#anyway. philsci babeyyyyy!!!!!!

[comradekatara]

would love to hear more of your thoughts on metaspirituality

@madam-melon-meow asked: i'd love to hear about sokka's scientific approach to the spirit world!

i’ve discussed this matter before, but it’s been three years, so i think it’s time i revisit it! i’m very intrigued by fantastical landscapes in fiction that map various real-world religious approaches onto its characters who nevertheless exist in a world where the subjects of their worship/reverence/deification are demonstrably real and coexist with humankind. like, religion as an endeavor relies on belief in phenomena that are fundamentally unable to be confirmed or falsified. the fundamental epistemic difference between a scientific theory and a religious belief is that a hypothesis can be confirmed and disconfirmed, whereas a “god” can only be believed or disbelieved. science and religion are pretty different epistemological projects, especially post-enlightenment science which prioritizes the scientific method (generating a falsifiable hypothesis that is tested to confirm or disconfirm it) as its knowledge engine. obviously, religious approaches to natural phenomena that can be understood through science exist in parallel with each other, and science as a project is fundamentally subjective, limited, and biased, but by virtue of any scientific theory being falsifiable by definition, it separates itself from religion through an acknowledgement that the implications from observable evidence/data gathered supersede the importance of any one theory. 

sokka as a character basically functions as the personification of the scientific method. his arc is about collecting data and adjusting his worldview in accordance with that information, wholly and immediately. the most obvious example of this would be how quickly he adjusts his belief in deeply entrenched bioessentialist logic that purports fundamental differences between the sexes upon meeting the kyoshi warriors. however, there are some areas in which he is unwilling to change his mind throughout the course of the show: his own self-worth (although i do think his noticeably improved mood post-”boiling rock” is an indication that it has, ever so slightly, been ameliorated) and his “belief” in spirits. people love to point out that sokka’s constant and intimate contact with the spirit world (friends with the avatar, has been to the spirit world, kissed the moon, etc etc.) contradicts his refusal to believe in the spiritual; how and why is he a skeptic if he knows for a fact that spirits exist and are extremely powerful? but i think that sokka, as a character who prioritizes logic and science, perfectly encapsulates the tension that i’ve alluded to: what does it mean to be “spiritual” in a world wherein spirits are demonstrably real? 

“believing” in the avatar is not the same thing as believing in the dalai lama, because demonstrable proof that the avatar is a reincarnation exists for everyone to see. believing in spirits is not the same thing as believing in a deity. “believing” in “the spirit world” is not the same thing as believing in nirvana, or heaven and hell, or any other immaterial plane of existence that exists in a religious imagination. sokka knows the avatar. sokka has met spirits. sokka has been to the spirit world. perhaps he does not currently scientifically understand the phenomena he has witnessed and interacted with, but he knows that they are real, and thus capable of being understood with the right tools. I think sokka would take it upon himself to develop those tools (partially out of genuine curiosity, and largely out of spite). 

an exception must be made with regards to “the swamp,” in which sokka’s comically obstinate skepticism is, rather, avoidance of spirits altogether due to having recently acquired trauma involving spirits (at which point a vision of yue literally manifests before him to express the guilt he has yet to verbally acknowledge), and not a rational acknowledgement that spirits exist but are nevertheless incorrectly deified. however, when sokka is not actively running away from his grief, he does not deny the existence of spirits, he simply denies that spirits are too mystical to be understood. if anything, sokka’s frequent contact with the spirit world emboldens him to claim that spirits are cosmologically typical, and thus scoffs at approaching them from a religious standpoint. as the token “scientist” of the cast, sokka’s role isn’t just to deride religion, but to acknowledge the fundamental pitfalls of taking a religious approach to concretely observable data.

obviously, a lot of these tensions are unspoken, relegated either to subtext or interpretative extrapolations that are derived from the text but never actually acknowledged by the text. atla as a show is primarily concerned with aang’s spiritual approach, and sokka’s spiritual approach largely exists to contrast aang’s, rather than as a facet of his arc in its own right. however, in my own vision of sokka’s postcanon continuation, i think that the tension between observable data and deification of the spirit world would continue to rankle him, and i see him developing a branch of theoretical physics to better understand spiritual phenomena, such as the mechanics of bending or the existence of the spirit world. it feels like a natural extension of his arc to me, as i find his (largely unspoken) tension with the spirit world to be extremely compelling.

i also like to think that he reunites with yue in the spirit world in the process and they work on this research together, although i do acknowledge how such a plotline might narratively cheapen the impact of her sacrifice. that said, i’ve given it a lot of thought, and i think the post-canon potential of sokka getting to know yue, and the spirit world, better is compelling enough to me that sort of diminishing the tragedy of sokka losing her is acceptable to me. your mileage may vary, of course, but even if you choose not to subscribe to my particular interpretation/headcanon, there’s still no doubt that sokka will be conducting research and experiments into the nature of bending and spirits as thoroughly as he possibly can, often with (occasionally reluctant) help from his friends, and revolutionizes and develops an entire branch of theoretical physics, mostly out of spite.

#sokka #postwargaang #reyuenion #analysis #asks #muppet on a spit #madam melon meow #sorry this took me so long would you believe that i actually wrote this the day you guys sent it (back in october) #except for the last two sentences basically #and i just kept putting it off #what's wrong w mee.... #anyway. philsci babeyyyyy!!!!!!