Neither Math Nor Myth

Neither math nor myth,
is the thing about the double-blind.

The point is: we can only learn so much through observation.

There is the understanding that we are limited by our tools; well, we most certainly are. And we always will be in the pursuit of understanding everything.

I consider this to be an empirical understanding. As long as I consider myself limited by and to my tools I will always be limited; my understandings will, on some level, exclude me.

This is a very difficult thing to consider, especially for people who have determined that only an empirical understanding will suffice.

I find it to be incredibly freeing. I believe that it is fear which stops people from being free to accept that they can’t understand everything empirically. The fear of not knowing. Or maybe even more so, the fear of having to decide for yourself.

That’s why we created religions. Why we created myths and legends. Why we still create myths and legends and embrace the power of centuries of collective agreement in our various gods. Because we are afraid to not know. We are afraid that we will have to look inside ourselves for some answers.

It is a powerful thing to conclude that some things can only be known from the inside.

We are so finely joined on a subatomic level, a molecular level, that we affect through observation. This is the postulation that has inspired and motivated generations of mystics and scientists. The mystics to conquer the limitations of the mechanical observation, and the scientists to do the same.

And so we go about our various works. All of us trying to understand, to whatever degree we are compelled to understand. Limiting ourselves by our tools or by our unchallenged faiths. Mystics and scientists and all in between.

Our tools evolve to survive and our faiths do too. We all decide how to use our tools and our faiths, and we all decide this a thousand times a day. And we all affect. We are both our tools and our faiths, we evolve with them, and they evolve with us. Or not.

And that’s the point. As we learn, we change. Not later, or soon, but as we learn. The moment we learn, we change. This understanding can’t be measured by a tool or absorbed solely by faith. It isn’t empirical or spiritual. That moment can’t be observed, it just is.

So either we learn or we don’t.

“Who cares?” someone might say.

“Who doesn’t care?” a magical savage would reply.

She would be the point. We affect what we observe.