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Atheists: Beautiful, Awe Inspiring, Wonders

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Atheists: Beautiful, Awe Inspiring, Wonders

KipBond
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Posted 10/07/06 - 07:26 AM: Subject: Atheists: Beautiful, Awe Inspiring, Wonders	#1
A common misconception is that atheists lack a sense of awe of the world. Some people believe that without invoking a deity, it is impossible to be awe inspired, to admire the beauty and wonders of our world. This post will hopefully prove them wrong. If you are an atheist^(), please post examples of things that you find beautiful, awe inspiring, wondrous. Text, images, links to videos, whatever. I will start: NYChildren Photography Project Photographer Danny Goldfield has set out to photograph one child from every country on Earth all living in New York City. --------------------- ^() By "atheist", I mean anyone who lives their life as if there were no god(s); atheistic agnostics would fall into this category. (This is not the thread to discuss the difference between atheist & agnostic; there are plenty of others for that. Thanks.)
-- "The message is always to examine and see for yourself. When you see for yourself what is true -- and that's really the only way that you can genuinely know anything -- then embrace it. Until then, just suspend judgment and criticism." -- Steve Hagen

rabeldin
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3 of 3 people found this post helpful Posted 10/07/06 - 09:07 AM:	#2
I find that only atheists have a sense of awe of the world. Theists don't even look for beauty on earth, they are too busy anticipating what will happen when they die.
Leave no assumption unquestioned.

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1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 10/07/06 - 10:35 AM:	#3
KipBond wrote: If you are an atheist^(*), please post examples of things that you find beautiful, awe inspiring, wondrous. Text, images, links to videos, whatever. Huh, where do I begin? Fractals are endlessly fascinating, both for how they look and for what they say about reality. For example, these fractals are made of material things: broccoli, frost. And these are made from recursive functions: one, two. I find the vast size and age of the universe to be deeply awe inspiring. The achievements of humanity (Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Hubble, etc) in understanding just how vast and old the universe is, and how it works, is perhaps even more awe inspiring and wondrous. Understanding itself --i.e. where patterns of electrical activity in our brains are isomorphic to various aspect of reality-- is simply breathtaking. The power and processes of evolution are grotesquely magnificent, and I cannot help but feel awe at how I stand upon the 'shoulders' (so to speak) of billions of my ancestors, and that all living creatures on Earth are my distant cousins. Even more stupefying is the fact that we are all "star stuff", to use Carl Sagan's delightful phrase.

MC.Pearce
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Posted 10/07/06 - 05:09 PM:	#4
The light bulb. It's pretty amazing when you rethink about it. Edited by MC.Pearce on 10/07/06 - 05:17 PM
"Now, brothers, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction?" - 1 Corinthians 14

unrealist42
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Posted 10/08/06 - 04:41 PM:	#5
From the most concrete to the most sublime, I love it all. There is a great comfort in the realization that it is all too much for one person in one lifetime to understand. For the realms of what we do not know, it is endlessly fascinating to me that so many have sacrificed so much to explore these realms, realms of blind believe, realms of faith, realms of madness, realms of endless speculation, realms of rigorous scientific application. As a skeptic of all that is speculation, I am continually heartened to see so many putting so much of themselves into the questioning of the basic assumptions of these matters that are so elusive an so concrete in the minds of so many Nothing is more fascinating to me as the pursuit of answers to simple questions and how far that leads. The exercise of finding the ever elusive truth, the exploration of all possible explanations, the neverending application of reason, science, and faith. Consider this simple question: What makes people sick? An age old question that led in the last 50 years to the unravelling of the basic instructions for life itself. I have seen this happen in my lifetime. It is a beautiful and awe inspiring and wondrous accomplishment. I believe in humanity, I believe that if we would just realize ourselves as we are, we will surpass any god we could care to dream up. I also feel that belief in a supreme being inhibits humanity from reaching its potential, from finding the true answers to so many questions. So much research curtailed by religious objections......

Petunia
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Posted 10/08/06 - 05:21 PM:	#6
This is a wonderful thread, KipBond. I am glad you started it. rabeldin wrote: I find that only atheists have a sense of awe of the world. Theists don't even look for beauty on earth, they are too busy anticipating what will happen when they die. It is a bit dangerous to ascribe a quality like the experience of wonder to a specific group of people. Wonder has to do with curiosity and an openess beyond self. A person who approaches the world with a desire to embrace it, not shun it, will be filled with wonder. Some people approach the world by expecting to drive everything to its knees into submission to their ego and control - this makes everything small and mean much less. Others fall to their knees in response to the grandeur and meaning. Perhaps an atheist and a theist could both experience this? Maybe even an agnostic? This is one of my favorite nebulae: I also have always had a deep passion for the tiniest wildflowers and try to stop for a moment when I see one. btw: I loathe lables and am not an "atheist", or anything else for that matter. Hopefully that won't nullify my desire to participate in exploring wonder. Edited by Petunia on 10/08/06 - 05:35 PM
Peer over the precipice

Chops
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Posted 10/08/06 - 06:26 PM:	#7
rabeldin wrote: I find that only atheists have a sense of awe of the world. Theists don't even look for beauty on earth, they are too busy anticipating what will happen when they die. I dont think this is a fair characterization at all. Theists would argue that they can appreciate the beauty of the world in a light not available to atheists: namely that all created things are creations of a loving God and thus bear the mark of Divine Love. Indeed, one of the many ways to view God and His goodness is through admiration of His creations; a notion held by a number of religious traditions. Now, I would be the first to admit that atheists can have a sense of the beautiful having known some truly gifted atheist artists, poets, musicians, naturalists and so on, but it is absurd to suggest that atheists have anything close to a monopoly on this trait.

ghaleon
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Posted 10/08/06 - 07:31 PM:	#8
I find myself in awe of quantum mechanics and quantum mechanical experiments. The entire framework just makes me smile in wonder. I have to say I'm somewhere between an atheist and a theist, though. Well, not in the sense that I believe there's a half-god, but...you know. I'm confused at the moment.
"One swallows the lie that flatters, but sips the bitter truth drop by drop." --Diderot

Lonewulf
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Posted 10/08/06 - 07:42 PM:	#9
There's too many things that inspire awe in me to count. However, one thing that inspires awe in me is the utter potential the human being has, especially in our abilities at technology. What we have accomplished in the virtual worlds of gaming is fantastic enough currently... but as far as things go, it'll only get better and better. Stem cell research to save lives. Nanotechnology to allow even better, greater technology. Space travel missions to other worlds... However, claiming that atheists are the only types that can experience awe is a pretty harsh generalization. I have no question that religionists don't feel awe and a sense of wonder at least at some time in their lives. In a way, God (or spirituality) is just a way of defining that wonder... but a rather flawed one, IMO.
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right" -- Thomas Paine Transhumanism is hope; ascension is key; knowledge is power; superstition is weakness.

Alford_Korztein
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Posted 10/08/06 - 07:43 PM:	#10
Literature is fascinating. So many words on so many pages that link so many seemingly different ideas, personalities, storylines, morals, exquisite imagery beyond site and sound, extraordinary philosophies... all from one individual; and so many have contributed in their own voice to the library of the creative intellects. It just amazes me how one person can write so much on one or more basic ideas in so many different ways that all come together either linearly or non-linearly. Calculus as well. When I began learning derivatives I was amazed at the simplicity and astounded I was never able to figure it out on my own, though not surprised at all that so few would ever have been able to invent it. Computers: 65nm is the current technology and 45nm is on its way to being the future of CPU technology. How the hell do they get them so small? Progress. We have progressed so much in the fields of technology and the internet is probably the greatest uniter to ever be invented on planet earth. I can't imagine what the next great flat-earth technology will be. Space exploration gives me hope in mankind. There is nothing I want more than to have humans be able to explore other planets, star systems, and galaxies. So much technologies comes from the prerequisites needed for space-travel. Necessity is the mother of invention and NASA is my personal savior. I pray to the almight US of Government they get as much money as they'll ever need someday.

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