The Golden Gate looms again:
"...the fog-shrouded Golden Gate loomed before the Tarshish Queen's bow." (p. 5)
When dealing with people, certain basic issues recur. This time, I have formulated a mini-catecism.
Would I tell a child that she will meet her dead dog in the Summerland?
No.
Would I contradict a child's parents if I heard them telling her this?
No.
Is there a Summerland?
In the Emberverse, yes!
Can Emberversers be certain of this while still alive?
No.
So we are back where we started?
Yes.
The question of a hereafter is logically odd. An empirical question can be answered either yes or no on the basis of experience, e.g., there either will or will not be an eclipse tomorrow. If there is a hereafter, then we will know whereas, if there is not a hereafter, then we will not know so is it an empirical question?
6 comments:
Well, some of the people in the Emberverse have encountered the afterlife while still living -- but that's not proof, any more than a mystical vision is. It's not replicable or falsifiable.
And some people in our universe claim such experiences.
Exactly. Even if they -were- exactly what's claimed, they can't be disproven (and therefore have no proof).
Mind you, in the Emberverse there is actual evidence that the laws of nature can be superseded and that "magic" exists. How that should be interpreted is still a matter of dispute.
Gentlemen,
And Dante, in his "Letter to Can Grande Della Scala" insisted that his poem the DIVINE COMEDY was based on genuine vision granted him of the afterlife.
Sean
Amazing!
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