(no subject)

[sythyry]

Failure! [22 Nivvem 4261]

And of course my lifelong vow fell apart entirely when I asked Jinthinia out on a date.

I should, actually, have kept my lifelong vow for another day or two.

I don't wish to record the details. So, I will investigate philosophical matters instead.

1. Why is there poverty and suffering in the world?	Poverty, presumably, is due to our sophisticated economic system. Suffering, if I understand correctly, amuses several of the gods; or, in some sense, all of them.
2. What is the relationship between science and religion?	Science is the handmaiden of religion. Or maybe the personal investigator. It takes care of the details that religion doesn't bother with.
3. Why are so many people depressed?	Um ... perhaps because they are truly transaffectionate, but deny themselves the chance to find out for sure. Especially with a Zi Ri. (Which is to say, I suspect that each one has their own particular reason.)
4. What are we all so afraid of?	Monsters! And rightly so. After spending a long time ambassadoring with a monster, I think this is an entirely proper attitude.
5. When is war justifiable?	When monsters are involved, or when it's a properly-declared duel-war.
6. How would God want us to respond to aggression and terrorism?	With violence, drama, and ill-thought-out plans, I'm pretty sure.
7. How does one obtain true peace?	Um ... Sustenoc Mentador, perhaps?
8. What does it mean to live in the present moment?	It means that one exists at the pinnacle of civilization!
9. What is our greatest distraction?	Orren.
10. Is current religion serving its purpose?	Well, no, not really. It should provide substantially larger Enchantibility modifiers at less risk than is currently possible. More broadly, if less plausibly, it should pacify and distract the gods.
11. What happens to you after you die?	Perhaps the situation will not arise. If it does, I imagine that the world will go on more or less as it does now. If I flatter myself considerably, I might imagine that Vae would destroy whoever killed me in a fearsome whirl of terrible sorcery. But, of course, Vae is the most likely person to kill me, directly or indirectly.
12. Describe Heaven and how to get there.	Um ... I believe that Flokin has a truly incendiary heaven inside of the sun. It's probably mounted on ball-bearings -- made of fire -- so that it stays upright as the sun rolls around. I daresay that there are some pleasant palaces, made entirely of fire also, and a garden of vegitative little fire elementals, probably with small animal ones around for variety. It's probably very nice, and if I ever manage to magnify my innate fire resistance by about two orders of magnitude and build a very fast skyboat, I could go visit.
13. What is the meaning of life?	The purpose of most living things is, apparently, to amuse the gods.
14. Describe God.	Um ... the one I can see from my bedroom window is Pararenenzu -- go figure, zie's the Orren's creator god -- and at the moment zie looks like four winged trumpets. Zie's a loony.
15. What is the greatest quality primes possess?	All 7+12 magical arts, I suppose. And civilization.
16. What is it that prevents people from living to their full potential?	Um ... dying?
17. Non-verbally, by motion or gesture only, act out what you believe to be the current condition of the world.	[Sythyry lies on zir back in the fire and wriggles around frantically for a while.]
18. What is your one wish for the world?	This is actually a hard one; I haven't really thought about the problems of the whole world very much. Perhaps that it were easier to get from here to there. Perhaps that the dooms between primes and monsters, and between primes and primes, were less severe.
19. What is wisdom, and how do we gain it?	Wisdom is a convenient shorthand for, having some clues about how the world and people behave, and how they should behave. We gain it ... um ... slowly. Very slowly.
20. Are we all One?	No. We might be all Eight, plus monsters, but definitely no fewer than that.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, but wouldn't Vae also be the one most likely to bring you back to life? Or do you mean die in a more permanent sense?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Zie must have, since zie already died in the temporary sense once (thanks to Vae).

And I think it was Rhedwy who brought zir back to life. Some prime, at any rate.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I was assuming that "die permanantly" was the intent.

Vae can't heal, so she's probably not very good at bringing people back to life.

[wave-cannon.livejournal.com]

Is Pararenenzu a relative to the Babylonian demon Pazuzu?

[wave-cannon.livejournal.com]

There are worse things than dying permanently.
Like being sued by people who want your money, or by people who don't like you.
Or being made to star in a reality television show.

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

Speaking OOC, "Gordon Bennet but that's beautiful."

However, speaking more appropriately for a Monster, I have to ask how wise it is to call a god a loony when zie's within sight of you. (The dooms!)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Not that I know of.

[Not that I know of either. -bb]

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, if they wouldn't sit in the sky all the time, they wouldn't have to listen.

Our gods don't generally care what we say about them, except, sometimes, if we're talking to them directly. I gather that other gods on other worlds are more eavesdroppy.

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

But it is fun to say.

[wave-cannon.livejournal.com]

Just wondering...
It's said that, contrary to how he was portrayed in the movie "The Exorcist," Pazuzu was a protector of children, and guarded them against disease.
However, the same legends say that he did so not because he was necessarily fond of, or even concerned for children, but because the she-demon that caused disease in children was his hated rival.

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

17. Non-verbally, by motion or gesture only, act out what you believe to be the current condition of the world.

[Sythyry lies on zir back in the fire and wriggles around frantically for a while.]


Ah, then for all the differences, our separate worlds really aren't all that different afterall. ;)

[allessindra.livejournal.com]

I might imagine that Vae would destroy whoever killed me in a fearsome whirl of terrible sorcery. But, of course, Vae is the most likely person to kill me, directly or indirectly.

I see no conflict in these two sentences...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Um ... right. How about we don't do that.

ooc:

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

The purpose of most living things is, apparently, to amuse the gods.

This and other statements and conjectures here make me happy to be living in a scientific, rather than magical universe. A reality full of gods and monsters makes for excellent drama, but happy individual lives, not so much. Freedom is frightening, arbitrary temporal authorities even more so, but both are much less scary than a bored god. :)

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

"The great surveillance camera in the sky, or the small, still wiretap inside your head." -Richard Dawkins (paraphrased from memory) on the god Yhwh. (Apologies if this post bothers you; I take no position here on his opinion.)

[esory.livejournal.com]

18. What is your one wish for the world?

I'm thinking "For the gods to be less amused by suffering", myself.