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Part 1
The biggest questions about life are unanswerable. Not one philosopher has ever given a satisfactory answer to these questions; neither has science or any other form of human knowledge. Logic and science tell us about the “what” and the “how” but not about the “why”. They fall flat when it comes to the “ultimate” questions. But if this is the case, why ask questions which are unanswerable?
Part 2
Western civilization has a very specific approach to life—one that is highly pragmatic. Matters are seen from a purely utilitarian point of view. Actions are measured by the standard of whether they achieve results. And yet, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel so astutely observed, what smites us with total amazement is not what we grasp and are able to convey, but that what lies beyond our grasp—not the quantitative aspect of nature, but something qualitative. Everything is more than the sum total of its parts. We are aware of something that is entirely beyond description or comprehension.
Part 3
Everything around us, and everything that makes us human, should awaken in us feelings of awe, of amazement. How can our brains, purely physical mechanisms, produce mental thoughts? We may be able to apprehend but how can we comprehend all this? It is completely mysterious. In Rabbi Heschel’s words: “We hear a perpetual murmur from the waves beyond the shore”. This the beginning of all happiness—to stand in surprise and being overtaken by awe. Why then do we slip into routine and take life for granted?
Part 4
In the last essay we discussed how memory makes it difficult to live in awe. Memory is founded on frequency of occurrence, which creates the illusion that existence is normal. The truth however is that we do not know why things are the way they are. We know how the laws of nature work; we […]