Promoting the use of a new word: "Scientility"
Describes the sensation that a scientist or amateur of science experiences when he/she observes an amazing phenomenon, for which his/her qualifications or knowledge makes them experience it a greater degree of appreciation and joy than people without that knowledge.
Rationale:
We need a new word is that freethinkers can use instead of having to use the word “Spirituality” to describe this enhanced experience. Some of us cringe when having to use the word “spirituality”, when describing our feelings when describing our connection to nature.
Carl Sagan wrote, when speaking of the relationship between science and spirituality: “In its encounter with Nature, science invariably elicits a sense of reverence and awe. They very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a very modest scale, with the magnificence of the Cosmos….Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.”
Mr. Sagan may have preferred to use a different word, if it existed. The current use of the word Spirituality implies “Spirits”, a ghost, an unquantifiable being, supposedly present everywhere that affects human bodies yet, that has never been detected and is unfalsifiable. It is an unscientific word.
Who would need this word:
Any person experiencing human emotion beyond that can be described by the data:
An astronomer will experience the night sky differently than an astrologer.
An automotive engineer will experience a car show more deeply than say, a car washer.
A biologist netting an new undiscovered fish will feel differently than say a fisherman, who may lack the proper interest in this rare find.
Richard Feynman said it best, but didn’t have the word scientility to describe it:
“I have a friend who’s an artist, and he sometimes takes a view which I don’t agree with. He’ll hold up a flower and say, “Look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree. But then he’ll say, “I, as an artist, can see how beautiful a flower is. But you, as a scientist, take it all apart and it becomes dull.” I think he’s kind of nutty. […] There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower. It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts.”Formal definition:
scien·ti·li·ty [scien-tee-lee-tee]
–noun, plural -ties.
1.the quality or fact of being sciential.
2.knowledge-based experience, improved by real, proven, scientific data. Can be euphoric in nature, like a eureka moment.
Use of Scientility in a sentence:
- Scientiliy can happen while appreciating the results of a scientific experiment.
- Observing a rocket launch can be a scientil experience or a patriotic experience.
- A farmer will have a scientual appreciation of a new genetically engineered seed.
- The class was scientilized by the new science teacher.
- Today I feel scientual.
- Have a scientil day!
—Related forms
non·scien·ti·li·ty, noun
su·per·scien·ti·li·ty, noun
un·scien·ti·li·ty, noun
Origin: The Freethought Alliance conference May 8, 2010, F. Choquette
Undergrad in Coastal Environmental Science, Atheist, Humanist, environmentalist, feminist, science enthusiast, altruist, nonviolent, somewhere between liberal and radical
