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I don't think some people try to take the fun out of it. It's just a personality style issue. I think the right brain/left brain issue is being refuted but I'll use it as an example because most people understand the concept.
Some of us think in metaphors, others in equations. Some of us are artistic and others are skilled in mathematics.
Now I think for those more left-brained folks certainty and correct answers are a must. And right-brained souls don't mind wandering in the territory of possibility and mystery.
Personally I believe a good scientist needs a bit of both.
I love the mystery of the golden ratio. Some folks can write the formula and explain what it means. But they will never be able to tell us why we see it repeated in a galaxy, a sunflower, a seashell, a succulent plant. That opens the world of possibilities that are endless. Micro/macro.
All formal education overemphasizes usage of the left side of the brain, and starving the other side and there's a method to that madness: our political leaders can get a better night's sleep.
I've been following an Eastern philosopher for decades now and he forever dwells on the magics of life and it's finally sunk in! I will continue to view the world magically! How can one every get bored with the world dwelling on its magical side.
Without people the world could be what you call magical, but with people not so much. We have done everything to destroy the magic and create chaos. With the untold number of wars and the destruction of life and property. The foul air we breathe and water that is disappearing or polluted. I could go on and on. It may just be me that does not see the world through rose-colored glasses any longer, I have lived too long, and seen too much. Hey, but the springtime in some places is beautiful, as long as you wear protection from the sun and allergies.
Without people the world could be what you call magical, but with people not so much. We have done everything to destroy the magic and create chaos. With the untold number of wars and the destruction of life and property. The foul air we breathe and water that is disappearing or polluted. I could go on and on. It may just be me that does not see the world through rose-colored glasses any longer, I have lived too long, and seen too much. Hey, but the springtime in some places is beautiful, as long as you wear protection from the sun and allergies.
Maybe you're looking with your micro glasses on? Like they say in "Jurassic Park," "Nature will find a way." If we get too troublesome Mother Nature will shake us off like a troop of fleas. It happens.
You might not be here to see it but spring will come again as sure as the sun will rise in the morning. A constant message of hope. We elders just need to persist in flowing with the process. Not always easy.
When all that stops the great Universe moves on to the next phase.
Magical? Yes! A thousand times YES! I don't find science to be contrary to magic, actually. The more we know the more we know we don't know & the more mysterious this world's existence becomes.
There are some scientific intellectuals for whom the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge does seem to blind them to magic. They are scary people to me.
This would be the 'The Science Is Settled" crowd. Srsly. The electron microscope was invented less than 100 years ago. 100 years out of 200,000 years of human evolution & they think they settled something?
Like they say in "Jurassic Park," "Nature will find a way." If we get too troublesome Mother Nature will shake us off like a troop of fleas. It happens.
I love when people say stuff like this without really pausing to consider the logistics. There are, without consulting the world population clock for an up-to-the-second estimate, about 7.8 billion people on the planet. Projections I've seen over the past several years assume that we'll be above 10 billion by 2050. Now, imagine nature shaking that many people off like a troop of fleas. Imagine the carnage. The scope is actually unfathomable, if we're speaking of some 'event' that truly does threaten the lives of all humans--the beauty of nuclear war is that it's at least potentially over in mere seconds, but if it's some microbiological calamity (read: plague) or something, well, I wouldn't want to be alive to see it, and the fallout. I don't want to be one of the guys from Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' who survived some apocalyptic event, left with nothing but survivor's guilt, the most extreme case of PTSD possible, and the dilemma of either striving to survive for as long as possible or to off oneself immediately.
I can gaze at an orange or a cucumber or a head of cauliflower and wonder: How did this come about? Ok, mysterious might be a better term than magical?
At any rate, I seem to be enjoying my life more by seeing things as magical.
My magical Germander bush in my lawn. It looked dead to the world this summer, beaten up with high Tucson temperature, almost dug it up and had a funeral for it, and then, and then? It turned cold, and colder, and it took off like a missile with its beautiful purple flowers and with magical bees swarming about!
A botanist can explain all he/she wants, but it's still magic to me!
I think you are describing your appreciation for the beauty, complexity and serendipity of the natural world. Scientists can experience this appreciation as well, maybe even more so than laymen.
Some would look at a sunset and say it is a miracle. I say, no miracle. We know the dust particles in the atmosphere diffract the different wavelengths of light to different angles which results in enhancement of red and orange colors. But that fact that you and I can look at it and find it beautiful - that is a miracle.
What do you mean by magical? Inexplicable? To whom? Unpredictable? In what way? Supernatural? Another word that requires a definition.
The world is certainly wondrous, but it quite clearly follows understandable physical laws. There is no magic here.
That the laws of physics are what they are remains inexplicable.
Its something far beyond the confines of mere magic, it borders on something beyond the natural, we see the beginnings of supernatural.
To me the science reveals the fingerprint of creation.
For some the light of truth shines, for others it merely burns.
Other than that, I live in a bottom line logical universe that seeks fact based answers.
That only works as long as you limit yourself to convenient facts.
There are some facts science is not talking about and it has caused a crisis in science.
Magical? No. Wondrous? Yes. And knowing scientific facts make the world more wondrous not less. For example, you see a Monarch butterfly. You notice it’s beautiful wings, it’s delicate legs and antenna and how it flits from flower to flower. It’s a beautiful creature in your eyes. But if you also know this seemingly delicate creature migrates 3000 miles a year, well that makes it a wondrous one as well.
With all the science denial people practice these days, I think we need to know more science not less. YMMV.
This, simply. I see nothing magical at all about our world in general. However, knowing the complexities of natural processes that are in play gives me a very profound appreciation for it all.
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