Editor's Note: Spokane Faith & Values has a new feature called “Ask An Atheist” where readers are invited to submit question to atheist writer Jim Downard. Here's the eighth question that came in, and Downard's response.
Q. Tell me about an experience of awe and take me to its source.
A. It is hard to pick a quick example, as I feel awe at so many great physical spaces, such as Brice Canyon, and with music and art (listening to Mahler's “Das Lied von der Erde” does it there).
As for the source of those feelings in my own head, there I must beg a lot of ignorance. Why do we react in such ways to sights and sounds in the first place? Neurobiologists are starting to ferret out the tangle here, but that is a separate issue (an undecidable one) about whether anything can be deemed to be “objectively” awesome or beautifully, or whether we only perceive them as such and you live with it.
What do you want to”Ask An Atheist“?
Jim cant even enjoy a sunrise or sunset, utterly amazing, i’m in awe.
Why do you troll him? What’s in it for you?