Religious naturalism

I don't have it in me to get to far into the great discussion about religious humanism that Clyde, Shawn and others are having. But on the way in this morning I was talking with my daughter and I had a great moment of naturalist awe.

My daughter asked me about how water was clear and how you could make it stop moving to see through it even if it was still moving inside. (quite a question for a six year old if I do say so my self.) We talked about filling a clear jar at home and letting it sit still until we could see through it like a lens (we both have glasses).

I didn't really explain much to her, but I found myself musing about the mystery that is how atomic particles work such that everything solid appears solid and how translucent materials are translucent. I thought about the Bohr model I learned in school and quantum mechanics, and even a little about the What The Bleep Do We Know movie that could have been better but touched on this question.

It brought back an awe and a mystery that I have carried with me since childhood. I would not want to be corrected by people that study these things more seriously, nor to run off gentle readers who do not want to think of orbitals and the wave-particle paradox.

There is room for awe and reverence in a material world view. I believe that this awe neither precludes nor presupposes other theological considerations.