(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

Further to my last posting about that notable young man of Middle Eastern appearance: one of the many Christian groups on campus are having a lecture series called "If I were God I would..." . Tomorrow's lecture is titled "If I were God I would end all suffering". (This will of course be an explanation of why God doesn't, in fact, end all suffering.)

Now many concepts are readily translatable from one religion to another, but what this question actually means is, "If I were omnipotent I would..." Looked at one way, my own deities are not omnipotent; looked at another way, the question is meaningless, as my own gods aren't bureaucrats or generals organising the universe from outside. In fact, I agree with Thorkild Jacobsen's analysis in Treasures of Darkness: the idea of the chief god as a ruler whose word is law, with many ministers in the form of lesser gods, developed when human societies themselves became organised in this way.

Comments

[jvowles.livejournal.com]

So no Celestial Clockmaker for you, hmmm?

Seriously, we fashion gods in our own image. The forces beneath the masks, however, have no particular reason to follow human expectations.

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

the idea of the chief god as a ruler whose word is law, with many ministers in the form of lesser gods, developed when human societies themselves became organised in this way

*smacks forehead* Why did that never occur to me before? (And me doing extra research on complex societies for a novel, too.) That makes infinite amounts of sense.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Woman! What has become of your Website and your LOM screencaps?

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

Er...it's on planned downtime. Planned uptime is...not yet determined. (I'm done with my previous fannish project now, though, so perhaps I'll make the website the next one, yes?)

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

The Chinese version of Heaven mirrors the earthly court of the Emperor, right down to the feuding and the politics. The Christian heaven mirrors the set up of the medieval Church (ranks of angels/priests - archangels = cardinals/bishops). Humans create gods not the other way around.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

We have to be able to understand them, so we give them our own attributes. You can't understand the numen behind the thunderstorm if you're not, yourself, a thunderstorm.

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

Which I knew, about the Catholic church/heaven anyway, so I wonder why I had never generalized before to the whole concept of specific/universalized gods. One of those "duh" moments really.