He was a regular visitor who read the labels and descriptive notices in their entirety and approved of every animal he saw. Each to him was a triumph of logic and mechanics, and nature as a whole was an exceptionally fine illustration of science. To his ears, when an animal felt the urge to mate, it said "Gregor Mendel", recalling the father of genetics, and when it was time to show its mettle, "Charles Darwin", the father of natural selection, and what we took to bleating, grunting, hissing, snorting, roaring, growling, howling, chirping and screeching were but the thick accents of foreigners. When Mr. Kumar visited the zoo, it was always to take the pulse of the universe, and his stethoscopic mind always confirmed to him that everything was in order, that everything was order. (1.7.2)
Pi's biology teacher sees the world in a certain way: as ordered, and alive with the precepts of science. Pi revels in the various and contradictory worldviews of his friends and teachers: the other Mr. Kumar sees God's sacred creation in the zoo. The animals must see something entirely different. Pi's father sees a business. For Pi, science, like religion, is a system of thought we place on the world to understand it. Pi delights in all these systems of thought and creates relgio-scientific patchwork of belief. Sounds complicated, but Pi simply delights in all forms of faith – and he thinks science is no different than religion.
