>I am aware that Metaphysics in Glorantha maybe _shouldn't_ be
discussed.
>I'm sure some people would rather the whole thing was kept mysterious
>and unexplained. I certainly respect that POV.
Discussing metaphysics in glorantha is fine, I don't think anyone is objecting to informed debate on the subject. The key term here is informed. Your posts not only show very limited knowledge about the aspects of glorantha that you discuss, but also display an almost total lack of appreciation of real-world metaphysics, about which you seem a) Almost totaly ignorant. b) Willing to invent whatever fancies you like in order to support your gloranthan theories.
>However some of us like to try to find explanations, because it makes
it
>a lot easier to understand Glorantha. It's a bit like learning physics
>by understanding theorems, rather than memorising a collection of
facts.
What you are trying to do is come up with a 'unified field theory' for glorantha, while being completely ignorant of 'newtonian mechanics', 'the galilean transformations', or 'the lorenz transformations' of glorantha, let alone 'quantum mechanics' (ie the secret of the god learners).
>Why oh why some people have to get _so_ steamed up about this I just
>don't know. It seems to me the most harmless of pursuits.
Try going on to the sci.physics newsgroup and postulate a flat-earth theory and see what response you get there. Will they get steamed up? I think so!
>Could it be that:
>
>The whole church system is maintained as a way to control farmers /
>lower class / working class / what have you. The more educated upper
>eschelons of the church think it's ultimately a load of nonsense,
>however all these working classes actually _do_ worship.
No it couldn't. We know from the published material, and from Greg's discourses on Brithini culture and philosophy at conventions, that this is not true.
>Now the upper classes keep to their scientific explanations of the...
The brithini are not scientists in any recognisable terrestrial sense.
>The point I was trying to make with my teleported Storm God worshipper
>example, or teleported Disease Goddess worshipper example, is that when
>they arrive no representative of that god is there.
We understand.
>Ok, this might be
>getting a little hypothetical, because the worshipper would need to be
>able to contact _all_ versions of the Storm/Disease God.
What's wrong with Malia, his own god? Why do you distinguish between different gods, associated with the same phenomenon, so rigorously? Certainly the polytheistic ancients did not. The greeks and egyptian priesthoods allowed each other to worship and even officiate in each other's temples for example.
>If he could, and there was no answer, then I think that would question
>his belief.
But that isn't what would happen, so this is irrelevent.
>Why would there be a storm so far from any Storm God worship?
Why wouldn't there be? You insist on implying that natural phenomena are dependent on worship. Many of us on this list have provided numerous examples which show that it does not.
>Why would there be a plague so far from any Disease Goddess worship?
Again, why not?
>What's causing these things?
For plagues -
Atheist : "Disruptions in the order of the cosmos caused by the
intrusion of chaos."
Malkioni : See above.
Theist : "The disease god that infests the world and her spirit
minions."
Look at the map of glorantha. Now imagine a huge cyclonic wind formation, in the shape of a storm rune, centred on magasta's pool. This formation stretches from the land of the Altinae in the west to the East Isles, and from Genertela to Pamaltela. This wind formation _is_ Orlanth, just as much as the sun _is_ Yelm. It is responsible for causing or influencing all the weather patterns and prevailing winds in the known world of glorantha.
When Malia cultists worship their god, they believe that they are worshiping the all-pervading source of disease in the world. Your theory demands that they are wrong. Your theory also demands that atheists are wrong. Your theory demands that all the religious philosophy and esoteric wisdom of all the cultures of glorantha are fundamentlay wrong.
Personaly, I don't like that.
Simon Hibbs
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