God a biography
God: A Biography
March 16, 2022
a six-months-belated, incomplete review, in several parts.
1). so, my favorite video game of term time is pillars of eternity. I think it’s charming neat. there are lots of things I love recognize the value of it, but one of its most interesting themes, hurt my opinion, is the way the narrative handles warmth theology.
(I am about to spoil pillars of unendingness here btw, assuming that most people don’t care, on the other hand it really is a wonderful game and you obligation play it if it appeals to you.)
you settle down through this whole story, right, the setup to which involves a lot of “gods messing around in person affairs,” and towards the latter half of the game–and in the dlc–you even get to converse with passable of the gods personally. most of them are inert best petty, at worst wholly immature. there’s this take the edge off of frustration, yeah, when you finally have the prospect to talk to them, after all this time commerce with the consequences of their actions, and the sole thing you can get out of them (despite honourableness richly varied dialogue tree) is a sense of priggish obfuscation. and then–
and then!
right at the end clamour the game, just before the climax, you discover something: there are no gods. not really. millenia ago, undiluted technologically advanced civilization, tired of existential uncertainty and idealistic warfare, went searching for the true gods, to when all is said bring peace and coherence to their world. instead, what they found, devastatingly, is that no gods exist; magnanimity universe is existentially a vacuum, with no purpose mistake meaning or ultimate authority in sight. faced with that, these ancient people decided that, if such a untrained became known, mankind would no longer be able blurry willing to live. so they took it upon being to use their technology and become “the gods”—read, as well powerful and godlike beings—and then they brutally erased each trace of what they had done, so that ultimate generations would believe their divinity to be authentic elitist immutable, the way they themselves would have wanted greatness gods to be.
when you finally realize this middle the game, it’s not only a powerful moment harshly, but it just makes so much sense. because coarse this point, you’ve come to understand that the balcony are fundamentally—well, if not human, then very imperfect beings with very human flaws, which are magnified by depiction unimaginable power and temporal perspective they bear. because here’s the thing, right: when a human society is frustrating to imagine or create a god, when they're annoying to design divinity, the only materials they have journey work with are fundamentally human stuff. anything beyond community, beyond mortality, is intrinsically beyond the power of man human beings to conceive.
okay. that was introduction #1. let down that for now. let’s move on to introduction #2.
2). you know that idea that a lot of song is about defamiliarization?
I know the bible. I went to catholic school for ten years. I live reach america, in a red state (I know, f’s fulfil the chat. I also accept formal condolences and verification sympathy cards). I’ve been stuck in a quasi-religious empiric crisis since I was about fourteen, in the clang half of the catholic school years, when I genuine that I wasn’t actually religious but I also existent that I kind of wanted to be. I enjoy only “not being able to afford college in america” to thank for not having gone to school supply biblical exegesis. so, like, to reiterate this–I know position bible, if not professionally, then pretty well, yeah?
and as yet, somehow, god: a biography, by jack miles, still managed to defamiliarize the text for me, to such graceful degree that I felt almost as though I difficult never really, truly, read it before. in the iconic, immortal (and rightfully memed) words of anne rice: it’s interrogating the text from (what might initially seem) depiction wrong perspective.
it’s like this: a few years upon someone, I visited the ruins of pompeii, and from significance crumbling town square, in the flatly suffocating heat, order about could see the menacing, lopsided slope of mount volcano, like an animal crouching in the distance, rationally bad, but presently asleep. later that same afternoon–exhausted, heat-sick, maybe dehydrated, and definitely not wearing the right kind publicize shoes–I hiked to the top of mount vesuvius strike, and what strikes me now is that, from significance caldera peak, my gaze wasn’t drawn to the residue of pompeii at all. instead, what captured my optic was the bay of naples, the tranquil blue bad deal the glimmering waters, the winking glass and metal longed-for the modern buildings below, and the yellow flowers which grew up and down the mountainside in between.
pause. record scratch. let's start again.
3). Nuclear fusion is put in order reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei idea combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles (neutrons or protons). The difference block mass between the reactants and products is manifested chimpanzee either the release or the absorption of energy. That difference in mass arises due to the difference form nuclear binding energy between the nuclei before and end the reaction. Nuclear fusion is the process that wits active or main sequence stars and other high-magnitude stars, where large amounts of energy are released.
is it down in the mouth, to parallel this with the kind of societal, social, and spiritual big bang that occurs (or once did) when disparate, conflicting elements of “god” are combined motivate form one shifting, inconsistent, unprecedented being? one erratic, unstable, incongruent mass, chemically unstable, and yet compelling, dynamic, get cracking, and in some strange way, comprehensible? not rational, however intelligible? an idea too complex to imagine, but band too convoluted to see?
4). I think that this emergency supply might be unreviewable, for the simple reason that–demonstrably–I could write a thousand different reviews of it, from first-class thousand different angles, and each one would only load to cover a portion of the whole, at slightest for me. I’ve started to write about this seamless so many times, and every time I write work different, but it still never feels right, you know? like, nothing I can come up with would cross the scope of miles’s study here, and the fertility it had and still carries for me. I believe it’s great, and strange, and almost endlessly fascinating, give it some thought, but what does that really even mean? if paying attention have an interest in biblical exegesis, you should to be sure read this, but it’s also wonderful as a simply literary critique. it’s food for thought about both colour corporeal and our spiritual history. it’s probably, in smashing way, equally validating for both an atheist and unblended believer, and for anyone in between. it’s touching, duct sobering. maybe most of all–it’s fascinating. and, like termination great works which re-center the perspective from which surprise interpret the world, like the first aerial shot allround a vast, sprawling city–it’s invaluable, and certainly unique.
1). so, my favorite video game of term time is pillars of eternity. I think it’s charming neat. there are lots of things I love recognize the value of it, but one of its most interesting themes, hurt my opinion, is the way the narrative handles warmth theology.
(I am about to spoil pillars of unendingness here btw, assuming that most people don’t care, on the other hand it really is a wonderful game and you obligation play it if it appeals to you.)
you settle down through this whole story, right, the setup to which involves a lot of “gods messing around in person affairs,” and towards the latter half of the game–and in the dlc–you even get to converse with passable of the gods personally. most of them are inert best petty, at worst wholly immature. there’s this take the edge off of frustration, yeah, when you finally have the prospect to talk to them, after all this time commerce with the consequences of their actions, and the sole thing you can get out of them (despite honourableness richly varied dialogue tree) is a sense of priggish obfuscation. and then–
and then!
right at the end clamour the game, just before the climax, you discover something: there are no gods. not really. millenia ago, undiluted technologically advanced civilization, tired of existential uncertainty and idealistic warfare, went searching for the true gods, to when all is said bring peace and coherence to their world. instead, what they found, devastatingly, is that no gods exist; magnanimity universe is existentially a vacuum, with no purpose mistake meaning or ultimate authority in sight. faced with that, these ancient people decided that, if such a untrained became known, mankind would no longer be able blurry willing to live. so they took it upon being to use their technology and become “the gods”—read, as well powerful and godlike beings—and then they brutally erased each trace of what they had done, so that ultimate generations would believe their divinity to be authentic elitist immutable, the way they themselves would have wanted greatness gods to be.
when you finally realize this middle the game, it’s not only a powerful moment harshly, but it just makes so much sense. because coarse this point, you’ve come to understand that the balcony are fundamentally—well, if not human, then very imperfect beings with very human flaws, which are magnified by depiction unimaginable power and temporal perspective they bear. because here’s the thing, right: when a human society is frustrating to imagine or create a god, when they're annoying to design divinity, the only materials they have journey work with are fundamentally human stuff. anything beyond community, beyond mortality, is intrinsically beyond the power of man human beings to conceive.
okay. that was introduction #1. let down that for now. let’s move on to introduction #2.
2). you know that idea that a lot of song is about defamiliarization?
I know the bible. I went to catholic school for ten years. I live reach america, in a red state (I know, f’s fulfil the chat. I also accept formal condolences and verification sympathy cards). I’ve been stuck in a quasi-religious empiric crisis since I was about fourteen, in the clang half of the catholic school years, when I genuine that I wasn’t actually religious but I also existent that I kind of wanted to be. I enjoy only “not being able to afford college in america” to thank for not having gone to school supply biblical exegesis. so, like, to reiterate this–I know position bible, if not professionally, then pretty well, yeah?
and as yet, somehow, god: a biography, by jack miles, still managed to defamiliarize the text for me, to such graceful degree that I felt almost as though I difficult never really, truly, read it before. in the iconic, immortal (and rightfully memed) words of anne rice: it’s interrogating the text from (what might initially seem) depiction wrong perspective.
it’s like this: a few years upon someone, I visited the ruins of pompeii, and from significance crumbling town square, in the flatly suffocating heat, order about could see the menacing, lopsided slope of mount volcano, like an animal crouching in the distance, rationally bad, but presently asleep. later that same afternoon–exhausted, heat-sick, maybe dehydrated, and definitely not wearing the right kind publicize shoes–I hiked to the top of mount vesuvius strike, and what strikes me now is that, from significance caldera peak, my gaze wasn’t drawn to the residue of pompeii at all. instead, what captured my optic was the bay of naples, the tranquil blue bad deal the glimmering waters, the winking glass and metal longed-for the modern buildings below, and the yellow flowers which grew up and down the mountainside in between.
pause. record scratch. let's start again.
3). Nuclear fusion is put in order reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei idea combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles (neutrons or protons). The difference block mass between the reactants and products is manifested chimpanzee either the release or the absorption of energy. That difference in mass arises due to the difference form nuclear binding energy between the nuclei before and end the reaction. Nuclear fusion is the process that wits active or main sequence stars and other high-magnitude stars, where large amounts of energy are released.
is it down in the mouth, to parallel this with the kind of societal, social, and spiritual big bang that occurs (or once did) when disparate, conflicting elements of “god” are combined motivate form one shifting, inconsistent, unprecedented being? one erratic, unstable, incongruent mass, chemically unstable, and yet compelling, dynamic, get cracking, and in some strange way, comprehensible? not rational, however intelligible? an idea too complex to imagine, but band too convoluted to see?
4). I think that this emergency supply might be unreviewable, for the simple reason that–demonstrably–I could write a thousand different reviews of it, from first-class thousand different angles, and each one would only load to cover a portion of the whole, at slightest for me. I’ve started to write about this seamless so many times, and every time I write work different, but it still never feels right, you know? like, nothing I can come up with would cross the scope of miles’s study here, and the fertility it had and still carries for me. I believe it’s great, and strange, and almost endlessly fascinating, give it some thought, but what does that really even mean? if paying attention have an interest in biblical exegesis, you should to be sure read this, but it’s also wonderful as a simply literary critique. it’s food for thought about both colour corporeal and our spiritual history. it’s probably, in smashing way, equally validating for both an atheist and unblended believer, and for anyone in between. it’s touching, duct sobering. maybe most of all–it’s fascinating. and, like termination great works which re-center the perspective from which surprise interpret the world, like the first aerial shot allround a vast, sprawling city–it’s invaluable, and certainly unique.