The Phenomenology of Mystery: a study in objectivity and subjectivity
When I gaze at the stars, or even just think about them, I am transported in feeling to a vastness and wonder and awe beyond words, beyond emphasis. It is not just the facts we tend to relegate to astronomy that fill my thoughts, but any and all facts, not least of which is my own puny but extraordinary existence in the scheme of things. Where did it all, we, come from? How could such complexity just pop up out of nowhere, out of nothing, and then evolve into a structure as arbitrary yet aware and intelligent as we are? Why is there anything at all, even a single hydrogen atom, not to mention one hundred billion galaxies? Well, you know the drill. The universe, existence, is amazing (what an inadequate word!), that’s all there is to it. And yet … it isn’t amazing at all. That is, objectively speaking (as we say), the universe just is (like God in the burning bush). Nor is it even inexplicable or the ultimate mystery. It is not mysterious at all because obviously it exis...