What's So Great About Ushas?

b sharp · 10 Jul 2008, 19:39 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:39:30 -0400
Subject: (urth) What's So Great About Ushas?
Message-ID: <BAY103-W52DA4859526327AB00763DD7910 at phx.gbl>

Paul B posts: 
>The fundamental moral facts in this case are that 1.) we know they can save
>the population of Urth and 2.) they choose not to.  This makes any outcome
>morally suspect according to most ethical frameworks.  As long as 1.) and
>2.) are facts, the Hierogrammates cannot be good guys.

and
>It is the contention of many, and I'd bet the author to be one of them, that
>"ethics" is not a strictly human concept.

I think there is a large gap in the broad exposition of your argument, 
that being that we don't need a science fiction story to find a legend of a God
who has the power to stop all war, genocide, disease and child rape but chooses not
to.  Extending your argument would seem to demand either that Gene Wolfe feels 
the Judeo-Christian God is morally bankrupt or that Gene Wolfe is an atheist (or both).
I don't think either is true.

I think any intelligent, thinking Christian eventually is troubled by the classic problem
of an omnicient, omnipotent God who allows evil to flourish. I suspect the Hierogrammates
and their relationship with the Increate are an attempt by Gene Wolfe to reconcile the 
contradiction (while injecting a healthy dose of science to explain religion).

-bsharp
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