Edward: Water: 35 Liters, carbon: 20 kilograms, ammonia: 4 Liters, lime: 1.5 kilograms, phosphorus: 800 grams, salt: 250 grams, saltpeter: 100 grams, and various other trace elements...
Rose: Huh?!
Edward: That list represents the complete chemical makeup of a human body for the average adult. It's been calculated to the last microgram, but still there has never been one reported case of successfully creating a human life. And you're telling me something modern science can't do, you can do with prayer?
Rose: Lift thy voice to God! And the prayers of the faithful shall be answered!
Edward: Did I mention all those ingredients I read off? Down at the market, a kid could buy every one of them for the spare change in his pocket. As it turns out, humans are pretty cheap.
Rose: No, that's blasphemy...! People are- We're all children of God... created in his image!
Edward: Heh. You have to understand, alchemists are scientists... We don't believe in unprovable concepts like creators or gods... We observe the physical laws that govern this world to try to learn the truth. It's ironic, really. That through the application of science, we have in many ways been given the power to play gods ourselves...
Rose: So you're putting yourself on the same level as God? That's just... sheer arrogance!
Edward: You know, there's an old myth– about a hero who flew on wings made of wax... He thought he could touch the sun, but when he got too close, his wings melted, and he came crashing back down to earth... Right Al?
In class, we read about how science and religion can conflict and relate to one another. Haught described four different responses to the conflict between science and religion: 1) Conflict - where the two are seen as irreconcilable views, and so one has to be wrong while the other is right, 2) Contrast - where the two are said to be so different in their methods that they shouldn't compete with or be used to explain/compare with each other, 3) Contact - where theology has to engage in evolution, since evolution is a gift to theology since it allows us to deepen our views of God and creation, and 4) Confirmation - where science proves the existence of God through what we might at first think of as chance events, genetic mutation, or events too unfortunate for God to have caused or let them happen.
Whichever you might believe in, in FMA the lines seem to blur a bit, in that science seems to have a very big impact on what happens throughout the story, but there's the constant reminder that people with the power of alchemy and science need to be humble and not abuse their gifts and knowledge. If they do, they make themselves or others suffer. Ed, Al, and several others pay the price for thinking they could have the power over life and death. In the Christian point of view, the ultimate authority over life and death is God only, and humans don't have any right to that authority. That is why the deep conflict between pro-choice groups and pro-life groups continues to this day.
The main thing about punishment coming to people who play God is that while some people in the real world believe that people will get what's coming to them in the afterlife, in FMA the punishment comes to them immediately and while they still have a life to live. They suffer the consequences, and they are good and alive for all of it.
This blog is going to be about the other half of the overall meaning of humanity. The previous blog showed through the Homunculi that humans have flaws alongside their good qualities. It is part of what makes them human. The important thing is to acknowledge and conquer those flaws for the better of yourself and others around you, otherwise you might end up becoming the "monster" that causes suffering for everyone involved.
In this blog, we explore how science and religion clash and mesh, and how recklessly desiring for something beyond human capability, such as immortality and the power to play God, can have dire consequences in one way or another.
We see the effects of this through Ed and Al, Father, and various other alchemists.
Alphonse: Hey, Brother, have you figured out what Teacher meant by "One is All and All is One"? I've been thinking about it this whole time, but I still only have a few vague ideas.
Edward: Well, I'm not really sure about this, but... do you remember when I was weak from hunger, and I ate those ants?
Alphonse: You ate a LOT of ants.
Edward: Mm. I sure did, and boy, did they taste nasty. But then, that got me thinking. If I hadn't eaten them, I might've died. Then I would've been eaten by them. I'd go into the earth and become grass, then the rabbits would eat that.
Alphonse: You're talking about the food chain, right?
Edward: Yeah, but... not just that, either. Long time ago, this whole island was probably at the bottom of the sea. And tens of thousands of years from now, it could be the peak of a mountain for all we know.
Alphonse: All things are connected, is that what you're saying?
Edward: Everything we see, everyone we meet, is caught up in a great unseen flow. But it's bigger than that. It's the entire world, the entire universe even. And compared to something as big as that, Al, you and I are tiny, not even the size of ants. Only one small part within a much greater flow. Nothing more than a fraction of the whole. But by putting all those "ones" together, you get one great "All", just like Teacher said. The flow of this universe follows laws of such magnitude that you and I can't even imagine them."
Father is the most prominent example. The whole reason he created the Homunculi, caused the death of many, many lives, and subtly created a giant Transmutation Circle around Amestris was so he could achieve godly power and immortality.
https://youtu.be/9PRSchbUMW4
The link above shows how Truth condemned what Father believed and tried to do.
Although his desire for knowledge was a little admirable, he pushed it beyond what he should have, Father desired to be God, a being more perfect than humans, to know everything and be able to do everything. He found humanity and mortality disgusting and was willing to kill off all of the people of Xerxes and Amestris in order to gain enough souls for his goal. He strived to go beyond what he was and couldn't understand where he went wrong.
https://youtu.be/ul2qOfUsIDo?t=153
Ed, however, learned where Father did not. He and Al learned early on that, in the grand scheme of things, humans and every other being on Earth are minuscule and simply part of an ongoing cycle. The life and death of everything is part of the cycle. Humans are made from this universal cycle and tiny parts of this cycle even after they die. One is all and all is one.
He lost battles and failed to save people like Tucker's daughter. Even with alchemy and the military behind him, he still wasn't able to save everyone.
They then saw what humans could do, with and without alchemy, the good and the bad.
In the end, Ed was able to drop his arrogance as an alchemist, believing that it solved all his human limitations and problems, to save his brother's life. Truth told him he finally understood when he acknowledged the limits and capabilities of humans alone. When Truth asked if he was really okay with losing his alchemy since that'll lower himself to a simple human, he just grinned and replied:
"What do you mean lower myself? That's the only thing I've ever been, just a simple human that couldn't save a little girl, not even with alchemy."
In the end, we're all humans, with human limits, flaws, good qualities, and potential, and we don't need or maybe even truly deserve alchemy or the ambition/arrogance that comes with it. We should not use the natural science of alchemy to try to achieve things beyond natural science and human capabilities (such as immortality and creating life), especially at the expense of others.
In this blog, we explore how science and religion clash and mesh, and how recklessly desiring for something beyond human capability, such as immortality and the power to play God, can have dire consequences in one way or another.
We see the effects of this through Ed and Al, Father, and various other alchemists.
Alphonse: Hey, Brother, have you figured out what Teacher meant by "One is All and All is One"? I've been thinking about it this whole time, but I still only have a few vague ideas.
Edward: Well, I'm not really sure about this, but... do you remember when I was weak from hunger, and I ate those ants?
Alphonse: You ate a LOT of ants.
Edward: Mm. I sure did, and boy, did they taste nasty. But then, that got me thinking. If I hadn't eaten them, I might've died. Then I would've been eaten by them. I'd go into the earth and become grass, then the rabbits would eat that.
Alphonse: You're talking about the food chain, right?
Edward: Yeah, but... not just that, either. Long time ago, this whole island was probably at the bottom of the sea. And tens of thousands of years from now, it could be the peak of a mountain for all we know.
Alphonse: All things are connected, is that what you're saying?
Edward: Everything we see, everyone we meet, is caught up in a great unseen flow. But it's bigger than that. It's the entire world, the entire universe even. And compared to something as big as that, Al, you and I are tiny, not even the size of ants. Only one small part within a much greater flow. Nothing more than a fraction of the whole. But by putting all those "ones" together, you get one great "All", just like Teacher said. The flow of this universe follows laws of such magnitude that you and I can't even imagine them."
As shown in the first quote, Ed knows the power and potential ambition and arrogance that can come with being able to use alchemy. He's very cynical when it comes to religion, especially when people think religion will bestow miracles that cannot realistically happen. However, even he acknowledges that using alchemy, this remarkable power still a bit beyond their full comprehension, in ways they should never attempt, can only lead to disaster.
Alchemy is a natural science, and so it can't work miracles, and can't make things out of nothing. It follows the natural law of equivalent exchange. You have to give to get, and alchemy uses the world around it that already exists.
That is why Ed and Al failed to bring back their mother. You can't create something/life from nothing/death. "Some things in life can't be measured on a simple scale." Trying to do so is going beyond your capabilities and playing God, and the consequences aren't good.
Ed and Al had to learn this the hard way when they tried to bring back their mother.
The link is from a bit of FMA instead of FMA Brotherhood, but the same thing happened in both. (It is a bit gruesome, as a warning)
Equivalent exchange, the law of alchemy: To create, something of equal value must be lost. The toll they had to pay for something they couldn't even accomplish, because creating life is beyond the capabilities of alchemy, was Al's life and Ed's leg. Then, to retrieve just Al's soul, Ed had to give up his arm and bind his soul temporarily to the first and best thing he could find, a suit of armor.
They paid the price for trying Human Transmutation, something they were told to never do. Now, they have to suffer the consequences and spend the entire storyline trying to amend what they've done and preventing others from making the same mistake.
This part of what Ed was getting at when he was talking to Rose in the chapel, and why he mentioned the story of Icarus.
Even so, he continues to rely on alchemy as his source of power and maintains a bit of arrogance with his skill and abilities. He is also steadily exposed to the corruption and destruction alchemy can bring upon the world when humans use it wrongly.
-Shou Tucker sacrificed his daughter and dog to create a chimera and save his job, after already having sacrificed his wife to save his job before this.
-The war on Ishval was won by using alchemists to slaughter everyone in sight.
-Even the Philosopher's stone, the very stone Ed and Al took for a miracle, a way to cheat equivalent exchange, was made with its own form of equivalent exchange. It could grant alchemists greater power in exchange for human souls. People had to be sacrificed to make and power it. This is what Marcoh, as the creator of the Philosopher's stone, was guilty of in his earlier years, and it still haunts him to this day.
There are several other examples through the series, but these are three of the most memorable examples.
All of this exposes Ed more to the reality of the world, humanity, and humanity's capabilities and limits (and the limits of alchemy as well).
Something considered a natural science with natural laws and limits gave alchemists a sense of power and arrogance that they did not deserve, and some ended up abusing this power in some of the worst ways possible. Some, in a sense, as Ed hints at, "played God" - bringing death upon others (some casting judgement on others and claiming it their right to kill, others simply seeing others as below them), trying to create life, and striving for immortality.
Many of the higher-ups in Central's military were willing to sacrifice everyone else in Amestris just so they could be granted immortality alongside Father and the Homunculi, and so they could join the Mannequin Soldiers in taking over the world. Their desire to preserve their own lives overcame any previous desire to save the lives of the innocent. Many people ended up being sacrificed for their cause. Of course, none of them won - they were all either killed or arrested.
Something considered a natural science with natural laws and limits gave alchemists a sense of power and arrogance that they did not deserve, and some ended up abusing this power in some of the worst ways possible. Some, in a sense, as Ed hints at, "played God" - bringing death upon others (some casting judgement on others and claiming it their right to kill, others simply seeing others as below them), trying to create life, and striving for immortality.
Many of the higher-ups in Central's military were willing to sacrifice everyone else in Amestris just so they could be granted immortality alongside Father and the Homunculi, and so they could join the Mannequin Soldiers in taking over the world. Their desire to preserve their own lives overcame any previous desire to save the lives of the innocent. Many people ended up being sacrificed for their cause. Of course, none of them won - they were all either killed or arrested.
Father is the most prominent example. The whole reason he created the Homunculi, caused the death of many, many lives, and subtly created a giant Transmutation Circle around Amestris was so he could achieve godly power and immortality.
The link above shows how Truth condemned what Father believed and tried to do.
Although his desire for knowledge was a little admirable, he pushed it beyond what he should have, Father desired to be God, a being more perfect than humans, to know everything and be able to do everything. He found humanity and mortality disgusting and was willing to kill off all of the people of Xerxes and Amestris in order to gain enough souls for his goal. He strived to go beyond what he was and couldn't understand where he went wrong.
https://youtu.be/ul2qOfUsIDo?t=153
Ed, however, learned where Father did not. He and Al learned early on that, in the grand scheme of things, humans and every other being on Earth are minuscule and simply part of an ongoing cycle. The life and death of everything is part of the cycle. Humans are made from this universal cycle and tiny parts of this cycle even after they die. One is all and all is one.
He lost battles and failed to save people like Tucker's daughter. Even with alchemy and the military behind him, he still wasn't able to save everyone.
They then saw what humans could do, with and without alchemy, the good and the bad.
In the end, Ed was able to drop his arrogance as an alchemist, believing that it solved all his human limitations and problems, to save his brother's life. Truth told him he finally understood when he acknowledged the limits and capabilities of humans alone. When Truth asked if he was really okay with losing his alchemy since that'll lower himself to a simple human, he just grinned and replied:
"What do you mean lower myself? That's the only thing I've ever been, just a simple human that couldn't save a little girl, not even with alchemy."
In the end, we're all humans, with human limits, flaws, good qualities, and potential, and we don't need or maybe even truly deserve alchemy or the ambition/arrogance that comes with it. We should not use the natural science of alchemy to try to achieve things beyond natural science and human capabilities (such as immortality and creating life), especially at the expense of others.
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