Buddhists challenge their beliefs against modern science

An article titled "Tibetan Monks and Nuns turn their Minds to Science" appars in the Tuesday edition of the New York Times. Unlike many conventional religions which at times see modern science as an irritant to their core beliefs, Buddhists have always embraced science as a complement to their belief system. Below is a quote from the article and you can read the entire story here.

“There are contradictions within Buddhist philosophy itself,” pointed out Lobsang Gompo, a 27-year-old monk from Drepung monastery in south India. Tibetan Buddhists are already accustomed to analyzing multiple viewpoints, he said.

The Dalai Lama’s confidence in “critical investigation” means that “if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims,” he wrote in “The Universe in a Single Atom.”

Lhadron, the nun, added, “Buddhists believe whatever reality is there, not just what such and such a text says.”