Nature of the Gods

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 16:57:39 +1200 (NZST)


Richard 'who should pay more attention to feedback' Develyn:

>What this means is that if I propose, as a theist, that in a far away
>land where no death associated god is worshipped the incidence of death
>must be extremely small, you cannot counter me by saying "nonsense,
>death exists".

Wrong. Brithos is a land where the Death God is not worshipped. Yet its inhabitants are shit-scared of Death. In case you missed it the first time round, physical manifestations do not need human or any sapient worship to happen.

>If Orlanth ceases to exist then there will be no more storms.

Wrong. Orlanth is merely a name for the Storm God. If one wipes out all the Orlanthi, then there will be plenty of other people who will observe storms. Even if all intelligent life in glorantha was eradicated, then there will still be storms.

>A Scientist and a Theist meet on top of a mountain far away from any
>Orlanthi temples. The Scientists meteorological measurements tell him
>there should be a strong wind blowing here, the Theist expects there to
>be very little wind here. What do they experience?

A strong wind. Temples to Orlanth are only found in the Genertelan Barbarian Belt. There are plenty of mountain tops where strong winds can be found all over glorantha.

>My prediction is that there will be a small breeze.

Odd. Before you claimed that one viewpoint cannot prove itself superior to another. Now you explicitly deny that the theist can make wrong predictions.

>The Scientist will
>realise that there are prevailing weather conditions preventing a full
>gale, the Theist will find some little Orlanthi (or other windy god)
>worship somewhere, even if it's only a small family of intelligent
>bears.

How do you know that the Bears worship Orlanth? Anyhow I'm confused. If there are bears who worship Orlanth, are they preventing the full manifestation of the storm or increasing it.

To be perfectly frank, I do not have a great deal of time for this theory that the manifestation of gods are dependant on human worship. The greatest concentration of the sea gods are found in the depths where according to Tales #10 and Glorantha Beastiary, the worship of the Sea Gods is at its strongest near the shores.

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