Metaphors are described and commentary on idolatry is explained

Any metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things:

The metamorphosis of the Monarch butterfly from a chrysalis.

"The metaphors and symbols which we use to describe our experience of the world are only valid within the limited context of our experience & cannot be used outside it; they are useful simplifications of the world and must never be confused with the much more complex reality which they represent."

"The confusion of the symbol with reality is idolatry, and that is a sin to which we are all prone."

Today we all experience a "failure to recognize the context within which the metaphors and symbols of science and religion are valid.

Han bury Brown, The Wisdom of Science , p. 182.

solar system moves

On the left is a time lapsed photograph of the actual movement of the planets in our solar system as the course of the year advances. On the right is a cartoon of how the planets move to account for the pattern seen on the left. What do you see in the photograph and what would account for such a pattern?

Each of the planets moves either in an orbit within or outside of the earth's orbit of the sun. As the Earth moves relative to Mars, during the year the outer planet appears to make a loop in the sky because the Earth moves in a shorter orbit than does Mars.

Inner planets are:
Mercury
Venus

The outer planets are:
     Mars
     Jupiter
     Saturn
     Uranus
     Neptune
          Pluto (reduced to a planetoid)

Bronowski

"this picture of the phenomenon in isolation from the rest of the world and from the observer turns out to be false."

Summary of Bronowski's ideas.

There comes a time when it will not do any longer even as an approximation [for example the location of the planets] Then it turns out that time and space, which Newton thought absolute, cannot be given physical meaning without the observer.

"And as we refine our measurements, the limitations of the observer look larger and larger. The experimental errors are woven into the very substance of the world."

The lunar and solar calendars require adjustments.

28.5 days = 1 lunation of moon about the earth
19 year cycle = 235 lunations
On the Julian calendar by 1425, the vernal equinox fell earlier and earlier than March 21
By 1570, the equinox was falling 10 days before 21 March!

The October 1582 calendar was calculated on the basis of the Copernican model of the cosmos.

Some related Gestalt psychology and related terms:

umwelt, or underlying character of things.

uncertainty, a fact of the human condition that many seek to deny.

unity inherent in the natural sciences is often unnoticed.

As an example of a rich metaphor, consider this comparison used by Marlow in 1954 about an ancient reference to wisdom and a chariot.

"Know the self or Atman as the Lord who sits in the chariot called the body; buddhi (intelligence) is the charioteer; mind the reins, the senses are the horses, and the objects are the roads.
The self is the controller and enjoyed. But he who has no understanding, but is weak in mind, his senses run riot like the vicious horses of a charioteer. He who has understanding and is strong-minded, his senses are well controlled like the good horses of a charioteer." ¹

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Sources:

Hinduism and Buddhism in Greek Philosophy
A. N. Marlow.
Philosophy East and West 4, no. 1, APRIL 1954. (c) by The University Press of Hawaii, p.35-45.

Terms:

Atman, Hindu, meaning the authentic (true) self.

buddhi, understanding and knowledge derived from awakening. That faculty of the mind beyond reason which enables wisdom to thrive for the purpose of leading the soul to nirvana. [from the Katha Upanishad.]

Feynman | Gell-Mann | Hawking | Hooke | Newton | Einstein | Galileo

Jacob Bronowski | Stephen Hawking | Ernst Mayr | Ian Tattersall | Charles Darwin

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