Some time ago, I was feeling restless, with nothing to do on a cloudy night. I had little desire to watch television, waste time playing a videogame, or sleep - and no friends whom would be up at this hour, so I decided to go for a walk.
About two miles into this walk it began to rain. Fortunately there were a good deal of trees around me, so I was able to hear the wind blowing through their branches, and watch the raindrops drip off of the treeleaves onto my head. It occured to me to be grateful for this experience, the first thing that came to my mind was how wonderful the sight of a raindrop falling off a leaf in the middle of a breeze was, when it occured to me: not everyone would appreciate such. Many in fact would feel annoyed at the cold, unhappy at the wet, and (that most horrid of words) /accustomed/ to the leaves.
It seems to me this is a great sin, insofar as one can call a thought a sin. As we walk through life from day to day, we become /accustomed/ to the world around us, we take it for granted. We see order, and in so seeing (or creating) order, give it no further thought. An example of this can be seen in our desire to predict the weather, or to create shelters and devices to minimize the impact of nature upon us; we want predictability and comfort. We desire a feeling of control over the world around us, and once having established this feeling give it no further thought.
This is an experience unique to the rise of science and the modern world. In eras past, the degree of control and understanding that we have acheived (and the desensitivity) was not possible. From all accounts the ancient Britons and Greeks, and sailors of almost every era, felt only wonder when they saw a blade of grass, a sprig of mistletoe. And yet, were I to take half the contents of humanity with me on my walk, it is likely that despite culture or language, all would express annoyance at the weather, rather then wonder that (alone in all planets among all the billions upon billions of stars) - we have rain. None would ask why we have rain, or ponder the awnser - people just accept that we do and move on.
And so all our wonders become commonplace. We have come to the point where our 'advanced' minds are increasingly of the opinion that feelings (and by proxy, beliefs) should be replaced by knowledge, feelings which do rest upon knowledge are supertitious, and thus have no place in an orderly and understood world.
But there are things in the world which cannot be understood through rationality alone, and things which, while they can be seen and measured, cannot be /appreciated/ through rationality. There are beliefs and moral ideas about conduct and judgements which cannot be accounted for solely upon a rationalist way. Even philosophy cannot rely on numbers and evidence to acheive conclusions about moral systems. Nor can the sheer beauty of a sunrise, a single snowflake on a winter's day, the charity or intelligence of a person with true inner beauty be understood with sheer rationality. The purely rational mind can comprehend none of these things, and in truth does not exist except as an unspoken societal ideal.
But likewise and equally dangerous is rejecting the byproducts of rationality - of dismissing scientific conclusions because they conflict with ones own beliefs. There is a selfish urge in American beliefs and values, a tendancy towards declaring (as Stephen Colbert put it) 'What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true.' It's not only that I //feel// it to be true, but that //I// feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.
And so we are left with a society without wonder or appreciation. A society in which the beauty and sense of awe of the mysteries which surround us is either lost in rationality or in unknowning ignorance, in which curiosity is either to be opposed or pitied.
My entire life I have sought to ask questions, questions for which some would say there can be no awnsers. Many reject the art of questioning in our modern society, even among theoreticians and physicists who prefer slowly expanding the status quo to changing one's worldview when presented with new facts. Many religious people (from many religions) likewise, refuse to even meet and analyze their own texts with a critical eye, preferring instead the mandate of tradition in a poetic imitation of their scientific counterparts.
But for all this I have hope. While some may say that we know little more about the universe then we did in the time of Plato, this is not true. Scientific exploration has revealed much to us of the mechanics of creation, the same products which have stripped away the wonder of the world have nevertheless educated us. And religious efforts have taught us much of ourselves, our motivations and desires, how to live a good and moral life, how to make an appropriate judgement on a particular course of action.
Perhaps we will someday yet learn. But nothing will ever be accomplished
without a sense of wonder, and an appreciation for the natural world.
For these reasons, and their sake alone, I choose to appreciate the beauty of the rising sun, the majesty of the babbling brook, the timelessness of the shores of the sea, and the wonder of a single raindrop, falling from a leaf in the rain.
-Charles
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