Great writing by @simonsarris "In Praise of the Gods"
https://simonsarris.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-the-gods …
Some snippets:
Show this thread
-
Without an education of stories, it is not only difficult to build your intuition, it is difficult to learn how to learn, and difficult to reason about virtue.
Show this thread
**Maturity is almost impossible to transmit rationally, but is a very compelling concept aesthetically**.
-
-
It is learned by seeing others grow the courage to make meaningful decisions, and accept the duty and power and consequences that flow from them. It teaches a mastery that cannot simply be taught through abstract school lessons.
Show this thread -
**Without traditions it is still easy for us to form opinions, but difficult to form convictions.**
Show this thread -
A mythological education is distinct from the common school subjects. It builds in the mind intuition for second-order effects, for the first lesson a child learns from one hundred stories is that every thing you do will have unintended consequences
Show this thread -
^^**Alchemy was the last honest science, because it purported to seek things, and the others purport to know things.**^^
Show this thread -
**However it is a mortal sin to confuse the concept of consensus with science, for consensus is statement of politics, and speaks nothing of truth.**
Show this thread -
**Modern science is drunk on both certainty and consensus, with all the grave mistakes to show for it. The inventor of the lobotomy was awarded a Nobel Prize, never rescinded**, which is telling not only of modern science but also the nature of awards.
Show this thread -
Alchemy comes from a time when people considered science a process and a philosophy, and **took allegories seriously enough to learn from them.**
Show this thread -
**Every child knows it is right to build, to dance, and to shout, though they cannot explain why. Nothing is more natural for the child or the ancient than to build a temple, or to deem objects sacred.**
Show this thread -
The rationalist points out that the sun is a star, in fact quite a small and fairly unremarkable one. **But the meek are blessed: It is only to a person with the proper amount of humility that the sun is really a sun, and to whom each sunrise is new.**
Show this thread -
**To argue proofs of religion is to miss the point of religion. What matters is if one’s sense of gratitude and wonder are fitting responses to our world.**
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.