Re: Gods: Powers, Persons, or Parasites?

From: Colin Watson <watson_at_csd.abdn.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 12:29:32 GMT

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Ian:
> Another school seems to think that the gods have no existance whatsoever.
> They are created when enough people decide to believe in them. And they only
> exist by drawing upon the belief (and the MP and POW) of their worshippers.
> They are some sort of divine parasite that feeds on their worshippers.

I wouldn't go so far as to say the gods are parasitic. "Parasite" suggests an external entity. I was thinking more of something internally generated: the way that Applause is generated when many hands clap in unison. The applause is not a parasite; it simply requires many clapping hands to exist. It doesn't feed off the clapping; it *is* the clapping by another name. When the clapping stops the applause ceases to exist.

Or so one would think.

Perhaps the applause is there all the time: and we just can't hear it until the hands start clapping.

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CW.

 Did someone say Nysalor riddle?

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