Science demystifies reality. Thanks to its liberating sway, humanity has outgrown religion. That's the fundamental gist of a claim we've all heard before. Yet, if anything, contemporary discoveries have only intensified the universe's underlying mystique.
Our ancestors understood little about natural disasters and their causes. Even so, the answers to their questions were never beyond human comprehension; they were faced with missing pieces of a puzzle, not logical impossibilities. In contrast, today's enigmas are closely embedded within the fabric of reality itself. Particles flicker like cosmic ghosts, whilst Schrödinger's cat cat remains neither alive nor dead. "Common sense" breaks down at the quantum scale, where any answer spawns ever deeper paradoxes.
So why are we no longer overwhelmed with wonder when we gaze at our surroundings? Perhaps it's because modernity has widened the experiential gap between us and nature's source of mystery.
What do I mean by this? Man, daily witnesses the sun's journey, the starry night sky, the endless cycles of life. For as long as these phenomena remained obscure, he faced the unknown intimately. Every day provided numerous examples of humanity's incomplete understanding. Each hour pointed to something beyond our intellectual grasp. But modern man faces no such confusion. He recognises stars as inanimate gaseous bodies and can dissect the biological processes underlying growth or decay. Academic boffins may describe an incomprehensible dimension of dark matter, quantum flux, and other inexplicable forces. For most, however, it's just a bunch of intangible jargon and abstract chatter. None of these conditions are observed in normal everyday life. After all, nobody has ever stumbled into a space-time vortex on the way to work or gone for drinks with a friend who functions as both a wave and a particle simultaneously. Mystery has thus lost its immediacy. And as a result, wonder vanished from our lives.
So, modernity has sapped nature's magic. Without it, we've been shut out of any access point for encountering God. In this mechanical universe man has unveiled, all is lifeless cogs and bolts. Science has smoothed over our world's rough edges, providing no touchstone to latch onto.
It's pretty depressing stuff. Sorry. Yet, although we will probably never recover our old sense of mystery, I believe there is still a way in—a path to beholding God.
The Talmud records our Sages asking questions concerning nature, such as, 'Why must the sunset always be in the west?' Or 'Why does the sun set at all?' Now, these inquiries are strange. Even given the science of their day, the heavens were set in stone. There was no provision for extreme deviations from the natural order. And their answers are almost always driven by religious significance. For example, the eastward movement of the planets manifests nature's desire to gravitate towards God - with the Divine Presence resident in the east. Once again, while our sages may not have possessed powerful telescopes, they were, at the very least, acquainted with their era's astronomical knowledge. In spite of this, they seldom offered technical explanations.
Both the Maharal and Ramchal suggest similar interpretations of these peculiar back-and-forth discussions. Drawing on their insight, we will address our original inquiry.
Famously, the Maharal argues that our Sages never sought to convey empirical or medical insight in their teachings. Talmudic and Midrashic writings are neither intended as college textbooks nor as clinical guides. And if they were, they would have long been obsolete. Needless to say, patients would be concerned if they spotted a brain surgeon consulting Aggadic literature mid-operation.
In that case, what is the Talmud? It is our Sage's last word on profound religious truths, underlying spiritual realities, and life's guiding—namely, those areas that science is inherently blind to. When encountering spiritual descriptions of the cosmos, we are faced with the world's inner meaning rather than its technical specifications.
Let me explain. Many of us are filled with a subtle awe, gazing into the starry sky. Science would write this off as purely physiological - our brains, unable to grasp the vastness of our universe, chemically induce a feeling of transcendence. Of course, these feelings are not intrinsic to the stars or planets themselves. They are human emotions projected onto inanimate celestial spheres.
All of that is 100% correct. Yet, it is only half the story. Our sages teach that, as believers, our duty is to ask why the world was designed in such a way. God could have created the universe in any number of configurations. He created this specific system we inhabit to instil in us a certain set of ideas.
Picture it this way: Imagine, while eating out, you notice an exposed metal pipe running along the wall. At first glance, a pipe is just a pipe - its function is to transport gas from point A to point B. And in a run-down diner, you can assume it's been left uncovered as a cost-cutting measure. But visit a high-end bistro, and that same pipe will signify much more. Most likely, you're looking at a subtle piece of aesthetic design used to evoke some specific ambience or je ne sais quoi. Now, if a chic restaurant can leverage an item to elevate its whole atmosphere, imagine what God might encode into His limitless creation! Is it any wonder, then, that our Sages determined every element in our universe worthy of study for deeper meaning?
I think we now have a method for addressing the modern world's unmasking of nature. The universe around us may be just cogs and bolts. And that's OK. The point was never to find miracles in nature's routine functioning. Instead, we must ask a different question: Why did God want things to be this way? Why must rain fall from the sky? Why is the earth man's domain, and the heavens beyond his reach?
Our world embodies a grand, divine curriculum, instructing all who listen. Science maps reality's intricate processes, yet it cannot comprehend its soulful depths. The magic is in the meaning.
Keep Pondering, and Have A Wonderful Purim!
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Thank you for introducing me to the word “boffins”.
"Science maps reality's intricate processes, yet it cannot comprehend its soulful depths. The magic is in the meaning."
So beautiful.