Reason has its place, but the human heart yearns for awe

[rug]

Brian Rosner
From:The Australian
September 13, 201212:00AM

- snip -

Clearly arguments alone aren't enough to persuade people to change their beliefs - especially concerning the emotive topic of marriage. Ultimately something beyond reason and rationality determines our beliefs. So says British broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, an agnostic, who argues that we have to challenge the New Atheists' reputed monopoly on reason because reason is not "the primary source of knowledge".

Citing philosopher David Hume in support, Bragg contends: "We start with emotions and passions and feelings, the roots of which we don't know and perhaps will never know. Things come to us outside the realms of reason; intimations of love, surprise by joy, little pulses that we don't know where they come from, we don't know where they lead to, but they satisfy us or they make us despair."

Along with Hume, Bragg could well have cited 17th-century French polymath Blaise Pascal, who died 350 years ago this year. Albert Einstein said Pascal was the smartest man to live in Europe during the past 1000 years. Pascal invented the calculating machine, the barometer, the hydraulic press and the syringe. He wrote a classic work, Pensees ("Thoughts&quot , a series of reflections in defence of the Christian faith.

It is not that Pascal saw no place for reason in defending faith in God. Rather he believed that reason alone is insufficient. In his words, there are "two excesses" to be avoided when it comes to the knowledge of God: "to exclude reason, and to admit nothing but reason".

- snip -

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/reason-has-its-place-but-the-human-heart-yearns-for-awe/story-e6frgd0x-1226472936686

[msongs]

1. children are naturally spiritual until adults squash that out of them using adult religion nt

[rug]

2. They are many things until adults get a hold of them.

[cbayer]

10. Your posts never cease to amaze and confuse me.

[Goblinmonger]

3. But one does not need religion to find that awe.

I find a great deal of awe in nature.

I also find a great deal of awe in good literature and good music.

[rug]

4. You know, awe is a tiny word for all that ir connotes.

I agree with what you said about nature, literature and music, not to mention art. But there's a lot more to it than that. Think of the birth of your children. I do. Or the death of someone close to you. What is going on is not simply awe of nature. There is something palpable there that resonates involuntarily and deeply. It may not be God but it is real even if inadequately explained.

[Rainforestgoddess]

9. There are many awesome things out there

http://www.upworthy.com/this-video-is-literally-awesome-literally?c=ufb1

or as Eddie Izzard says "Awesome like a hotdog!"

[longship]

5. Don't need religion to experience awe!

I despise that meme. Religious awe is a mere plastic simulation.

You want awe:

Watch Carolyn Porco's 2007 TED talk video, available free for download from ted.com.

Go to the Space Telescope Science Institute and download any number of the thousands of stunningly beautiful things in the universe. Then, realize the fact that if they were much closer, there would be no life on Earth.

Read Richard Dawkins' book, The Greatest Show on Earth which highlights the evidence for evolution. Dawkins does not do this as much to fight the creationist kooks as he does to merely put forth a compendium of the evidence. Yes, he takes on creationists, but that isn't his target here. It is a great read. Nature is incredible, even awesome.

Listen to classical music. I especially like Bach, Mozart, the late romantics (Brahms, Mahler, Wagner), and lots of 20th century (Bartok, Ives, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Adams, Glass), and many more. Opera is big on my play lists, especially Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, Wagner, Richard Strauss, and many diverse moderns. Bach's Goldberg Variations performed by Glenn Gould (1955) pretty much defines awesome.

Walking in the woods alone. Nothing more should need to be said.

And learning shit. For me, it's mathematics, astronomy, and physics. I am always in awe the beauty of scientific theories which can compress an incredible amount of nature in such a compact form, a couple of lines of symbols. That is more than awesome.

But we all get awe from many things. In my opinion, to say that awe has to come from an all powerful entity takes away the real awe for things just as they are. It cheapens it all. Isn't reality awesome enough just as it is?

I think so. I don't need gods to have a numinous experience. The universe and human culture suffice on their own.

[rug]

6. Awesome!

[longship]

8. Thx. This will really trip your trigger.

I also love big cathedrals, my fave is St. John The Divine in NYC. (Never been to Europe, but Saint Sulpice and Reims would be on the list.)

And I love sacred music. Requiems (Verdi, Brahms, Mozart, Berlioz, etc.) Bach Cantatas (200+ all but one sacred), and the finest, Bach's St. Matthew Passion.

Part of culture is religious history. As an atheist I cannot ignore it. I even embrace it, but without embracing religion. I despise religion. But damn! They have awe-inspiring music.

(Plus, many great composers were actually non-believers -- Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and likely Mozart.)

[Deep13]

7. We need awe, so let's make something up and pretend we believe it. nt