A Study of Religious and Scientific Perspectives on Buddhist Cosmology

Abstract

This research was qualitative, it was to investigate Buddhist cosmology as found in Buddhist scriptures and compare cosmological perspectives between 5 Buddhist scholars and 5 scientists. In Thai Buddhist cosmology, the principles of Paṭiccasamuppāda and Tilakkhaṇa share some similar ideas with the causality principle of science. Scientists regard them as a fundamental universal principle that underpins the laws of nature, which is unsurprising. Another similarity is Saṃsāra, the cycle of rebirth, which may be compared to the birth and extinction of stars but is not comparable to the physical Universe as a whole. Thai Buddhist scholars have accepted that Buddhist and scientific cosmologies are compatible. I argue that when it comes to the physical matter of the universe, its definition, evolution, shape, space, and time, the perspectives of Buddhist scholars and scientists are radically different and cannot be compared. Furthermore, Buddhist and scientific approaches to understanding natural laws are diametrically opposed; Buddhism concentrates on the mind, whilst science concentrates on the physical universe; thus, they cannot be naturally compared.