(urth) Appearances of Inire

[Jerry Friedman]

From: António Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com>

John Watkins wrote:
...

>> 2)  Tzadkiel is a creepy insectoid alien thing and a liar.  The
>> pretentions of religion are a means of controlling the human race.

>Option 2 I think is untenable.

>- If God is good, then it makes no 
sense to create a universe in which:
>  + God's creatures are toys in an evil power's hands
> + God's creatures believe that the 
evil power is not evil at all and is doing God's work
> + those 
who oppose the evil power are not, generally speaking, better people 
than the others, and in fact seem
> to be worse.

Hasn't this been the situation in many dictatorships, especially 
theocratic ones?  In Europe when and where the Inquisition flourished?

I agree with those who say this theodicy is no worse than the one 
Christians face in the real world.

And what about /The Wizard Knight/?  The Aelf could be toys in the hands of evil humans if the humans realized it, just as humans sometimes are 
for Lothur.  (But then the whole non-Christian deism of TWK is strange.  Humans seem to be at the bottom instead of in the middle.)

> - If God isn't good then by what standard can we call such an 
unfathomable being as Tzadkiel evil?

> Keeping option 3 
doesn't mean that the acts of Tzadkiel need no atoning for, it just 
means they're done with
> the best of intentions and knowledge. We have a saying here, 'Of 
[people with] good intentions is Hell full'.

In English, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

Jerry Friedman