Oannes

Lee Berman · 20 Mar 2012, 19:35 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:35:41 -0400
Subject: (urth) Oannes
Message-ID: <SNT123-W268630D71B58B649EC440BCF430 at phx.gbl>

>Antonin Scriabin: I might have misunderstood Lee initially, but I think he was
>saying that they were all equally unable to claim knowledge of absolute
>truth, not that they were all valid and true.

You got me right, Antonin. I think the misunderstanding came from Gerry, perhaps 
due to a certain anti-relativist position he may share with many Americans of my 
acquaintance. Within this ideology, moral relativism is confused with immorality 
or amorality and denounced. 

For Gerry, it might be intellectual relativism which really bothers him.
He may not be a Christian but I think he believes that for every question there is
a true and correct answer waiting to be found which does not depend on the point
of view of the questioner. Kinda like math. I am interested to know if Gerry
agrees.

>Dan'l Dannehy-Oakes: You seem to miss Gerry's point, which is that it's also 
>a statement about religions, that there can be good ones and bad ones.

Ah, now I think we are getting somewhere. Wolfe does seem to think there are 
good religions and bad ones. In intervews he says the pagan gods were real but
undeserving of the worship they received.

But he never says why.  Nor do I think you could get a straight answer from
Wolfe if you asked him what makes a religion bad or good. I think this is directly
rooted in his Christianity. You see it in Tolkein and Lewis also. Probably due to
its judaic roots, I think there is an inherent assumption of superiority in 
Christianity. (in contrast say, to Hindu-Buddhism with acknowledgement of 10,000
names and paths to God)

I started a thread once called "What's So Great About Ushas" and I'm not sure the
question ever really was answered. My answer is that Ushas is better than Urth because
it is closer to Christianity. Worship of The Outsider is better than worship of Pas
and his family because it is closer to Christianity.

I don't think any other firm explanations are offered and, to a Judeo-Christian 
audience, none are needed.

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