{"id":45032,"date":"2017-11-26T16:07:12","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T23:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=45032"},"modified":"2017-11-28T11:47:14","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T18:47:14","slug":"in-praise-of-wonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/in-praise-of-wonder.html","title":{"rendered":"In praise of wonder"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26114\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26114\" style=\"width: 596px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/09\/800px-Redrosedust_wright_f2000.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-26114\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-26114\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/09\/800px-Redrosedust_wright_f2000.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of the Rosette Nebula\" width=\"596\" height=\"418\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26114\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rosette Nebula (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are an impossibility in an impossible universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Ray Bradbury<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery moment of light and dark is a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Walt Whitman<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWonder is the beginning of wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Socrates<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the things that make life worth living and it does so, if anything, more effectively if it convinces us that the time we have for living is quite finite.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Richard Dawkins<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead \u2014his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms\u2014this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Albert Einstein<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Albert Einstein<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Charles Darwin, <em>The Origin of Species<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA child\u2019s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full or wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years . . . the alienation from the sources of our strength.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Rachel Carson<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cWe are an impossibility in an impossible universe.\u201d Ray Bradbury \u00a0 \u201cEvery moment of light and dark is a miracle.\u201d Walt Whitman \u00a0 \u201cWonder is the beginning of wisdom.\u201d Socrates \u00a0 \u201cThe feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>In praise of wonder<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \u201cWe are an impossibility in an impossible universe.\u201d Ray Bradbury &nbsp; \u201cEvery moment of light and dark is a miracle.\u201d Walt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/in-praise-of-wonder.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In praise of wonder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \u201cWe are an impossibility in an impossible universe.\u201d Ray Bradbury &nbsp; \u201cEvery moment of light and dark is a miracle.\u201d Walt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/in-praise-of-wonder.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-26T23:07:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-11-28T18:47:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/09\/800px-Redrosedust_wright_f2000.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/in-praise-of-wonder.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/in-praise-of-wonder.html\",\"name\":\"In praise of wonder\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-26T23:07:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-28T18:47:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"&nbsp; 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