Sikhi and Science

With the university announcing the format of the next academic year, we hope this email finds you all well. Whilst we as a committee are thinking ahead towards next Michaelmas, we would first like to hope everyone and their families are well and safe.

As with previous bulletins, we would like to thank everyone for their feedback. We always appreciate your suggestions and would love to know if there is anything else that you would like to see. Whilst none of us may be experts on these subjects, we hope this email is informative and helps to spark discussion.

The topic of this bulletin concerns Sikhi and its relationship with Science. With many of us here at the university pursuing studies in a wide variety in scientific disciplines, we thought to offer a new topic discussing the several ways that our philosophy overlaps with developments in scientific thought.

We see several allusions made within Gurbani about the Universe, Nature, and how these are all subsumed in the nature of the divine. One such place that has immeasurable depth is the concept of Ek Onkar (ੴ). Translations vary between the ideas of “one creator”, “one creation”, or more simply, “oneness”. However, it is difficult to convey the entire depth of this statement through a simple translation. Instead, it best to understand the implications this has on our conception of the universe and of Vaheguru – that we are all descended from the divine, and that all creation around us is simply an extension of this divine.

After some research, we would like to present you with this short list of content we’ve found useful in relation to Sikhi and Science.

It is more important to note than ever, however, that this list is by no means exhaustive.  Our scientific understanding of the universe is developing on a daily basis, as is our understanding of our Guru’s philosophy. However, we hope this can be a springboard to discussing several ideas and themes.