What do you see when you look up at the night sky? The Incas saw a shepherd, a fox, a baby llama and its mama llama, a toad, and a serpent. In addition to looking at the constellations, the Incas also saw life in the spaces in between, the dark voids in the Milky Way, when there were no stars. The Incas saw the star constellations as inanimate, but the dark constellations as living animals that live in the river of Milky Way. Every celestial animal corresponded to one living on earth, and their interactions in the sky guide life on each (when the toad shows up, it’s time to start planting).
I found this fascinating. Most cultures focus on the shining stars, and never thought twice about the darkness. We know now that most of the universe not only can’t be observed by the human eye, it can’t be observed by any existing technology at all. In fact, only 5% of the universe is made of atoms, while over 95% is made up of dark matter and dark energy, both of which we have yet been able to directly observe in a laboratory setting.
Atheism is quite an interesting religion to me. I call it a religion because you have to have a lot of faith in science to say that you know everything there is to know about the universe to confidently claim the non-existence of an entity. Looking at the cosmos makes me feel small and ignorant, yet I’m becoming more comfortable with both my ignorance and uncertainty. I don’t have to be certain about finding one true and unchanging god that fits the entire world, my life is short and insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and it’s the only one I have to be responsible for. So at the end of the day, my faith is deeply personal, and needs no justification from anyone else.
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man… I am satisfied with the mystery of life’s eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence — as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature. — A Einstein, from his essay The World As I See It
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