{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1981",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1981,
    "subject": "To justify...",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-11-24T11:42:58+00:00",
    "last": "1999-11-24T11:42:58+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0532@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alex David Groce",
        "address": "adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu"
      },
      "date": "1999-11-24T11:42:58+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) To justify...",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "(writing from old account)\n\nOri, the best argument \"justifying the ways of God to man\" in BOTNS is not\na quick quotation I can pluck out--although Severian, whose meditations I\ndo not ignore while reading the book, says some pithy stuff.  This strike\nme as the Dave Barry version of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV: \"Dear reader, is\nthere a God?  -Fyodor\"  Gene Wolfe wrote 5 books, not a brief essay\nsolving the problem of evil.  Wolfe's a great writer, but he hardly\nmanaged to \"justify the ways of God to man\" in 100 words or less (or even\nin the whole thing--conclusive arguments are generally not the work of\nfiction).  Where in BOTNS does it say \"Don't make no theological\ninterpretations of all this, folks?\"\n\nAs to evidence of the survival of the Gospels/Christianity--why, surely\nthe hieros have some reason for making their wicked plot resemble in so\nmany details and miracles the story of Christ?  They must have a bootleg\ncopy of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John lying around to steal from."
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "\"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.\" - John 8:32\n--\nAlex David Groce (adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu)\nhttp://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}