
Originally Posted by
Thorne
A rainbow is beautiful because we think it is beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
If you see a comet in the sky today you would, most likely, perceive it as beautiful, a "miracle" of nature. Yet in ancient, and perhaps not so ancient, times the comet was viewed with horror and fear as a harbinger of evil. The appearance of comets has not changed, only our perception of them, thanks to science!
And since the soul is an artifact of religion science must remain soul-less. That is science's purpose, to cast light on the darkness and drag us out of the depths of superstition. That does not mean it destroys beauty. On the contrary: to my mind, knowing why something is what it is or how it does what it does is just as beautiful and satisfying to me as someone else's "soulful" observations.