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clipka wrote:
> Darren New schrieb:
>> Gabriel: "My Lord, the devils are violating their agreement."
>> God: "Well, what did you expect?"
>> Gabriel: "But they must be punished!"
>> God: "They're already damned to hell. What would you have me do?"
>
> Man, that's a good one :-P
Yes. God was wonderfully laid back in those stories. An excellent betrayal
of what I think a lot of the more moderate Christians think it's like, in
some sense.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Understanding the structure of the universe
via religion is like understanding the
structure of computers via Tron.
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clipka wrote:
> (Though it's just a "maybe"; they're a bit different from what you
> describe.)
Read them both. They'd both fall under what I'd consider as good stories of
the genre I'm talking about, thanks!
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Understanding the structure of the universe
via religion is like understanding the
structure of computers via Tron.
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Darren New <dne### [at] san rrcom> 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?"
>
> The stories I *dis*like are where the deity is just shown to be someone
> playing at being a deity, or
>
> I've found a few novels where the handling of deities was well done.
>
> "Calculating God" - Robert Sawyer. (My favorite such, and best written methinks)
>
> "Wunderland Gambit" - Jack Chaucer. (Stupid, stupid series of novels about a
> group of people who get thrown into parallel or virtual universes, one of
> which contains an actual functioning deity. Each individual world was
> interesting, but the overall premise was stupid.)
>
> "The Prophesy" - starring C. Walkens. Lots of fun.
>
> Some book which is vaguely cyberpunk plus greek gods which was stupid for
> anyone who knew how computers work. (Demons in place of firewalls, logging
> into Olympusnet, dumb stuff like that, but actual deities.)
>
> There were one or two others I'd thought of that kind of fit the mold, but
> apparently not well enough to remember exactly what they were.
>
> Any others that people can suggest? That are good? That don't treat deities
> as "sufficiently advanced technology" or "aliens that appeared long ago"?
> That contain actual deities rather than just faith therein? (Actually, just
> faith therein where the faithful are ultimately justified would do. :-)
>
> 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.
>
> --
> Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
> Understanding the structure of the universe
> via religion is like understanding the
> structure of computers via Tron.
Have you read American Gods by Neil Gaiman? I really liked it. It is basically
about how the various gods are real, and the more people believe in them, the
stronger they are. The problem, of course, is that living in the United States
in the present, the old gods find their power... a bit less than they'd prefer.
I saw your other post about big mysteries, and this has a few of them. Overall
a very nice read, although some things may be more enjoyable if you have a
familiarity with mythology (or a willingness to put it down and look something
up). You don't have to, but a lot of the things will make more sense.
-Reactor
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Reactor wrote:
> Have you read American Gods by Neil Gaiman? I really liked it.
I tried it once, but I never really liked anything Gaiman wrote by himself.
Maybe I'll give this another try when I run out of books. Thanks!
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Understanding the structure of the universe
via religion is like understanding the
structure of computers via Tron.
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I think you might either mean "Frost & Fire", a collection of short stories
by R.Z. or "My Name is Legion" (three short stories about the same guy).
Then, you might mean "Roadmarks" (Last exit to Babylon)... although this is
a single story with multiple stoylines.
"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:4A9### [at] sanrrcom...
> Thank you. The only thing I liked of his was one collection of shorts
> (that I haven't again found) wherein each short is one legend, apparently
> all about the same guy. It was really cool, because they were all in the
> style of legends: bad thing happens, hero shows up, solves problem,
> continues on his quest.
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More Zelazny: the Amber decalogy (if that is a word)
Douglas Adams: the Dirk Gently books.
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andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> More Zelazny: the Amber decalogy (if that is a word)
Or just the first five, if you have doubts. I tend to recommend that sequence to
anyone I discuss fiction with!
> Douglas Adams: the Dirk Gently books.
Ooh yes, especially the second one. The first one's cleverer, but the second one
features more gods. :)
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TC wrote:
> I think you might either mean
Thanks! I'll check these out. :-)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Understanding the structure of the universe
via religion is like understanding the
structure of computers via Tron.
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On 24-8-2009 21:29, Bill Pragnell wrote:
> andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> More Zelazny: the Amber decalogy (if that is a word)
>
> Or just the first five, if you have doubts. I tend to recommend that sequence to
> anyone I discuss fiction with!
The opening of the first book is a classic. IIRC terry pratchett
mentions it somewhere. GIYC (google is your curse) you can not say
something like that and not Google it*, in this case, I can not find it.
There are also echo's of it in DA's The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.
(If Mr Teatime in hogfather is a reference to that we can start building
trees)
>> Douglas Adams: the Dirk Gently books.
>
> Ooh yes, especially the second one. The first one's cleverer, but the second one
> features more gods. :)
>
*) that is what I think, but the whole Obama health care discussion
seems to prove me wrong.
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Have you ever read Terry Pratchett?
The title "Small Gods" comes to mind - it's about the novice Brutha who
comes to know his god Om quite intimately. ;-)
You will find some interesting observations on the nature of an established
church, it's priests and prophets and the nature of belief in general.
The Turtle Moves!
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