Re: Odds and Ends

From: Graham Robinson <gjrobinson_at_ntlworld.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000 22:08:02 +0100

Peter Larsen writes :
> Graham Robinson says a few things:
>
> > Having said that, I think part of the problem is how people view
divination.
> > I personally really hate the model where the god appears, or whispers in
> > your ears or whatever. I'm much happier with the model where you split
the
> > oxen's belly open, and the high priest pulls out the spleen and says
> > "Nice and fat. Yep, Elmal's the Sun alright."
>
> This has its attractions, but the way Divination has been
> traditionally presented is more like a slightly murky phone call. The gods
> speak in parables, riddles, dreams, etc., but they do speak directly to
the
> diviner. It kind of smashes heresy because you can always ask, and one
> assumes that the god is going to care enough to give a fairly direct
answer
> to "Is Anaximader the Stygian really following the true path of Yelm with
> his "Yelm is the Husband of Kygor Litor sermons?"
>

Yet we know that heresy is alive and well and living in Glorantha. There is a clear, and rather nasty, contradiction here. Some people seem to prefer to remove the contradiction - I'd rather remove the divination model. The current status quo seems to leave all gods in glorantha as either liars or so ignorant they must have trouble getting dressed in the morning.

> >However, in Glorantha you can't perform
> >experiments to determine who the Sun god is, >which clan worships him the
> >right way, etc. The very presence of so much magic >precludes that sort
of
> >analysis.
>
> Actually, you can perform these experiments; it's called
> Godlearnerism, and it is a Very Bad Thing if not taken as directed (which
> the Godlearners failed to do, so what chance do you have?) I agree that
> Gloranthan logic shouldn't rely on RW root assumptions, but the logical
> process is the same.
>

In order to perform experiments you need to have developed a model of reality that is not dependent on whim - this is the so-called Reproducibility Axiom. Any universe that contains demonstratably powerful dieties automatically fails this. If the results of your experiment depend on whether Orlanth is in a good mood or not, it ain't what we recognise as scientist.

Godlearner 'experiments' are more akin to an eight year old with a chemistry set or fantasy novels from Frankenstein onwards. Alternatively, the GLs had a model of Glorantha that included how gods mood swings worked. (Presumably if they did, they got it wrong...)

The pseudo-scientists of Glorantha - Godlearners, RQ sorcerors, etc. - are just that. They fit the fantasy mold of mad scientist fine, but aren't anywhere close to the real meaning of the word.

Cheers,
Graham

• -- Graham Robinson gjrobinson_at_ntlworld.com

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