Our Faith in Science - New York Times

Our Faith in Science - New York Times: "Our Faith in Science
EDITRO'S NOTE:
TENZIN GYATSO is the 14th Dali Lama

By TENZIN GYATSO
Published: November 12, 2005

Washington

SCIENCE has always fascinated me. As a child in Tibet, I was keenly curious about how things worked. When I got a toy I would play with it a bit, then take it apart to see how it was put together. As I became older, I applied the same scrutiny to a movie projector and an antique automobile.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Karen Barbour

At one point I became particularly intrigued by an old telescope, with which I would study the heavens. One night while looking at the moon I realized that there were shadows on its surface. I corralled my two main tutors to show them, because this was contrary to the ancient version of cosmology I had been taught, which held that the moon was a heavenly body that emitted its own light."