It ocurred to me while thinking about something else entirely that, to my way of thinking, the God Learners were right, this despite Sandy and company saying they clearly weren't.
See, my training was as a scientist. (I've never actually been one, but the philosophy stuck.) In science, "right" means "works". That is, the "right" explanation of something is defined as "the one that's the most useful."
So the Jrusteli had the "right" explanation, in that it worked, wonderfully, for centuries.
It wasn't "perfect", but no scientist expects any theory to be perfect, just the best available. By the standards of science, the GL's were "right".
Of course this says nothing about their morality or ethics, which I think is where others call them "wrong".
Theogony:
I've also thought that a "true" religion can arise from shamanic spirit-contact, presuming that the spirit you contact is King Storm or Mother Earth or another important one.
However, I don't think all religions in Glorantha arose this way. I realize that it's not currently fashionable, but I prefer to think that before the world settled into its current state, a Big Sun God descended from Heaven to rule the world, and that his worship was instituted directly and without the mediation of shamans.
I'm not wedded to the RQ2 names. I don't insist that at the "time", Mr. Big Sun God called himself "Yelm", nor that this involved humans and human-shaped gods, but some solar force should, IMO, have exerted mastery over the Earth before the coming of the Storm.
I *really* dislike the current trend toward explaining all the myths
of Glorantha as "just stories told by people". We already have a
perfectly good *real* world where that's what myths are.
- --
Carl Fink carlf_at_panix.com
"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them."
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #349
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