Dr. Mohler is fond of claiming that secular people are
incapable of accounting for basic features of the human condition, features
that can only be explained, according to him, by the Christian worldview. On Tuesday (8/22/17) it was guilt. On Wednesday it was awe. In discussing the
eclipse, Dr. Mohler said,
“Frankly, one of the difficult things for Christians is to truly understand that there are people around us, operating out of a secular worldview, who are trying to explain why they feel awe and to whom this kind of awe would be directed if indeed the universe just happened. But of course the universe didn’t just happen and that’s the whole point, and even those who are trying to explain this purely in secular terms found themselves using emotional and even spiritual language because it was just unavoidable.”
Awe is a complex natural human emotion. Here is the opening of the Wikipedia
entry on awe:
“Awe is an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous. On Robert Plutchik's wheel of emotions awe is modeled as a combination of surprise and fear. One dictionary definition is "an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like. [Examples]: in awe of God; in awe of great political figures.” Another dictionary definition is a "mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder inspired by authority, genius, great beauty, sublimity, or might. [Examples]: We felt awe when contemplating the works of Bach. The observers were in awe of the destructive power of the new weapon." In general, awe is directed at objects considered to be more powerful than the subject, such as the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Grand Canyon, or the vastness of the cosmos.”
It is understandable that a Christian like Dr. Mohler would associate awe with his relationship to God, but awe is not restricted to that unique object. If there is a God, he inspires awe because he has characteristics which naturally inspire awe in humans: he is great and powerful, in comparison to which we feel small and powerless. Dr. Mohler believes secular people must have a problem understanding “to whom this kind of awe would be directed,” falsely generalizing his awe for God to all experiences of awe, concluding that awe must always be directed toward some revered divine person who is the author of that which inspires awe. But this is by no means the case. Here is an example sentence from a dictionary: “They were both awed by the vastness of the forest.” This has nothing to do with who planted the forest or if it “just happened”. It’s a response to the forest itself, just as people who felt awe in the presence of a total eclipse were experiencing themselves in relation to an awe-inspiring universe.
The Wikipedia article does go on to consider various naturalistic theories intended to explain the existence of the emotion. None of them seems particularly compelling, though each may have some truth to it. The theory described as having the most empirical support proposes that awe is a positive emotion that “serves to draw attention away from the self and toward the environment ... when in the presence of novel and complex stimuli that cannot be assimilated by current knowledge structures” resulting in “increased systematic processing” (as opposed to jumping to conclusions) that would have been adaptive for survival. At least that’s the kind of guess whose exploration can lead to increased understanding, as opposed to the Christian worldview “explanation” which is ... what? We feel awe because God wants us to?
“Awe is an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous. On Robert Plutchik's wheel of emotions awe is modeled as a combination of surprise and fear. One dictionary definition is "an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like. [Examples]: in awe of God; in awe of great political figures.” Another dictionary definition is a "mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder inspired by authority, genius, great beauty, sublimity, or might. [Examples]: We felt awe when contemplating the works of Bach. The observers were in awe of the destructive power of the new weapon." In general, awe is directed at objects considered to be more powerful than the subject, such as the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Grand Canyon, or the vastness of the cosmos.”
It is understandable that a Christian like Dr. Mohler would associate awe with his relationship to God, but awe is not restricted to that unique object. If there is a God, he inspires awe because he has characteristics which naturally inspire awe in humans: he is great and powerful, in comparison to which we feel small and powerless. Dr. Mohler believes secular people must have a problem understanding “to whom this kind of awe would be directed,” falsely generalizing his awe for God to all experiences of awe, concluding that awe must always be directed toward some revered divine person who is the author of that which inspires awe. But this is by no means the case. Here is an example sentence from a dictionary: “They were both awed by the vastness of the forest.” This has nothing to do with who planted the forest or if it “just happened”. It’s a response to the forest itself, just as people who felt awe in the presence of a total eclipse were experiencing themselves in relation to an awe-inspiring universe.
The Wikipedia article does go on to consider various naturalistic theories intended to explain the existence of the emotion. None of them seems particularly compelling, though each may have some truth to it. The theory described as having the most empirical support proposes that awe is a positive emotion that “serves to draw attention away from the self and toward the environment ... when in the presence of novel and complex stimuli that cannot be assimilated by current knowledge structures” resulting in “increased systematic processing” (as opposed to jumping to conclusions) that would have been adaptive for survival. At least that’s the kind of guess whose exploration can lead to increased understanding, as opposed to the Christian worldview “explanation” which is ... what? We feel awe because God wants us to?
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