I've been saying all along that quasi-spiritual quasi-religious awe displayed by atheists is perfectly understandable - to me - because we are spiritual beings made in God's likeness.
This is just a Goddidit argument.
Sceptic: "I don't know how the universe began."
Christian: "I know: Goddidit."
Sceptic: "I don't know why humans are awed by things."
Christian: "I know: Goddidit."
*Sigh*
No - this is a question about two different responses to the same event.
The night sky.
"...thank you oh mighty sky god. The beauty of thine works is so great and thy majesty immeasurable"
"...the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life - weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today."
Why express awe the way Krauss does when the stars and the star dust (from which we are made) are equal constituents of an uncaused, unguided, past-eternal perpetual motion machine?
Because our brains have been programmed by hundreds of millions of years of evolution to feel certain emotions?
The capacity to feel emotions likely helped our ancestors understand and interact with the world in a way that increased their biological fitness. Because feeling emotions for our family members and neighbors and members of the same species was beneficial to the family, to the community and to the species. When we look up at the sky or through the microscope lens and feel a sense of wonder at what we see, it drives us to explore how reality really works, which has given rise to the methodology that we call science. Science us allowed us to tame our environment (for better or worse), live longer and better quality lives, and devote more and more of our lives to activities that are not related to the everyday tasks of paying the bills and putting food on the table. On the other hand, praying and $4 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks, and you could skip the prayer and still get the coffee.
Our brains are complex organs that evolved over hundreds of millions of years. We know this because we see it in the fossil record, and by comparing our nervous system to those of other animals. We don't understand how our brains work very well at this time, but that doesn't mean magic and Bronze Age supernatural stories are the answer. We didn't know how to fly just 200 years ago, but today we have sent machines beyond the (enormous) extents of our solar system. If we continue on our current trajectory of enlightenment and technological development, someday we will figure how exactly how our brains work, and perhaps even have the ability to record our images of our neural patterns in powerful computers.
You, on the other hand are stuck in the Bronze Age. At a time when disease was caused by demons and people offered sacrifices to various gods in the hopes that their crops would be bountiful, their families would remain healthy, they would win in wars. We have come a long way since then. It is a whole new world, and the waters fine - all you have to do is open your mind.
Why express awe the way Krauss does when the stars and the star dust (from which we are made) are equal constituents of an uncaused, unguided, past-eternal perpetual motion machine?
The past may be eternal. But we don't know today because our technology and physics is stuck at a singularity event in spacetime beyond which we cannot look, only speculate. If you want to make the case that your preferred supercreature is responsible for our existence, you have to show us how! How did this fantastic "uncaused, past-eternal" entity come to exist? How does it defy the arrow of time? How does it create matter and energy to make our universe, and potentially others like it. Even if all our scientific speculations about cosmic inflation are wrong, it is still not evidence that your God exists. If you want to make a case for your preferred God, you have to actually make the case - not just criticize the scientific method and our imperfect understanding. I am certain you understand this, even if you can't bring yourself to acknowledge it publicly. You have to provide a better explanation than what is available today!!!!!!