Science, Technology, and the Human Search for Meaning

American writer Peter Biles recently published an interesting call to action: use the right side of the brain more often. As is commonly understood, the left side of the brain is associated with precise and quantitative thinking, while the right side relates more to experience, emotion, and creativity.

Biles writes that since the Enlightenment, people have been trained to rely primarily on the left brain. This emphasis places value on rationality, analysis, and perhaps most of all efficiency. Artificial intelligence, we are told, will make our lives more efficient. Yet previous technologies over the last few centuries also entered our lives with promises to improve and simplify them, from the automobile to the microwave.

Despite enjoying these technologies, many people still feel a deep hunger for something more meaningful, for beauty, purpose, and faith. Science and technology are often praised as the saviors of humanity, but they have also helped remove some essential aspects of the human experience.

When Rational Thinking Becomes Too Narrow

Biles argues that a secular and materialistic worldview can sometimes blind people to the possibility of mystery and deep spiritual experience. These dimensions are often expressed through right brain activities such as art, poetry, music, and literature.

According to him, the world itself has not become dull or empty. Rather, society has gradually lost the ability to see the beauty and wonder that already exists. Under the influence of scientific culture, people may begin to view the world only through the lens of physics and mathematics, seeing it merely as a set of tools and mechanisms rather than as something rich with meaning.

The Problem of Over Analysis

Biles quotes another contemporary author who argues that excessive analysis can fragment our understanding of reality. When everything is broken into separate parts, we may lose sight of the larger story that connects them.

Without that larger narrative, it becomes difficult to understand the world and the cosmos as a whole. For this reason, the philosopher Dreher writes that people must encounter the world as a mystery. It is something we may never fully understand, yet something we can still participate in and experience.

A Jewish Perspective

Interestingly, similar ideas were expressed decades earlier by the great Jewish thinker known as the Chazon Ish. More than seventy years ago, he described the nature of faith in deeply poetic language.

He wrote that faith is a delicate inclination of the soul. When a person experiences a moment of quiet, free from the distractions of desire, and lifts their eyes to the vastness of the heavens and the depth of the earth, they may feel astonishment. The world appears before them as a profound and wondrous mystery. That mystery captures the heart and mind, drawing a person toward contemplation and spiritual awareness.

This description reflects a deeply Jewish way of understanding faith, rooted not only in intellectual reasoning but also in a sense of awe and wonder.

The Limits of Data and Technology

Modern culture often overwhelms people with information, equations, physics, and technological innovations. These things can certainly be fascinating and useful, but they are not the whole picture of reality.

The world, in many ways, remains far more mysterious than it is understood. Even though humanity has reached the moon and achieved extraordinary scientific advances, there are still countless aspects of existence that remain unexplained. For this reason, a person does not need to become a kind of human machine.

When a person finds a moment of quiet reflection, they may experience something similar to what King David expressed in the Tehillim: “When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers.” Through such moments of wonder, people gain a deeper sense of reality.

Growing Doubts About Pure Rationalism

Biles also notes that many intellectuals in the Western world are beginning to feel that dominant ways of thinking have become one dimensional.

He quotes writer Peter Savodnik, who observes that the rise of the “new atheism” occurred alongside the rise of the internet and a culture of extreme rational confidence. This mentality assumes that every problem can be solved, every question answered, and perhaps even every illness cured through technology and information.

In such an environment, people may begin to search for something to admire or even worship. It is therefore not surprising that some begin to place their faith in technology itself and in the endless search for information.

A Journey from Skepticism to Faith

Writer Matthew Crawford, explored similar ideas in his book The World Beyond Your Head. Crawford describes how, during much of his life as an intellectual skeptic, he passed through the world without truly engaging with it or trying to understand it deeply.

Over time, his reflections led him toward the belief that the world has a Creator and that life possesses spiritual meaning.

Not only religious thinkers recognize these concerns. Many philosophers who do not identify as religious repeatedly emphasize that removing spirituality from our ways of thinking does not necessarily lead to greater freedom or progress.

Technology, they argue, can sometimes embrace us too tightly, reducing our ability to experience and understand the world in its full richness.

Rediscovering Quiet and Meaning

Can society recover the calmer, more reflective way of life that once existed, even as artificial intelligence and constant technological noise surround us?

Peter Biles suggests that it is possible. The key is simply to step away from the constant flow of distractions for a moment and allow ourselves time for reflection.

In many ways, this is the same advice that Jewish sages have offered for generations: to create moments of quiet in which a person can rediscover wonder, meaning, and faith.