Oannes

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 20 Mar 2012, 19:52 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:52:47 -0700
Subject: (urth) Oannes
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Lee Berman wrote:

>>Dan'l Dannehy-Oakes:

Only one "n" in my last name. But anyway...

> 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.

I think that, to a Christian point of view, the answer is clear:
because they, like us, are created beings, and therefore not inherenly
worth more than we. (Look at the root of "worship:" worth-scipe, worth
of renown.)

>?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.

While I agree with the latter statement, I'm not sure about the
former. If he refused to give a straight answer, it would be more due
to his general canniness than to anything about that particular
question.

> 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)

Heh. A friend of mine was a missionary (of a church far more
evangelical than I'm comfortable with) in India, and said that when
you tell an educated Hindu "Jesus is God," they shrug and say, "Yes,
and who isn't?"

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

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