This Beautiful World of Mine, of Ours

I don't know why people automatically assume that without a belief in god, you can't appreciate the beauty of the world around you. It's like everyone assumes an atheist is actually a Hollywood Atheist. Or maybe it's because of the incorporation of Platonic ideals into (mostly Western) religion during the Renaissance. Or maybe it's just part of what Daniel Dennett calls 'belief in belief' - as if we (human beings in general) assume that belief in an irrational proposition somehow helps. Or maybe we're biased to assume that a rational person has no feelings, even though that's rather stupid - my limbic system doesn't shut down when I use my frontal lobes. Feelings are just that - feelings. It's only rational admit they exist it's evident that they do. A rationalist is not an automaton.
And yet, we still assume that an atheist or anyone who focuses on rationality is some strange version of Spock.

Well, I'm sorry if it shakes your worldview to hear it, but that's not true at all. You don't have to believe the world was created by some imaginaryandanthropomorphicskyfairy to appreciate the beauty of a soft wind blowing through the trees sounding like the oceans have crossed mountains to blow past you, or the night sky and its infinitearrayofstars (how can looking out at that not inspire awe in you??), or a meandering blue river rounding a curve in the Himalayas...

I've seen so many non-believers, like myself, who can't help but look at the beauty of existence and feel this huge ocean of wonder breaking upon the shores of their conscious minds.

Are you telling me that atheists like Carl Sagan and Douglas Adams didn't feel overwhelming awe at the sheer magnificence of existence as it is? You have to read but one line of anything either of them wrote, and you'll see what can best be described as religious awe without the religion.

Another idea that's similar to the youdon'tbelieveinskyfairies therefore youmusthatetheuniverse one is mostly commonly expressed somewhat like this: "You shouldn't try to study the world with so much rigour, you end up destroying the beauty of it by studying it too hard." Or "stop using your brain so much, you overthink things and that ruins your ability to enjoy the world."

That's just a cop out.

I've never ever found anything in the world that became less amazing in my mind because I studied it. It's always been the reverse - contemplation increases the exquisiteness of any experience (good experiences get magnified by the increased complexity they acquire with more thoughts and experiences getting connected and bad ones get spread out/deconstructed and easier to deal with).

To quote a previous post:
"Knowing that lightning is actually a cascade of electrons takes nothing away from the almost mystical feeling that a good lightning show generates in you. In fact, the knowledge, of what exactly each of those lightning bolts is, adds nuances to any awe I feel. Hell, even the phrase a cascade of electrons is beautiful - makes me think of waterfalls in electric blue."

Imagine how much more involved in the beauty of the world you are, when your neurons are not only firing in response to the sensory information about the majesty of it all but also appreciating how simple rules and processes are continuosly interacting to create the complexity of the universe.