Lao Tzunami
Community Member
- MBTI
- INFJ / IEI
I was recently reminded of the binding of Isaac when watching Avatar Fire and Ash.
In the torah, Elohim command Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Isaac willingly participates in constructing the alter and his binding. At the last moment, an angel prevents Abraham from landing a killing blow. They then see a goat stuck in a thicket and sacrifice that instead. Because of this, Abraham is the father of nations
This reminds me of the scientific process. To be a good scientist, you have to try everything to prove your own theory wrong and kill it. If you are actually aligned with reality and not just trying to force your interpretation, something greater than you will prevent you from actually destroying it.
Because of his attitude, Abraham became the father of nations, because the willingness to adapt to reality aligns you with the creative force.
We can trust our feelings and instincts because they are the result of natural selection. The iterative selection of our ancestors by nature is what tuned our being with life. People have a hard time understanding that science has value not because we have everything figured out, but because voluntarily participating in natural selection actually drive progress.
My critique of science is the limited scope to materialism, but the higher virtue is voluntarily participating in evolution via feedback with reality. This is why living out your beliefs is so important, and hypocrisy is so bad. Only through action do you know what the many competing driving and feelings is actually supreme, and only by acting in the world and seeing the result can you know if you are correct or if you need to learn. Learning is an openness that let's you evolve to the optimal level, while never attaching to the current state, and remaining flexible enough to adapt when the environment changes.
@Fruiteloop I see the burning bush as a similar symbol. Fire is the element of transformation, and normally bushes die as they are consumed by flame. Like the binding of isaac, where Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son lead to him being the most reproductively fit father in history, the burning of holy fire leads to life rather than death. The tree of human knowledge and the biological phylogenetic tree of life are both burning because they are in a state of transformation and revision. You can of course have fields of "knowledge" that become increasingly more complicated and differentiated that are not grounded in reality which would be destroyed when burning.
Another related metaphor is how fire is required refine ore, extracting the metal while burning away and extracting the impurities. I believe all three are related to the same attitude of adaptation toward reality.
One of my favorite alchemical images is the double ouroboros with a tree growing in the center, which I believe is the dream the scientific process is currently executing.
In the torah, Elohim command Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Isaac willingly participates in constructing the alter and his binding. At the last moment, an angel prevents Abraham from landing a killing blow. They then see a goat stuck in a thicket and sacrifice that instead. Because of this, Abraham is the father of nations
This reminds me of the scientific process. To be a good scientist, you have to try everything to prove your own theory wrong and kill it. If you are actually aligned with reality and not just trying to force your interpretation, something greater than you will prevent you from actually destroying it.
Because of his attitude, Abraham became the father of nations, because the willingness to adapt to reality aligns you with the creative force.
We can trust our feelings and instincts because they are the result of natural selection. The iterative selection of our ancestors by nature is what tuned our being with life. People have a hard time understanding that science has value not because we have everything figured out, but because voluntarily participating in natural selection actually drive progress.
My critique of science is the limited scope to materialism, but the higher virtue is voluntarily participating in evolution via feedback with reality. This is why living out your beliefs is so important, and hypocrisy is so bad. Only through action do you know what the many competing driving and feelings is actually supreme, and only by acting in the world and seeing the result can you know if you are correct or if you need to learn. Learning is an openness that let's you evolve to the optimal level, while never attaching to the current state, and remaining flexible enough to adapt when the environment changes.
@Fruiteloop I see the burning bush as a similar symbol. Fire is the element of transformation, and normally bushes die as they are consumed by flame. Like the binding of isaac, where Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son lead to him being the most reproductively fit father in history, the burning of holy fire leads to life rather than death. The tree of human knowledge and the biological phylogenetic tree of life are both burning because they are in a state of transformation and revision. You can of course have fields of "knowledge" that become increasingly more complicated and differentiated that are not grounded in reality which would be destroyed when burning.
Another related metaphor is how fire is required refine ore, extracting the metal while burning away and extracting the impurities. I believe all three are related to the same attitude of adaptation toward reality.
One of my favorite alchemical images is the double ouroboros with a tree growing in the center, which I believe is the dream the scientific process is currently executing.
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