(urth) Oannes

[Antonin Scriabin]

"But my point was: how can there be a bad religion, if all religions are
equally valid?"

I think asking that question of the world of the *Long Sun* is very
different than asking it of our world.  The statement about all religions
being equally valid was saying they are all equally insufficient when it
comes to their knowledge of the Infinite, if the only tool on hand is
revelation.  I might have misunderstood Lee initially, but I think he was
saying that they were all equally unable to claim knowledge of absolute
truth, not that they were all valid and true (which would, of course,
result in a ton of contradictions).  We also don't know if by using the
word "bad" Wolfe was speaking of "truth" at all; it could be a purely
sociological usage.  (Of course, the context is probably important ...
anyone have a link to the interview?)  Clearly the religion of Viron was
"bad" for the citizens of that city in that it involved dealing with a
megalomaniac tyrant trapped in a computer, who would have harmed a great
number of people if his wishes weren't met.  Silk is concerned with the
theological accuracy of his religion, of course, but that doesn't mean that
there must be a "true" religion in the universe of the *Whorl.*

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 2:31 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>wrote:

> Antonin Scriabin wrote:
> ...quoting Gerry...
>
> >> "Actually we have a relevant observation from Wolfe: “Silk is a good
> >> man in a bad religion.”  Plainly he thinks that there can be better or
> >> worse conceptions of the Divine, even if all are imperfect."
>
> > This seems to me more of a statement about Silk than the Divine.  Also,
> now I can think of is Oreb continually assuring all players in the story
> that Silk is a "good man!".
>
> You seem to miss Gerry's point, which is that it's also a statement
> about religions, that there can be good ones and bad ones.
> --
> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
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