Science catches up to the New Sun

John Watkins · 13 Dec 2008, 04:14 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: john.watkins04 at gmail.com (John Watkins)
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:14:38 -0500
Subject: (urth) Science catches up to the New Sun
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	<44fb53d10812122007y59569982w5e012ce7894d3ea0 at mail.gmail.com>
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I agree with all of this. I was merely using the infamously opaque
ending to Evangelion to express my bafflement at the theoretical
physics.

Also, uh, Witz and I had had a heated exchange, so I wanted to make a joke.



On 12/12/08, Matthew Keeley <matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 10:53 PM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> That's true. If you parse the imagery, you don't get anything really
>> meaningful. When you take into account further information like the
>> Secret Files (Lilith and Adam are organisms created by the 'First
>> Ancestral [Alien] Race' as part of a panspermia program, but
>> accidentally they both end up on Earth etc.), Evangelion is, if
>> anything, profoundly atheistic.
>>
>> (Personally, I consider the case for a cynical atheistic Evangelion
>> infinitely stronger than the one for a cynical atheistic New Sun.
>> There's an interesting essay I once saw in this vein -
>> http://www.geocities.com/sephkhan/rants/dharma.html )
>>
>> Random trivia: Kaworu, in the early outlines, was a cat.
>
>> If you want to analyze Eva, it's much more profitable to approach it
>> from a Buddhist or Western psychological perspective - both are fields
>> that Anno actually does know quite a bit about.
>>
>>> I mustn't run away...
>>
>> "It's strange that 'Evangelion' has become such a hit - all the
>> characters are so sick!" ?Hideaki Anno
>>
>> - --
>> gwern
>
> We have Eva fans here? And I thought I was the only one.
>
> I'd love to have an involved debate, but I think I agree with
> everything you said. I do think Eva is atheistic (or I think I do) but
> a Buddhist brand of atheism as opposed to a Death-of-God sort of
> atheism. The end of the show harps so damn much on relativism that
> it's hard to conclude otherwise.
>
> Video for the initiated: Shinji's voice actor, frustrated at the end
> of the show (some language)
>
> http://video.aol.com/video-detail/shinjis-rant-animated/48171386
>
> "'If I were to run away, OK, let's analyze that, where the f--- would I
> go!?"
>
> -Matt
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