According to the teachings of the Buddha, thinking about the world is called “loka-cintā,” but humans cannot gain the complete knowledge of the four fields of knowledge, viz:

Science has changed the whole world in all respects. Today we are bewildered by its stupendous changes. Industry, transportation, agriculture, trade, communication, life pattern and the way of thinking were changed by the application of science. In the 19th century, there was much higher level of increase in scientific knowledge. With the rapid increase of this scientific knowledge, man proudly thought that he was the chief controller of nature. He couldn't understand the friendly gifts of the natural world and began to exploit it instead.

The Kālāma Sutta is a discourse on free thinking, and the explanation of the way of having correct knowledge of reality. It is so important for the modern man to understand his mind as well as the outer world. In a way, it helps us to open up our eyes to reality (yathābhuta) and see things as they really are, thereby leading us to a correct path. Following are excerpts from the Kālāma Sutta.

Now humans are living in the 21st century, and the society in this century is totally different from the ancient world. Modern man is rapidly reaping the good and bad results of his scientific progress. We are not entitled to say that ancient man is better than modern man, but it seems that modern man is going to face the dangers of war-games and many socio-economic and other political problems. Needless to say, the world in which we live today is highly complicated and confused with many tangles (jatas).