Gods and truth

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_bigfoot.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 17:31:21 +1200


Andrew Larsen:

>I think there are real problems with
>the approach that each culture's truths are mutually true even when they
>contradict each other. That's a very late 20th century attitude which may
>work quite nicely for cultural and religious things, since we can't 'email'
>our diety or higher power for a direct answer.

This alleged inability to email our deity for an answer is a red herring. In glorantha, they email them and get contradictory answers depending on the god contacted. Whom do you then believe? In resolving this riddle, you arrive straight back at RW conundrums on the nature of truth.

>and it doesn't work so well in a world where the gods are
>immanent forces who can be appealed to for visibly magical effects.

Why not? What proof do you have that a god knows or is telling you the objective facts of his existance. If I could bring down lightning bolts at will, does this validate _everything_ that I say? What if I have a limited understanding of how I can bring down lightning bolts? How then can you know whether what I say about my lightning bolts is the real truth or a limited understanding?

>Different cultures might have different names and
>tell different stories about that body, and one might distinguish, as
>someone did recently, between the Yelm the Sun and Elmal the Solar
>Charioteer, but ultimately there can be only one thing up there going across
>the sky.

However different cultures have different ways of talking to the sun and get different answers. How do you as a gloranthan determine which is the correct answer?

>Chaos is a good example of this. Is chaos evil and destructive to the
>world? Most cultures say yes, the Lunars say not necessarily. But
>clearly, I think, everything suggests that Choas is destructive and
>essentially evil.

I don't see how you can claim "...everything suggests...", when you have just admitted that the Lunars dispute it. For instance, the Goddess is chaotic. Is she destructive and essentially evil? No. There are also non-lunar myths in which Chaos is used as a positive force.

Powered by hypermail