The joy of science, art, religion

Science is when a universal principle is known, and particular cases are assessed in light of this principle.

Consider Einstein's theory of relativity, expressed as E=mc2 (squared). The equation states a universal principle that can explain any particular instance of the relationship between energy, mass and the speed of light. Our ability to fit a particular example of this relationship to the universal, as expressed by Einstein's equation -- and the certainty that this fit gives us -- is the joy of science.

Art is when a particular case is in front of you, and it is so rich in sensual appeal that we search for a universal to which it relates.

Our inability to find such a universal is actually the pleasure we get in viewing a particular work of art. Consider the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. To what universal do we refer this? Beauty? But what is "Beauty?" And so the pleasure of viewing the Mona Lisa is its indeterminate connection to ideals -- even as this uncertainty stirs much reflection. This is the joy of art.

Religion is certainty in a Universal -- The Universal, God -- even though words fall short of full description. Our inability to capture religious experience in description, but the certainty that nevertheless accompanies spiritual conviction, is an essence of religious experience.

One of the great sleights-of-hand promoted by secularism is that you need to be "open-minded" about all different religions. This demand to be "open-minded" is recognized by any true practitioner of a religion as a contradiction. Show me a Christian who is "open-minded" about answers to life as propounded by Sufism, Buddhism, New Age, Something Else, and I'll show you someone who is not actually a Christian. Similarly for the Islamic religion. Similarly for Buddhism.

Religion is about certainty -- even though it is a certainty we cannot fully define in equations. Religion is about Beauty -- even though we cannot fully define at present what Beauty is.

And hence the spiritual patience of waiting for a Certainty that is impossible to be fully explained now while we await the Beauty of its fulfillment. This is the joy of faith.

Logos2Go

1 Corinthians 2.9 ... as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him ..."

From Werner Pluhar's introduction to Kant's Critique of Judgment: "... reflective judgments, including aesthetic ones, have no determinate concept available to them, no universal under which to subsume the particular that is given to us ... rather, they try to find such a universal." Hackett Publishing Company, 1987, lvi.