Re: God Post

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 15:20:40 -0700

donald_at_... wrote:
> In message <ceu1uj+95gi_at_...> "Rob" writes:
>> Hi all
>>
>> Say you wanted to send a message to a fellow devotee, could you
>> communicate it via your god? Sort of like in cults of prax when the
>> shadow cat rises up on its legs - friends and kin, the moon comes
>> in...you know the one.
>
> You could try but bear in mind that the gods don't understand the
> material world so the chances of your fellow devotee getting an
> accurate message is pretty low. A bit like the average westerner
> trying to pass on a message in chinese.

Yeah--unless the god is specifically tied to communication, I think the odds are poor. Certain *specific* gods might offer powers like that--for example, Krarsht has a ritual where you tell something to a person, then sacrifice him to Krarsht, and the message is passed on in a dream to other Krarsht high priests. But I don't think you can assume that any given god can do something like this.

And, of course, the god is not likely to be interested in helping unless the message is directly relevant to the god. Gods are not generally inclined to play message-boy for a worshipper's convenience. But even if the god's inclined to help, it's not the sort of thing they're good at. They might well garble the message, or pass it to the wrong person, or give it to a person living in a different century...