Their position is sour grapes. They try by their speculation to understand things, and being unable they say there is no God

Expressions researched:
"They try by their speculation to understand things, and being unable they say there is no God"

1976 Correspondence

What is that simplification? That there is no God. Their position is "sour grapes." They try by their speculation to understand things, and being unable they say there is no God. So we can use this science to defeat them.

Letter to Robert -- Mayapur 8 March, 1976:

You mention that the scientists try "to simplify the problem at hand by neglecting any complex factors that may be present." What is that simplification? That there is no God. Their position is "sour grapes." They try by their speculation to understand things, and being unable they say there is no God. So we can use this science to defeat them, just as I have many other disciples, such as Svarupa Damodara. He is Ph.D. in Chemistry and now he is using his scientific background to defeat their atheistic arguments. There is a Bengali proverb: tor shil tor noda, tor bhangi dater goda. I take your mortar and pestle and I break your teeth. This means that we use the scientists own weapons and with them we defeat their atheistic philosophy. There is another example. A hatchet is sitting before a tree. The tree asks, "what are you doing here?" The hatchet replies, "I have come here to cut you down." The tree then said, "You can not cut me down, alone, but with the help of my descendants you can do it." The idea is that the ax-handle is made of wood, and so without the assistance of the wooden tree, the hatchet is useless. Similarly, we can use our materialistic knowledge to defeat the atheistic philosophy of the scientists. So you also can continue your studies and learn what is shil and noda (mortar and pestle) so you can break their dater goda (break their teeth).