These are the words of a Bengali "travel" writer in the 40s, named Binoy Mukhopadyay, but used to write under his pen-name “Jajabor”, meaning “Nomad” in Bengali.
I have been in motion since I was born... can't remember when Science came and set me in motion... what nonsense is that ?
Berndt Barkholz
Thanks for your opinion. You had motion even before you were born. Life even in its most primitive form has motion and in fact any form of physical existence (at all) has motion of some sorts. "There can be no matter without motion and no motion without matter" - the quantum phenomena and dialectics has given us assurance to this fact.
What the author talks about in this statement is simply the faster motion of human species, facilitated by modern technology in contrast to empathy.
I think that what science tells us about the universe is awe-inspiring for many people, so I do not think that science robs us of emotions.
Michael W. Marek
Don’t you think the world was more awe-inspiring in pre-technology period or in the early history of man? Everything powerful and unknown from the sun, moon, fire, thunder etc. that affected man used to be subjects of awe, wonder and mystery to the extent that man used to worship these and gave rise to mythologies. Positive knowledge slowly made the world less mysterious within the sphere of knowledge and mystery receded as the sphere of positive knowledge increased in size – a historical process that is still continuing. By now, the universe is less mysterious to man than before and so is less “awe-inspiring”! Isn’t it?
Ancient myths were created to attempt to explain the mysteries, so the sun was a guy riding a chariot across the sky, and people who lived on mountaintops controlled our fate.
Then the medieval Church decided that had all the answers and that the world was 5,000 years old and tiny. Which do you think is more awe-inspiring, a 5,000-year-old universe that is maybe a few thousand miles across, or one 13.8 billion years old that is more like 93 million light-years across, residing in a bubble of space-time that exists alongside many other bubbles?
These people of the past may have THOUGHT that the mysteries were all solved, but that turned out to not be the case.
I don't know how you quantify awe, but I think that there is at least as much of a source for awe today as when the gods lived on Mount Olympus, which relates back to your original question about emotions.
Michael W. Marek
I am talking of "emotion" in sociological sense of love, compassion, empathy etc.; and not in the sense of mythology. The take an example (in the context of my original question), the present pandemic has reduced mobility, motion, travel etc. As a consequence I think that in general, people feel the vulnerability and hence rise in empathy. I see parents spending lots of time with children. The heart-warming sight of the whole family (grand parents, parents, children) walking down the car-less street or playing in the park; people keeping social distance, in general respecting (more than before) other peoples rights, while in public place and so on. This is more like the previous epochs in history, when the maddening rush, running after time, consumerism, artificially created needs, personal ego etc., of modern times were much less prevalent.
"A guy riding a chariot across the sky" in a "5,000-year-old universe" was much more mysterious and "emotional"; because one could imagine these in intimate personal (human) terms. While, the "one 13.8 billion years old that is more like 93 million light-years across, residing in a bubble of space-time that exists alongside many other bubbles"; is very much impersonal and hardly can relate to one's feelings!
And to make it worse, the "13.8 billion years old" Big Bang created universe is no less a fantasy than the one created 5,000 years ago! The old one was human imagination driven fantasy; the present one is only mathematics driven fantasy, with little or no human content! Please see the following two and other related articles in my RG profile:
"Ambartsumian, Arp and the Breeding galaxies":
http://redshift.vif.com/JournalFiles/V12NO2PDF/V12N2MAL.pdf
Article The Infinite - As a Hegelian Philosophical Category and Its ...
If more people were feeling a sense of empathy, more people would be wearing facemasks and fewer people would be threatening people with guns.
Michael W. Marek > "If more people were feeling a sense of empathy, more people would be wearing facemasks and fewer people would be threatening people with guns".
This is only in Mr. Trump's America and very few other right-winger-ruled countries in the world. Most of the people of the world are following the example you are thankfully showing in your photo!
Kind regards!
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