Does science take the wonder out of the natural world?
Walt Whitman wrote: When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figure, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer lecture with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick. Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. But just because there is a scientific explanation for a phenomenon doesn’t mean that we can’t appreciate it on an emotional, aesthetic, or spiritual level. A scientific explanation can often increase our sense of wonder. A emotional and spiritual description of a thunderstorm: Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness. The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, t
