Studying the Calculable, Wondering about the Incalculable

Hello friends, over the holidays I had time to watch the 2 hour video of the background to the James Webb Telescope launch – the history of its development and the live broadcast of the launch. It was inspiring to read of the tremendous teamwork across the globe over 20 years, and the incredible science used to develop the telescope itself. It was heartwarming to see its successful launch on Christmas day and the jubilation of the people at the launch center. The telescope will allow us to peer back into the history of the beginning of our universe, using all of our senses to understand where did we come from? How did we get here? It is simply an amazing accomplishment of us human beings.

At the same time, as we use our breakthrough technologies to study the calculable universe, I wonder why we don’t have the same dedication to studying that which can’t be calculated, weighed and measured, that which is incalculable, in other words, the spiritual world.  If we only study what can be weighed and measured, then we will only know of the materials from which we are made. But what about the part of us that is spiritual? The part that exists beyond death, the part that develops and enters into life from the spiritual world… the part that is able to love, to appreciate beauty, to know truth, to discern goodness from evil. Why don’t we balance our mesmerization with our senses with the heartfelt longing to know that which is beyond what we can see and hear? I wonder when we might also make as dedicated a work together toward the understanding of the incalculable, and what insights we might gain from it about our origins in the spiritual world.  

My own path to this is the study of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science, known as Anthroposophy. Do you also have a path to studying the incalculable? What is your understanding of why humanity doesn't balance its wonder about the calculable with a wonder about that which is incalculable?