Re: Re: Invisible God

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 14:40:10 +1300

Morgan Conrad wrote:

>O.K., sure the Invisible God is "different" or "mysterious", but
>using that as the reason why theistic Gods can provide constant,
>relevant information to their communities and IG is, basically,
>useless seems a bit of a copout.

I didn't say that the theistic gods can provide constant, relevant information. The limitation on divinations (TR p74 onwards) make it pretty clear the limitations on divination to them.

As for the Invisible God being basically useless, he isn't. I just said that reaching him was a problem.

>If you can't obtain the measurement, you don't know it, and you have
>no factual basis for saying that IG knows it.

You can prove that the Invisible God knows everything. And you can check this out by asking incredibly obscure questions and receiving accurate answers. The God Learners did this.

>Maybe I'm too practical, but, if Thor, Wotan, and Apollo could
>*really* be visited and *really* talked back and provided direct and
>useful benefits (spells, feats, good crops etc.) to large numbers of
>people, it's hard for me to imagine the Judao-Christian-Islamic
>faiths, much more IG-like, ever catching on big-time.

The Invisible God provides far more benefits than the False Gods ever will. Even stooping to the short-sighted criteria of "what's in it for me?" that barbarians habitually use, the following benefits are readily apparent:

• a Perfect Place to live in the hereafter. Sure the pagan theists regal with you stories about free booze and easy women, but do they ever bother to point out the catch? That it will not be _you_ that enjoys the tawdry fruits but a faceless conglomeration whose name everybody has forgotten. When you enter the Perfect Paradise of the Invisible God, you remain as God made you.
• A better place in live in. With the benefits of our superior knowledge, we have established the foundations of a just and lawful society. The societies of the pagans are either: tyrannical despotisms in which the rich grow fat while the poor starve or lawless anarchies in which the sword is the maker and breaker of rules. While those places might be fine if you are rich or strong, the Invisible God looks after everybody, whether they be rich or poor, weak or strong.
• Superior magics. It is one thing to become a pagan god's lickspittle so that you can throw a lightning bolt around, it is yet another thing to know the truths of the Cosmos. With our superior magics, we have made the Dead World live, the Sun stop in the Sky and the World burn. Our magicians have greater mastery over the cosmos than the pagans have over their elements such that we could compel their gods to do our bidding.

--Peter Metcalfe