Is Hinduism a Religion or Science?

While browsing through a social networking site, I came across 2 individuals who were debating whether Hinduism is a religion or science. This facinated me and i thought of penning my thoughts on this matter.

First of all we need to define the terms religion and science. Religion according to the Oxford dictionary is defined as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Science on the other hand is defined by the dictionary as the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

Lets first analyse the religion part. Is Hinduism a religion? Well according to Oxford dictionary's definition it certaintly is a religion. Hinduism has many god and goddessess as a dogma and belief. Examples include, but not limited to Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma, Goddess Lakshmi, etc. Furthermore, there is many sacred text which hinduism is based upon, i.e. the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, etc. Therefore it certaintly qualifies as a religion.

Now the science part. The key words here is systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. For this aspect I would just like to dissect one part of Hinduism which is my speciality which is astrology.

Astrology or vedic astrology to be precise is based upon the observation that planetary bodies do have an impact on human conciousness and behaviour. Astrology was developed thousands of years ago in India by the Hindu sages, i.e. Sage Parashara and Sage Agasthiar. Thousands of years before the advent of modern technology and telescopes, these sages were able to map out the star constellations to such an accuracy it bewilders amazement and wonder.

The art and science of astrology has to this date been studied enthusiastically by millions. The science of astrology is actually based both on logi and reasoning based on the observation of the hindu sages of yester years.

Coming back to our argument, so is Hinduism a science then? I believe definetely Hinduism is a science. Astrology which is a sub segment of Hinduism shows us that Hinduism bases its beliefs based on scientific truth.

I will be blogging more on this subjects in my later blog posts. Therefore as a conclusion, I believe Hinduism is both a religion and science as such. Aum.