An Old mystery ...

David Stockhoff · 05 Dec 2008, 14:51 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:51:16 -0500
Subject: (urth) An Old mystery ...
In-Reply-To: <mailman.31754.1228448972.21489.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
References: <mailman.31754.1228448972.21489.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <49393FE4.1060809 at verizon.net>

And that relates to something I brought up earlier, which is the role of doubt in faith, and the way science fiction can either conform to our sci-fi expectations or break them (as Delany seems to suggest in the quoted passage), or both. 

Is the Increate still God if his angels are super-scientists? Is the outcome of TBotNS a big deal if the basic plot is a cleverly contrived mechanism constructed of sci-fi cliches taken to their logical extreme? Is God still God if the entire universe is just a complex clockwork operating by simple rules that still, somehow, allow a good deal of unpredictability and mystery? Is Jesus still Christ if the entire myth about him was made up from other myths? These are parallel questions, in a way.

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Message: 8
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 18:46:12 -0800
From: Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>
Subject: Re: (urth) An Old mystery ...
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <4ABE018C-10E3-40E1-BEF7-4541355D052C at butcherbaker.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

I'm not sure about any of that.
I don't mean to stand behind this theory, though I've seen better  
presentations by people more versed in the subject than I.

my point was that some people find this material, cosmic theory  
compelling, and find that it takes all the meaning out of the Myth.
If it does correspond, it still doesn't kill it for me.

I guess it's a lame attempt to counter that though you've got a fairly  
tight theory about Hierogrammite manipulation without Divinity that  
seems to hold water, it still does not flatten out those higher  
meanings for me.

~witz

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