To suggest that the His Holiness "recoil" and "waver" in confrontation with mainstream scientific contentions (last two paragraphs) seems contradictory to what he had acknowledged earlier about His Holiness' open-mindedness in accepting scientific proofs of "truth", to the extent of allowing science to replace "outmoded" Buddhist teachings, if any.

Mr Johnson was probably right in saying that science and religion (involving the supernatural) should not mix, obviously due to certains dogmas inherent in religions, but Buddhism is non-dogmatic as well as inquisitive. I believe Buddhism is as useful to scientists as science is to the Buddhists.

The "ghost" is probably Mr Johnson's own imagination, and it does not always enter via the back door. It is my humble opinion that Science and Buddhism should not be made mutually exclusive.