That demonstrates that Japanese culture has the phrase. Not that Japanese culture has the phrase with the same meaning as Eliezer uses.
And even if Japanese culture has it, there’s a difference between having it as a fictional thing and having it as a concept commonly applied to actual people.
Also, in this context, remember that fictional scenarios are often set up to have individuals drastically influence the result where real life scenarios do not. People like reading about Voldemort defeated by Harry Potter, not by 200 wizards doing routine policing misions that are thorough enough that they happen to find all the horcruxes, followed by massive military backup for the squad of identically trained men raiding his compound. That’s why fictional characters often have something like tsuyoku naritai; it doesn’t carry over to the real world.
By the way:
“Torah loses knowledge in every generation. Science gains knowledge with every generation. No matter where they started out, sooner or later science must surpass Torah.”
Obviously Eliezer was not familiar with the concept “asymptote”.
I made a video compilation of Japanese songs that include the words “Tsuyoku naritai”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcXiT6An-U
I wasn’t really convinced that this concept was really present in Japanese culture before but I suppose I am, now.
That demonstrates that Japanese culture has the phrase. Not that Japanese culture has the phrase with the same meaning as Eliezer uses.
And even if Japanese culture has it, there’s a difference between having it as a fictional thing and having it as a concept commonly applied to actual people.
Also, in this context, remember that fictional scenarios are often set up to have individuals drastically influence the result where real life scenarios do not. People like reading about Voldemort defeated by Harry Potter, not by 200 wizards doing routine policing misions that are thorough enough that they happen to find all the horcruxes, followed by massive military backup for the squad of identically trained men raiding his compound. That’s why fictional characters often have something like tsuyoku naritai; it doesn’t carry over to the real world.
By the way:
Obviously Eliezer was not familiar with the concept “asymptote”.
When he was a kid at a religious elementary school.
When he was an adult who posted that, and clearly did not mean “this is some stupid thing I thought as a kid because I didn’t know better”.
Actually he says that he wasn’t a proper atheist at the time which basically means that he didn’t really think clearly about the issue.
I don’t think the thought itself is stupid. It just doesn’t fit the complexity of the situation.
For what it’s worth, I would enjoy reading about a squad of trained wizards raiding Voldemort’s compound ^^.