Awe is Awesome

Awww... some!      (Photo by Ernest F)

It’s difficult to describe the feeling one gets while gazing at the stars or a newborn baby.  Some have called it “awe,” claiming that it predates both science and religion.

In fact, awe may have spawned both these disciplines.  Once experienced, that expansive sense of wonder “nudges you to change the way you process the world.”  A search for meaning naturally follows, evolving within laboratories and worship centers the world over.

Carol Kuruvilla of The Huffington Post reports on the Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study.  This study found “that while Americans are getting less religious as a whole… feelings of awe are on the rise…”

Somewhat ironically, the most significant increase in awe came from America’s atheists, many of whom “reported feelings of wonder about the universe.”  Although most would quickly explain that there is no “supernatural” component to this experience, could it be that words just get in the way regarding this type of consciousness?

After all, self-professed atheist Diana Nyad, who swam from Cuba to Florida, partially defined God as “the love of humanity.”  That isn’t so far from theology as some might suppose.

Resources

http://wwrn.org/articles/45446/?&place=north-america 

 

Copyright February 21, 2016 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved