Christian Gravity vs Hindu Gravity
Christian gravity and Hindu gravity, are you wondering what religion has to with gravity, then read on. Gravity is a physical property of earth and it exists since the creation of the Universe. It is there whether any religion believes in it or not. It is the power of the earth to hold things on it. Gravity is a fact of life and it does not require any faith to exist. It is there for all believers and non believers. However, from the perspective of religion, there are different explanations of the phenomenon called gravity. This article attempts to understand the standing of two major religions of the world, Christianity and Hinduism on the subject of gravity.
When we talk of gravity, it is normal to think of Galileo and Copernicus, scared to death as they tried to say something that defied the Bible and the Church. Also the vision of Newton sitting under a tree and being hit by an apple comes to mind when he proclaimed the existence of gravity and made laws of gravity. But even before these great scientists even thought of rotation of earth around the sun or gravity of the earth, there were Hindu philosophers and intellectuals who wrote clearly on these concepts hundreds of years ago.
Hindu scholars sought to justify the concept of gravity as a nature of earth just as it is the nature of water to flow and the nature of fire to burn, and that of wind to set in motion. They said that earth is the only low thing, and seeds always return to it, in whatever direction you may throw them, and never rise upwards. Thus gravity was sought to be justified as the nature of the earth. The earth attracts that which is upon her, for it is the below towards all directions, and heaven is the above towards all directions.
Thus it is clear that it was over a millennium before Galileo, Copernicus and Newton propounded their theories of globular shape of earth, its rotation and gravity that Hindu philosophers had already explained it.