I consider myself agnostic at present, but I’ve definitely had religious-like experiences through the years in relation to the Sciences.
As a teenager in the 1980s, I became fascinated with Theoretical Physics, both of the big and small. My 10th grade “big” 10 page book report was on Black Holes… and I didn’t have the benefit of Hawking’s “Brief History of Time” because he hadn’t published it until a year later. My stuff was mostly related to the Einstein-Rosen bridge, effects of point-like extreme gravity, etc.
I spent a lot of time in Encyclopedias. The Internet is so much better.
I was also on an ongoing “religious quest”, which I suppose I’m still on but I’ve settled for agnostic for the last 15 yrs or so.
In 1990, I wanted to do Theoretical Physics in college but the professor I wanted was on sabbatical, and the courses on Connectionism (neural networking) required a LOT OF prerequisite courses I didn’t want to deal with, so I focused on child psychology and programming instead. Didn’t matter ’cause I didn’t finish.
Spent a little time in a monastery in my late 20s during a case of convertitis to Eastern Orthodoxy. The theology was extensive, precise and detailed enough to keep the “woah” factor going.
Anyway, these themes have been resonating through my life.
Simply being aware of how things work… the more and more you tools you gather to comprehend how things are working: right _now_, you can’t HELP _BUT_ be in awe of it all.
I don’t know if there’s a God, or if so, of what kind or type.
But to me, if you don’t have a sense of “holy shit this is amazing” during various periods throughout the day, you’re REALLY missing out on the experience of life.
-Kenneth Udut 2016-05-16