for a less comedic take, take daniel quinn's jellyfish parable in ishmael, an adventure of mind and spirit. an anthropoligst visits an alien planet and talks t

for a less comedic take, take daniel quinn's jellyfish parable in ishmael, an adventure of mind and spirit. an anthropoligst visits an alien planet and talks to a jellyfish about its cultures creation myth. indignant, the jellyfish recoil - they have no such myth, only a scientific account as rational creatures. obviously, agrees the researcher; did life first appear on land or sea? confused, the jellyfish ask what is meant. well, the researcher, says, was the first life here or over there (pointing past the shore inland). the jellyfish are more confused - there is nothing past the shoreline. that is the edge of the great bowl that holds the ocean. https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/youth/chorus/workshop5/173729.shtml https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/youth/chorus/workshop5/17372... it is a simple tale, but its simplicity is somehow lost on most of our population, both scientific and otherwise. the idea that we're at the pinnacle of knowledge for anything is very silly. operate with assumptions, but dont pretend theyre not assumptions. we're still learning.