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to say to every aspect of human life. The Buddha has a teaching for worldly way (#M✯).
E. Buddhism and Science
The question of the attitude of Hong Kong Buddhists towards science is too wide a topic to be discussed fully in this paper. However, a short sketch of the current trend is desirable for an understanding of the monk's mental framework.
Science has come to the attention of the monks because its effect on modern life cannot be ignored and because it has captured the faith of almost everybody. Buddhism has been pushed to a defensive position when some of its beliefs and practices have been judged superstitious and 'unscientific.' It has tried very hard to rid itself of the tag 'superstition.' Four kinds of arguments have
been put forward in recent discussions.
The first is a redefinition of Buddhism or a restoration of the Buddha's original teaching. This argument contends that all that can be called superstitious in Buddhism belongs to accretions and borrowings of rituals and beliefs of other religions and these have been tolerated in order to please the incorrigible tendencies of unsophisticated believers. These can be and should be done away with when the believer makes advances in his knowledge of the religion. The Buddha's teaching is a philosophical one and contains nothing contrary to science.20
The second argument, a favourite one, is that Buddhist teaching anticipates discoveries in science and thus possesses a cosmology more compatible with modern scientific discoveries than the cosmologies of other religions. Many examples of anticipation have been offered. The following is only a sampling: 1. Buddhism affirms the existence of millions and billions of world systems. This anticipates and corresponds to the astronomical discoveries of innumerable galaxies and solar systems in the universe.21
The Buddhist cosmology is thus superior to the Judaeo-Christian one which makes this world the centre of everything. 2.
2. The Buddha saw 84,000 worms in a bowl of water. This anticipates the discovery of microbes after the invention of the microscope.22 3. The Buddha says that the world