Are Buddhism and Science married?

 Two things fascinate me: Buddhism and science. I have been exposed to both for sometime, but only recently the boundary between these two has dissolved for me. Thank you Coursera and Robert Wright for opening me the door to such a fascinating area! 

Im my opinion Buddha and the early Buddhist were truly scientists. I think, in both a current science and Buddhism, the most of ideas are built on observation, experiment, and evidence. Buddha himself did not encouraged believing in something you haven’t experienced as truth: "Now, Kalamas, don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.' When you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness' — then you should enter & remain in them.- Kalama Sutta from Access to insight. A good science also doesn’t ask you to believe, it just provides you tools and evidence to find the truth. The rest is your own experience and choice.

In this blog, I will mostly concentrate on Buddhist ideas that can be verified scientifically.  For example, I will explore such questions as: Why we suffer? Why do we like to feel good and avoid bad feelings? Why do people fight? Is "self" real? Is there any purpose to our existence? These and many more ideas are prevalent in Buddhist texts and dogmas. Science has evidence to support these ideas. Such ideas as karma and reincarnation will be more tricky to discuss here. It is not to say that they are be less valid,  but at moment is it is more difficult to find a compelling scientific evidence to support these ideas.  But suggestions how to test if for example karma is real, are welcome (well, this is if you dear to tease your Karma!)

I haven’t yet decided on the frequency I will be posting here, but I hope to post every week at least or as an inspiration hits me. I hope you will enjoy this blog and we will have a wonderful discussion going on.