Thank you, Judy, this is excellent and such a better expression of what I was trying to write about in reply to t3rinity's post.
** --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, t3rinity <no_reply@> wrote: > <snip> > An atheist may be in awe, but > > basically (Unless he is a Buddhist or Taoist)he is just exploring > > a kind of a metaphysical study. So he may be in awe, yes. But he > > cannot LOVE reality as such, and he cannot develop a passion about > > it. > > Boy, Michael, I don't think that's true. Some of > the most passionate expressions of love for > reality-as-such that I've ever encountered have > come from atheists. > > One of my favorite passages is from the end of > atheist physicist Heinz Pagels's "Cosmic Code," > a book for the general reader about physics and > quantum mechanics: > > "Science is not the enemy of humanity but one of the deepest > expressions of the human desire to realize that vision of infinite > knowledge. Science shows us that the visible world is neither matter > nor spirit; the visible world is the invisible organization of > energy. I do not know what the future sentences of the cosmic code > will be. But it seems certain that the recent human contact with the > invisible world of quanta and the vastness of the cosmos will shape > the destiny of our species or whatever we may become. > > "I used to climb mountains in snow and ice, hanging onto the sides of > great rocks. I was describing one of my adventures to an older friend > once, and when I had finished he asked me, 'Why do you want to kill > yourself?' I protested. I told him that the rewards I wanted were of > sight, of pleasure, of the thrill of pitting my body and my skills > against nature. My friend replied, 'When you are as old as I am you > will see that you are trying to kill yourself.' > > "I often dream about falling. Such dreams are commonplace to the > ambitious or those who climb mountains. I dreamed I was clutching at > the face of a rock but it did not hold. Gravel gave way. I grasped > for a shrub, but it pulled loose, and in cold terror I fell into the > abyss. Suddenly I realized that my fall was relative; there was no > bottom and no end. A feeling of pleasure overcame me. I realized that > what I embody, the principle of life, cannot be destroyed. It is > written into the cosmic code, the order of the universe. As I > continued to fall in the dark void, embraced by the vault of the > heavens, I sang to the beauty of the stars and made my peace with the > darkness." > > I don't think it gets much more passionate > than that. > > There is a huge tragic irony in the last two > paragraphs, however. Not long after this was > written, Pagels died in a fall while mountain > climbing. Not only does that make the dream > rather eerie, but even more so the paragraph > above it about mountain climbing involving a > subconscious death wish. > > It's almost as if Pagels had become impatient > with human progress toward the "infinite > knowledge" he refers to in the first paragraph, > and his subconscious mind had prodded him to > "let go" of the struggle to climb the mountains > of ignorance and instead experience directly his > oneness with the order of the universe. >
