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Eureka, Epiphany, and Enlightenment
A further mystery attaches to quests of every sort--scientific, artistic, and spiritual. The deep similarities between the eureka of science, the epiphanies of art, and the revelations and enlightenment of religion provide a bridge that helps close the gap between the two vocations. Description demands intense observation, so intense that the veil of everyday habit falls away and what we paid no attention to, because it struck us as so ordinary, is revealed as miraculous. Scientific research culminates in the "eureka" of discovery. Artists des | |||||||||||
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While it's true that science aims to explain and, in that sense, demystify, there remains something ineffable about the process of discovery. I've mentioned the perplexing fact that nature is understandable, not just in broad outline, but in fine detail. It strikes many as mysterious that nature has spawned a creature--Homo sapiens--who comprehends her well enough to steal her power.