4 SOCIAL SCIENTIST In direct opposition, those who belonged to the other camp in philosophy—priest-astronomers and idealist philosophers, religious teachers and mystics, poets and storytellers, charlatans and quacks— freely exercised their imagination to spread the idea that life was divinely ordained, created by a pre-existing concept or spirit. Idealism counter-posed to the frail material world, in which everything had a beginning and an end, the eternal and unchanging spirit. It held that while living creatures were born to die, the essence of life, a non-material principle, was eternal. Life did not arise anew and could not be destroyed. It merely changed its external material envelope, as it transformed inert material into living things. Over several centuries, these philosophies, metaphysical concepts, religious myths and mystical notions accumulated, spread among the t^JbS,^^. Q *. <.A^, 'pCCy ..'C., tLI'..'^* ^^s •^»LV ^.JL x.U>.^.^ ^.^^^.db. jk-«S'^>V». ».Y^>j».3».Y y '*.^?>. 3o ^^TIt.Q.C't of rapid advance of science, these myths and illusions are at large among the people. This is especially true of a country such as India. The idealist scales that have gathered over centuries cannot be cleared away overnight, under socioeconomic conditions that need these scales to protect themselves. All religions have taught that the world is the product of a universal, supernatural idea, conception, or spirit; and that man is the creature and slave of this divine intervention and horseplay. This is true of the many tales Hinduism has for creation. It is equally true of the seven-day Biblical wonder of genesis and of the Islamic myth inspired by the potter's craft and the sculptor's art. Doctrine of Spontaneous Generation Religion is nothing but ^the fantastic reflection in men's minds of those external forces which control their daily life."'* Direct uncritical observation and experience of surrounding nature boosted the old religious beliefs and added to the fantastic lore about the e mystery of life'. Uncritical observation led to the belief that while living things (insects, worms, sometimes even fishy birds and mice) could be formed by things like themselves, they could also arise fully formed by spontaneous generation,8 out of the mud, the earth, and other inanimate substances. People of all countries and at various times—from 4000 years ago to the middle of the nineteenth century—swore by spontaneous generation. From the earliest time, idealism united the dogma of eternal life with the belief in spontaneous generation. This unity was most clearly illustrated in the doctrine of 'panspermia', the doctrine that the fertilizing or life-giving principle takes the form of invisible spiritual germs dispersed everywhere. The doctrine received influential support from idealistic Roman philosophers, from the mediaeval European schoolmen, and from a number of modern natural philosophers.4 With the great advance in the observation of natural phenomena