Last night I just read. I needed a break. Soloing the System is fun (and it gets better; I found the start off-putting). And here I am awake at 0400, again. A few things filled in while I slept. Chapter 18 may have become tractable.
I went through the blog’s emails during first coffee. I often worry that the Internet creates echo chambers. And then I find a Like from Full of Roses Inspirationals. I doubt we have much of anything in common, yet we connected (however loosely).
There is an unwritten scene in Chapter 21, in which they’re meeting people in the town and establishing themselves, where they meet the town’s priest. The Catholic church is the only building with an actual bell; they use it for an alarm. Here are my notes:
Priest at the church. “What about God?” Tom and Luke: “How does this change anything?” “It’s blasphemy to limit God, isn’t it?” “I don’t think God did it, but He certainly let it happen.” “Why would he stop it?” “If anything we have more free will and more capacity for good and evil than we did before.”
I think religion is ignored too often (always?) in LitRPG. It’s a big deal, especially if there are “gods” floating around in the multiverse (there will be; we haven’t encountered them, yet; probably won’t for a long time).
I have a complex relationship with G*d. It (I find it unlikely that G*d has a penis. Jesus did, but He’s an aspect, not the whole thing. I said it was complicated) puts up with me, as best I can tell. Reading LitRPG has given me an appreciation for G*d’s relatively hands-off approach to divinity. Something for which I have given thanks, aloud, several times.
One of the very few things that I’m confident in is that it is blasphemy to limit G*d. It can do whatever it wants to do. That’s almost a prerequisite for the role. The key word there is “wants”. Why it wants one thing or another is most likely beyond human ken.
Having an alien super-AI with a casual disregard for the laws of physics drop onto the universe doesn’t change that.
Is G*d the god of the universe or the multiverse? I haven’t decided, yet. But it reminds me of the stupid, supposedly paradoxical question of “Can G*d create a rock so heavy even He cannot lift it?” Leaving aside the idiocy of a literal rock, of course It can. And the moment It does so, It becomes capable of lifting it.
The multiverse could be much the same. For whatever reason, G*d was ignoring it, perhaps unaware. As soon as the connection is established, nothing stops It from deciding, “well, as long as we’re all connected anyway…” and firing up a multiverse wide Revival.
I’m not writing that, but it’s certainly a possibility.
I’m going to be very hands-off with capital-G G*d. I’m not writing theology. It will not be putting in an appearance.
In the absolute worst case, G*d does not exist and it’s all delusion on our part (I don’t believe that, btw). However, even that doesn’t mean that prayer doesn’t work.
We have known about the placebo effect for many years. This is a remarkable effect – placebo can cure 30 percent in many cases.
You know what we call a drug that’s 30% effective? A success.
In the worst case, prayer is a placebo, which is not the denigrating comparison many people think it is. People are still going to pray. Churches still exist.
Update: And given the nature of the System, somewhere out there is a preacher with a lot of Charisma who actually believes that he is the Second Coming. And another who is cynically exploiting the idea. Will they make an appearance? It’s not planned, but who knows?
Marked Up 