What is awe and wonder?

 At times when I contemplate nature, science, humanity, and Biblical texts I have a sense of awe and wonder. What do I mean by that? I know it when I feel it but it is hard to describe in words.

Members of my family have been reading Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder, and things that sustain you when the world goes dark, by Julia Baird. In this memoir, she intersperses descriptions of her own experiences of awe and wonder, her struggle with cancer, scientific studies on the value of encounters with nature, her struggles with churches, her own faith, and what all this may mean for a fulfilling life. She includes quotations from famous people that I found helpful in considering how might define and characterise awe and wonder. 

Awe makes us stop and stare. Awe humbles us, gives us perspective, and makes us aware that the world is unfathomably larger than ourselves.

Wonder makes us stop and ask questions about the world.

Here are quotes from Einstein, Adam Smith, and Rachel Carson.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

Albert Einstein

Adam Smith was a moral philosopher and the founder of modern economics. He said that wonder occurs

“when something quite new and singular is presented… [and] memory cannot, from all its stores, cast up any image that nearly resembles this strange appearance.”

This wonder can be felt physically, characterised by

‘that staring, and sometimes that rolling of the eyes, that suspension of the breath, and that swelling of the heart’.

Adam Smith, A History of Astronomy

“Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties or mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life… Their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner contentment and to renewed excitement in living. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” 

Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

To me this is a hint of transcendence. There is something going on and behind this which goes beyond material reality and what we can quantify, control, and describe.

A brilliant presentation of the power of Elijah

At church, the current sermon series is on 1 Kings and we recently came to where the prophet Elijah enters the scene. This led me to return to a favourite piece of music, Elijah, which was first performed in 1846.

Elijah is a compelling figure in the Bible. He is a prophet who faithfully seeks to follow the God of the covenant, YHWH in the midst of a declining Israel (Northern Kingdom) characterised by injustice, violence, and idolatry.  The people suffer from drought and food insecurity. Elijah does a great miracle to defeat the prophets of Baal. Intimidated by death threats from Queen Jezebel he runs away, and is exhausted, both physically and spiritually. But Elijah is cared for by an angel and has his faith and courage renewed.

Felix Mendelssohn took the story of Elijah and composed an oratorio [a composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists] that some considered to be one of the greatest expressions of that musical genre.

The text [libretto] written by Julius Schubring is brilliant and creative, composed only of interspersal of the text of Kings and other passages from the Bible, as can be seen on Wikipedia. The accompanying musical score emotionally empowers the text. This is all brought out in a beautiful and detailed commentary on the oratorio that was written by John Maclay for a performance at Grace Church in New York. 

Lessons from the ants for the Christian church

6 

 Go to the ant, you sluggard;  consider its ways and be wise!

It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,

yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

    Proverbs 6:6-8

Ant colonies are amazing. It is incredible what they can achieve. I love the video below. It highlights how complex structures and functions emerge in an ant colony even though there is no individual directing the whole operation. The colony can achieve much more than individual ants acting independently of one another.

Ant colonies are fascinating from a scientific point of view, particularly as they are a model for the concept of emergence. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Here, I explore how scientific observations about ant colonies might inspire followers of Jesus as they reflect on the church, its mission, its corporate character, being the body of Christ, and the living presence of God in the world.

Humans do not rule the world. Ants do! They have colonised every continent. There are more than ten thousand trillion ants on the planet. Their total body mass is comparable to that of the eight billion humans on earth. There are more than sixteen thousand different species of ant. Their survival, expansion, and impressive achievements are not the result of heroic gifted individuals, charismatic leaders, benevolent dictators, advanced technology, or great intelligence.

Rather the global success of ants results from cooperative action and individual self-sacrifice. It is not just a matter of strength in numbers. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Observations by entomologists and mathematical models show that it is through the synergy of cooperation that a colony produces new structures, functions, and achievements. These are qualitatively different from what is possible for a small number of ants. Each ant has a job to do. They just get on with it, cooperating with others in their immediate neighbourhood, and acting for the greater common good. 

Individual ants have limited abilities. Each ant has a specialist task. A colony is composed of several distinct classes of workers (castes): soldiers, excavators, foragers, garbage collectors, and gardeners. 

Ants are simple small animals. They have poor hearing and sight. They have limited ability to communicate. They use a few signals based on touch, but mostly communicate by producing trails of distinct chemicals (pheromones).  

Discoveries about ant colonies are leading biologists to rethink individuality and its role in the survival of a community. Individual ants do not seem to have "selfish genes". That is, they do not act in a manner oriented towards preserving their individual genetic lineage. Ants have a sacrificial existence. They appear to have no self-interest. They do not compete with one another. They have unwavering loyalty to their queen and to the preservation of the colony that she has given birth to. Some biologists refer to the colony as a superorganism.

No analogy is perfect. All models are wrong, but some are useful. Nevertheless, I think it is worth asking what lessons Christians might draw from the science of ant colonies? The author of proverbs would affirm such contemplation. The properties and workings of the created order may reflect important truths about how God wants his people to live.

A Biblical metaphor for the church is that of the Body of Christ. The body has many members. Each of these members has a special function and contribution to make. These members are to work together for the good of the whole body. There are many different gifts and abilities. No gift or individual is to be valued or elevated more than another. The weak are indispensable.

Humans are a lot smarter and stronger than ants! We have vastly more capabilities than ants. But, just like ants, individual Christians are not exceptional. They are finite and have limited abilities and strength. Paul pointed out to the Corinthian church their own severe limitations.

Not many [of you] were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.  (1 Corinthians 1:26-27)

Christians are to have an undying loyalty to their King, Jesus. Followers of Jesus are to live sacrificially. Jesus said

“If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it." (Luke 9:23,24)

Paul exhorted the church in Rome to live sacrificially, considering themselves as one body made of many parts, and to exercise the gifts God had given each of them. 

in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. ...I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think... Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. (Romans 12:1-8) 

Paul continues identifying specific gifts: prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and showing mercy. Each member of the body should use that gift. Paul expressed similar ideas to the church in Ephesus.

[God] gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, ...let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

Paul told the Philippians that it would bring him great joy if they had the same attitude as Christ,

thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:2-4)

Both the behaviour of ants and these Biblical exhortations are in stark contrast to the ways and values of the modern capitalist world. It worships the individual, promotes the rights of the individual, and motivates individuals with money, punishments, and the promise of celebrity.

Christians and the organisations that they start have a limited life span. People die. Even excellent institutions do not last forever, particularly in terms of having enduring relevance and impact. The goal of members of the Body of Christ is that during each of our lifetimes we should use our limited abilities and work together so that the community of our King endures forever. Ant colonies illustrate how with collective action and self-sacrifice much more can be achieved than through small numbers of independent individuals. Christians need to consider the ways of the ants. They can give us wisdom.  This may lead us together to achieve "far more than we can ask or imagine."

Four dimensions to making sense of science, life, and God

Reality and our experience of it are rich and complex. How do we make sense of it? How do we find meaning in life, God, and science? Where do we start? 

To explore such questions I find it helpful to consider four different dimensions: experience, tradition, reason, and transcendence. I have drawn inspiration from the Wesley quadrilateral in theology, but stress that I consider a broader application and perspective.

This quadrilateral is both descriptive and prescriptive. I believe it provides a good description of the different dimensions that people do use to make sense of things, whether science, theology, or ethics, even if they are not explicitly aware of what they are doing. People place different values and emphasis on each of the four dimensions, but they may all be present in their discussions. I also think the quadrilateral is also prescriptive.  For a broad range of topics, considering these four different dimensions is a good way to proceed, particularly when explicitly stating how one employs and prioritises each of the different dimensions. 

In this post, I briefly explain what I mean by each of the four dimensions and the strengths and weaknesses of each. The four dimensions are complementary. A strength of each dimension is that it can compensate for the weaknesses of some of the other dimensions. On the other hand, the four dimensions are not independent of one another.

Experience

In some sense, as individuals, this is all each of us has. We each have a unique personal history: family, education, employment, travel, church, and personal relationships. Associated with our history are experiences of joy, pain, confusion, insight, success, failure, and disappointment. Experience includes books we have read, movies we have seen, and music we have listened to. These experiences shape us: who we are, what we believe, and what we value. The influence of experience plays out at every level: individual, family, community, institution, and nation. Experience is not determinative but it is influential, perhaps more than we might like to acknowledge. Experience influences the relative priority we place on reason, tradition, transcendence, and experience!

A philosophical perspective that puts the highest priority on elements of experience is empiricism. We should only believe to be real what we can experience through sensation (sight, touch, hearing, smell) and measurement.

Experience is central to modern science. Theories are tested by experiments and independent observations (experiments) by different groups have to agree. Experience is validated by others having the same experience. 

In contrast to empiricism, romanticism was a movement in the eighteenth century that put a different emphasis on experience, valuing intense emotions, individualism, nature, intuition, inspiration, and subjectivity.

Strengths. Experience can help us engage with reality, tempering fantasy and wishful thinking. Experience can expose us to a diverse range of perspectives, including the life experience of others. In some sense, this engagement with others enables us to go beyond the limitations of our own individual experiences, abilities, personalities, and perspectives.

Weaknesses. Our own experience is finite and limited, particularly relative to all of humanity and all of history. Our experience is subjective and may not be accurate. For example, two individuals may observe the same event but have contradictory perspectives on what actually happened. Optical illusions, such as that shown below, show that even simple observations can be wrong. Experiences do not stand alone or speak for themselves but need to be interpreted. Any interpretation will involve reason, tradition, and likely transcendence.

In the picture above is the vertical line longer, shorter, or the same length in the left or right panel?

Reason

Reason is an intellectual activity. It means thinking and writing down arguments about what we think is true and why we think it is true. The essential form of a rational argument has two components. First, a set of assumptions (axioms) that are considered "reasonable" (e.g., because they are based on observations or a principle that every "reasonable" person can agree on) are stated. Then one investigates the conclusions that follow from these assumptions, using rules of logic. Reason is central to science, and plays the greatest role in the natural sciences through theories that can be formulated mathematically.

A philosophical perspective that puts the highest priority on reason is rationalism. Truth can only be found by rational argument. This was the way that ancient Greeks did science. They discounted the need to do experiments, deeming that common sense observations about nature were adequate.

Strengths. Careful reasoning can expose inconsistencies in arguments or lead to conclusions that we might not expect. Clearly stating assumptions can clarify the basis of a "rational" truth claim. Mathematics in the natural sciences has been incredibly powerful and successful. Theories such as classical mechanics, relativity, quantum theory, and electromagnetism, are based on just a few assumptions and mathematical equations. Yet, using rules of mathematical logic one can describe diverse phenomena quantitatively and make specific predictions about the outcome of experiments.

Weaknesses.  Reason is only useful and reliable if the validity of the assumptions made in an argument has a strong justification. Assumptions that may be "reasonable" or "self-evident" to one individual may not be to another. The ancient Greeks were wrong about science, believing things about nature that they thought were "common sense", but turned out to be false. In some sense, at some point in the development of an argument, it is necessary to just take some assumptions on "faith." Reason is sometimes claimed to be pre-eminent in contexts that are debatable. For issues that are predominantly emotional, relational, or artistic, reason may be of marginal relevance or unhelpful. 

Tradition

Tradition is all about the past. There are traditions that relate to many different spheres of life, including culture, religion, science, philosophy, morality, and government. A tradition is a framework, inherited from the past, that claims authority about what is true and the way that things should be done. In the context of moral philosophy, Alasdair MacIntyre, states "A tradition is an argument extended through time in which certain fundamental agreements are defined and redefined" by internal and external debates. He claimed, "no way of conducting rational enquiry from a standpoint independent of the particularities of any transition has been discovered and that there is good reason to believe that there is no such way". In different words, reason cannot be separated from tradition.

Traditions are embodied in institutions, such as universities, governments, and religious denominations. Education in a particular subject involves learning a particular tradition.

Culture is an example of tradition. Culture is "the way we do things around here." Culture consists of the ideas, knowledge, beliefs, values, skills, and attitudes, that shape the behaviour of a community.

Strengths. Subjects such as philosophy, theology, and science have developed over centuries. Traditions within them are the accumulation of the knowledge, wisdom and insight gained from all hard work. It is efficient to make use of a tradition. In fact, it is unrealistic to jettison all tradition and claim that in the present one can simply start from scratch and ignore the past. Traditions provide stability, predictability, and a community with shared values, assumptions, and ways of doing things. Traditions can temper some of the foolishness associated with new fashions.

Weaknesses. Traditions can be resistant to the positive change that can come through new ideas, discoveries, and new methods. Traditions can be resistant to adapting to new and different contexts. Traditions tend to leave authority and power with an older generation, who may have a vested interest in things not changing. This is how tradition may stifle the creativity and energy of youth. Max Planck, the founder of quantum physics, stated

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it ...

Science proceeds one funeral at a time! 

Transcendence

The transcendentals are truth, beauty, and goodness. Transcendence is that which goes beyond the categories of being. In the metaphysics of Immanuel Kant, the transcendent is that which lies beyond our ability to know. In theology, transcendence refers to aspects of God that are independent of the physical universe. Here, I use transcendence to mean that which is beyond reason, experiment, or the content of a tradition. I would include experiences that aim to access truth and aspects of reality through intuition, the subconscious, or mysticism.  Some might claim that transcendence has no role in science, and even goes against the whole spirit of science. However, there are many stories of scientists who made important discoveries that had their origin in dreams, visions, perceptions of beauty, and "flashes of insight." 

Peter Berger argued that there are five aspects of human experience that are inexplicable apart from a transcendent reality. His "signals of transcendence" are the "human propensity to believe that the world is ordered in a trustworthy manner, the capacity to play, the capacity to hope in the face of death, the conviction that some things are just wrong and must be condemned, and the capacity to laugh."

Strengths. Transcendence provides a way to describe the ineffable elements of reality and knowledge that induce mystery, awe, wonder, and paradox. It provides room and a vocabulary for that which goes beyond reason, experiment, and tradition. It allows for the possibility of something more than the material.

Weaknesses. Transcendence and its domain of relevance are hard to define and to constrain. Invoking it may be an escape from the hard work needed to engage seriously with reason, experiment, and tradition. It may be invoked in order to engage in fantasies.

In conclusion, the four dimensions of experience, reason, tradition, and transcendence provide a helpful framework to describe and understand how different people grapple with reality. Although they complement one another they are also inter-related.