Re: 3 small Qs re Gods and Free Will

From: Simon Hibbs <simonh_at_msi-uk.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 12:42:03 +0100


Richard Develyn says :

>I can think of three ways in which gods "appear" to be exercising free
>will.

>1) The way they answer divination,

I would have thought the opposite.

The information has to be specificaly requested, the god cannot choose to spontaneously supply needed information on a whim. It may occasionaly appear that they can, but usualy this is a response to a specific set of circumstances which are out of the deity's controll.

>2) the way they grant DI,

Again, DIs have to be specificaly requested by the worshiper, and the god is limited to intervening only in ways that are consistent with the god's established nature. The gods cannot intervene as and when they like, and so I realy can't see how you can claim that they are an example of the excercise of free will.

>3) the way they communicate through dreams.

Can you give me any examples of this? I'm not aware of any clear references to divine inspiration through dreams in Glorantha. I've wondered how the dream world relates to the spirit plane and heroplane, as well as how dream relate to other magical perceptions and states of conciousness.

>But they haven't free will (have they ?) so what's happening here?

They are being invoked to act in certain prescribed ways, in which they have little or no freedom of interpretation or innovation. That doesn't seem to me to demonstrate much free will.

The gods personify essential axiomatic principles of gloranthan reality. As such they define the way in which Glorantha works, and in turn are defined by the nature of Glorantha. Free will is the ability to act in new and unexpected ways - to transform oneself. To change themselves, the gods must change the nature of Glorantha, but doing so creates conflict and instability in the cosmos. This can cause catastrophic damage to reality, tearing the 'fabric' of glorantha apart and allowing chaos into the world, such as happened during the gods war and at the end of the second age. This is why the godlearners are so hatefull.

Should the gods walk the earth of Glorantha, and freely interfere in the affairs of mortals, be afraid - be VERY affraid.

Simon Hibbs


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