Fictional Prayer

"The Problem of Pain."

Peter Berg inwardly talks to God. A Christian or Jewish character can do this in any kind of fiction. Within the fiction, if God exists, then He hears Berg's prayers. The fiction cannot, without changing its genre, affirm that God exists. In real life, if God exists, then He does not hear a fictional prayer but does know what Poul Anderson writes. We empathise with Berg whether or not we share his belief. I think that that covers all the angles.

Fiddler On The Roof shows a Jewish man's conversational-style dialogue with God. A Holocaust survivor who addressed a large public meeting in Lancaster Town Hall asked this question: "Christians believe that God went into a tomb and came out of it. Why can't we believe that God went into the camps with us and came out of them?" This is a creative development of the prophetic tradition.

Berg is in the company of Ythrians of the New Faith. They sky-dance to honour God but certainly do not address or entreat Him in prayer. My friend, Andrea, says that his preferred deity is Fortuna who must not be entreated but favours the brave. I can offer only the agnostic prayer: "To Whom it may concern, to whatever gods may be..."

Meanwhile, we enquire, reason and reflect. It would be a tragedy if scientific knowledge were to be lost in a catastrophe. We are now in the middle of Poul Anderson's "Chaos." Might our rulers decide that their conflicts could be escalated to World War level while continuing to avoid using nukes? - which would mean that "deterrence" had finally failed. We must (pray and) act against this.