Science and Love

Posted by Olly Robinson on 16 August 2008 | 0 Comments

Tags: Science, Philosophy

What is science? At the most broad, science is a process for acquiring knowledge about those aspects of the cosmos that appear to the human senses and to human consciousness. It deals not with that which is beyond experience (the domain of metaphysics), but with those phenomena which either through direct observation or via some kind of instrument, can be an object of conscious attention. Both mental phenomena, such as emotions or dreams, and extensive phenomena, such as atoms, nerves and supernovae, qualify for science, for both can be the object of waking conscious attention. The method of science is much debated - some say inductive, some say hypothetico-deductive, some say there is no precise method at all, but all agree that the method should tie observation to intellect to develop theories which both help describe, explain and predict the observable world.

Now here's the catch - to do science we must 'examine' the phenomena in order to try to understand it, and examine comes from the root ex-aminus, which literally means 'to come out of connection with' our subject of study. We must also analyse the phenomenon under investigation, and analysis literally means "to break apart" so we remove the wholeness of thing under study. Therefore it seems an inevitably result of doing science is separation from, and deconstruction of, the objects of study. Whether the phenomenon is an NDE or a chemical reaction, it must be made an OBJECT of our attention to be investigated by science - thus it may enter a corpus of written knowledge by being an object - an 'it', or a system of 'its'. Analysis can be counteracted by synthesis, and atomism by holism, but still that which is examined and observed is a collection of 'its'.

From my experience as a social science researcher, this kind of separation and breaking apart that all science engages in is somewhat inimical to the experience of Love. Let’s take music as an example. Music is indeed the 'food of love', and a great piece of music has the potential to make the spirit soar and the heart be filled with awe. But take that same piece of music as the object of scientific attention - examine it and analyse it in order to work out how it was put together and why it has the effect that it does, and the key to its emotional power to move the soul evaporates. Why so? Because as soon as the song is analysed or examined, it becomes an ‘it’ – a separate entity composed of bits and pieces, and of course loses its spiritual magic.

Wittgenstein said that of which we cannot speak, we must be silent. I believe this to be true of Love and the deep "oceanic feeling" of spiritual experience. In silence Love is discovered in the depths of our soul, not as something we observe, but something that we are, that we live. If we want to know Love, we must not make it the object our studies, and put it into words, diagrams, or formulae, we must find time just to be silent...and must simply be, without aim, without a problem to solve, without a theory to apply. In this process we learn to know God, for as innumerable saints and sages have said, God IS love. That makes little scientific sense, but it makes sense to the heart, or at least to my heart.

Dr Olly Robinson