Re: atheists in Glorantha

From: simonh_at_...
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 09:40:36 -0000

> OK. The term Meldek does not ring any immediate bells, but:
>
> a) why is he "soulless" when the Lunar is not?

They have no contactable, demonstrable afterlife.

> b) The claim that orlanth is "not really" a god can be easily
falsified by
> making orlanth act like a god - i.e. repsond to the appeals of
worshippers

They deny that worship of Orlanth has any moral meaning or worth. At the end of the day I don't think Lunars are any more or less acceptable to orlanthi, but at least Lunars make sense. They worship gods like we do, just the wrong ones. They go to an afterlife, it's just not ours. They try an convert us, and we understand that this is possible and perhaps even tempting to the weak willed. We understand where they are coming from.

Westerners have no contactable gods. They don't have a recognisable afterlife. They deny that our gods have any place in the world at all. At least the lunars accept that Orlanth is a god of the air, that he has a place in the world. Westerners deny even that. They deny that the spirits, our friends the air elementals, even our ancestors are anything more than fake puppets of this sorceror Worlath.

> .....Either way,
> the assertion that orlanth is not a god is meaningless - for orlanth
> demonstrably behaves as a god. Even if I were to accept the Meldeks
> argument, that Orlanth is some entity other than a god, I still
don't see
> why I should care - as long as orlanth delivers the goods, I have no
> worries.

Fair enough. You're not more likely to be converted by a Malkioni than a Lunar missionary. In fact the Lunar probably has a better chance. It's just that Malkioni beliefs are so alien. Their religion can't be explained in theist Orlanthi terms the way that Lunar religion can and this shows up a weakness in the orlanthi world view. If we can't understand them, then out world view can't be complete. It's disturbing.

Simon Hibbs

Powered by hypermail