and the being. I have said religion is of the heart, because religion is the bridge between head and being. The head cannot jump to the being directly unless it goes through the heart. Science is confined to the head, reason, logic. The heart is confined to feelings, emotions, sensitivities. But the being is beyond both. It is pure silence -- no thinking, no feeling. And only the man who knows his being is authentically religious. The heart is only a stopover. But you have to understand my difficulty. You are in the head. I cannot talk about the being because the head will not be able to communicate with the being. For the head there is no being; that's why…

Osho, you discussed how science could organize the creation of superior human bodies. But what will be achieved by superior bodies alone? How can science choose superior souls? And how will it ensure that only superior souls enter excellent bodies? This task would have to be done by a pure, enlightened soul like you. Science may be able to produce a scientist or a Hitler, but how could one arrange to bring forth a Krishna, a Mahavira, or a Buddha? Please shed light on this.

And souls are eager; infinite souls are always wandering, ready to enter wombs. And you will be surprised to know: ordinary souls enter immediately, because ordinary wombs are always available—thousands of fools are engaged in intercourse, twenty-four hours somewhere or other... somewhere it is night. And now the modern man doesn’t even count day and night; he is at sex day or night—who cares! Everywhere there are wombs available for ordinary people to be born. But extraordinary beings have to wait for many years to take birth, because such an extraordinary womb is not available. If we can provide extraordinary wombs, we can fill the earth with Buddhas, with Mahaviras. And certainly, if people are healthy, prosperous, intelligent, then what you say, Anand Veetrag—that this work will have to be done by a pure, enlightened soul like you—my work will become simple. The work of awakening the soul will become…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, CAN SCIENCE ITSELF BE RELIGIOUS? It has been one of the greatest misfortunes that science is not religious. It can be religious and it should be religious. Science is only a method. It has no direction, no values; it is just a method. It can be used for destruction, it can be used for creativity, because in itself it is only a neutral methodology. Science has not been religious up to now because religions will not allow it to be religious. It is a question of a large vested interest. No religion would like science to be religious. It will mean religions will have to commit suicide. They cannot go on exploiting people, giving them superstitions, beliefs -- all that will have to stop, because science has no belief system, it does not create superstitions. If science knows something, it is knowledge.

Beloved master, I have always thought that the sense of science lies in its utility for human needs; in helping to provide enough food, finding treatments against sickness, creating machines to deliver man from hard and stupid work, etcetera. Until now I have always been convinced that there is nothing wrong with science, but rather with the popular attitude towards science: that it can discover the interior laws of life. Now I hear in your words that science itself is a root of the miseries in the world, because it destroys the mysteries of life and hence leads to an antireligious attitude. A

Prem Peter, I am not against science, but I am certainly for a different kind of science, with a totally different quality to it. Science as it exists now is very lopsided; it takes account only of the material, it leaves the spiritual out of it -- and that is very dangerous. If man is only matter, all meaning disappears from life. What meaning can life have if man is only matter? What poetry is possible, what significance, what glory? The idea that man is matter reduces man to a very undignified state. The so-called science takes all the glory of man away from him. That's why there is such a feeling of meaninglessness all over the world. People are feeling utterly empty. Yes, they have better machines, better technology, better houses, better food, than ever. But all this affluence, all this material progress, is of no value unless you…