Body Weight and Calorie Intake There was a time when I used to eat a lot—up to four times a day. And yet I was very thin. Then came a time when I did not increase my food intake, and yet I gained a lot of weight. Then there have […]
Biology
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The Problem in the Intelligent Design Argument
The Intelligent Design Argument has a well-known flaw that is often used by critics against it: The world is not perfectly designed. In a hilariously perverse example of this argument (that I saw on YouTube a few weeks ago), an atheist argues that men’s testicles are not perfectly designed because […]
Biology
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How Living Systems Violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Hypothesis of the Maxwell’s Demon When James Clerk Maxwell proposed the second law of thermodynamics, he envisioned a thought experiment in which two chambers of gas were joined by a small door under the control of a ‘demon’ who would selectively open the door depending on which direction the gas […]
Biology
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Why the Genome Incompletely Describes the Body
Introduction to the Problem Genetic determinism—or the idea that we are fully determined by our genes taken from our parents—is now a thing of the past. Empirical evidence now shows that genes may exist but may not be expressed. The expression is controlled by some ‘epigenetic’ factors (which are also […]
Anthropology / Biology / History
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Species – The Vedic Perspective
An Alternative Concept of Evolution Species in modern science are defined by the type of body and often by their DNA, and they evolve through random mutations and natural selection by the environment. Cracks in this notion of evolution appear when one zooms out to look at ecosystems. An ecosystem […]
Biology / Philosophy
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Can Biology Be Based on the Nature of the Soul?
Introduction and Overview In Vedic philosophy, the soul has three properties—sat or consciousness, chit or meanings, and ananda or pleasure. These three aspects of the soul are also reflected in matter and pervade throughout the body—the parts of the body are due to chit, the functions of each of the […]
Biology / Cosmology / Medicine
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Lessons of Ayurveda for Vedic Cosmology
Introduction and Overview The previous article discussed the model of the human body in Ayurveda. The most surprising aspect of Ayurveda is that it is silent on what modern medicine calls heart, lungs, intestines, brain, pancreas, spleen, etc. It is surprising because modern medical education begins with anatomy and memorizing […]
Biology / Cosmology / Medicine
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The Ayurveda Model of a Living Body
Introduction and Overview Vedic knowledge provides detailed information about many aspects of material nature such as cosmology, sociology, psychology, and biology. For example, the Śrimad Bhāgavatam provides a detailed cosmic model. Varṇāśrama is a sociological model. Sāńkhya is a cognitive model, and Ayurveda is a biological model. All these models […]