People ask me how I get by and stay optimistic in the face of Everything.
Honestly part of it is that I think everyone should get more spiritual about science
In most places, at most times, for most of history, science, magic, and religion were all the same thing
(I took an entire class at Berkeley on this. It literally changed the way I understand the world.)
If we define "magic" as "anything that cannot exist under the laws of nature," then "anything that exists in nature" by definition can't be magic. Possibly, this is not a useful definition of magic
Every other story in the life science that comes out these days is just
Article: *says something*
Indigenous people: WE TOLD YOU SO
Science: Every living thing is interconnected.
Indigenous people: WE TOLD YOU SO (x)
Science: Trees and plants can talk to each other (x, x, x)
Indigenous people: WE TOLD YOU SO
Science: XYZ plant is medicinal!
Indigenous people: WE TOLD YOU SO (too many cases to count)
One of the only defining principles of my religion (Unitarian Universalism, if it matters) is that everyone has a piece of the truth
Everyone. Every religion, every person, every living thing
For a good chunk of the 1700s-1800s, science was called "natural philosophy"
Now, we learn the world through the study of genes, the study of atoms, the study of molecules. We are the universe studying itself.
"We are the universe becoming aware of itself," says Neil deGrasse Tyson
"For the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves. This is a time of great danger, but our species is young, and curious, and brave. It shows much promise," says Carl Sagan. (x)
"Because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself," says Carl Sagan (x)
Life becoming capable of something new has changed the planet before. It has caused mass extinctions far, far worse than the one we are in. (x, x, x)
But for the first time, we - the species of life capable of new things (ecosystem-scale deliberate change) - can stop ourselves from doing more harm
Idk. My teachers and professors made me read the existentialists and the Transcendentalists and the beats and ancient Egyptian spell papyri and ancient Egyptian medical papyri, and sometimes they're the same papyri. Currently I edit book science books and spell books for a living. I''m getting weird about it and it's been really good for my ability to live in this world
"With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world."