On 08/23/09 20:57, Darren New wrote:
> Every once in a while, someone will write a story wherein faith in
> deities is justified. I like those stories. I've found very few. Most
> are like the commedians who make fun of atheists, most of whom seem to
> just state "They're atheists" in some way, then laugh, as in "can you
> believe he said he didn't believe in god? WTF?"

	I usually tend to point out how many of the loud atheists are so like 
religious people ;-)

> I bring this up, because I recently read a short story wherein someone
> on a SF world participated in a ritual that reinforced his faith in the
> local deity to the point of unshakableness. It was handled wonderfully,
> with the faith bringing the kind of inner peace one would expect even in
> the face of others doubting. But then the protagonist finds his faith
> not to be justified but rather a scientific result during his further
> studies in science, and he then goes to try to convince others that
> they're high rather than enlightened, which for me spoiled the story. A
> world where the appropriate ritual reveals the actual deity is much more
> interesting than one in which the appropriate ritual reveals a
> biochemical high that feels like faith, methinks.

	Oceanic?

	To be honest, I don't see why that story got the accolades it did. I 
felt it wasn't particularly creative nor original. Dark Integers was so 
much better (and with that, I've exhausted all the Egan stories/novels 
I've read).

-- 
How do frogs die? Ker-mit suicide.

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