Gods And Wars

Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 9.

I have summarized Andersonian battle scenes on land, at sea or in space before. We have just read through and past Anderson's description of the battle between the Dalesmen and the Lann. Military sf is a distinct sub-genre. Some readers appreciate this aspect of works by Poul Anderson, Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling. Such readers might even include military experts or veterans, which I am not. My expertise is philosophy, which explains why I focus on textual references to "gods" rather than on accounts of combat. However, Anderson addresses every aspect of human experience so this blog welcomes comments from readers who focus on other aspects - and also from those who read something other than sf! which is what I should spend the rest of this evening doing. 

Only one more full day before I am in London Thursday to Sunday.

Just A Story

Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 9.

Carl wonders whether the gods are not just a story. Tom thinks that:

"'Someone must have made the world...'" (p. 96)

Why? Someone making things is part of a world. The universe has not been made by anyone but has developed from the simplest of elements by natural processes. I was brought up on arguments for the existence of God. People tried to rationalize a received belief in every way that they could think of. CS Lewis reasoned his way to theism but I disagree with his reasoning. Essentially: if rational mental processes are effects of non-rational material processes, then there is no basis for their rationality. But reasoning is a valid process. Therefore, reason has always existed, in God before He imparted it to men. (This is my summary of an argument that I used to accept because I wanted to. Anyone who would like to discuss it further can read Lewis' Surprised By Joy and Miracles and get back to me.) Lewis' linear causality is an inadequate explanatory framework. Organisms interacting with their environments became conscious and manipulative. Reason emerged as a way to think about and act on the environment. Sometimes it works. People learned how to make and control fire. But reason remains surrounded by irrationalities as we realize as soon as we start to argue about anything important!

Carl says that he could believe in the great God of the time vault but not in the small, childish gods of the stories. I question whether a centuries-old monotheism would recede before primitive polytheism even in post-nuclear war conditions. However, when Carl gets as far as believing in his "great God," philosophical discussion can begin.

Giving Thanks

Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 8.

In battle:

"The Dalesmen were holding - the Dalesmen stood firm - oh, thank all gods!" (p. 84)

There are times when I feel grateful but to whom or to what? Expressing thanks for the course of events is part of animizing nature. We have been selected to interact with other persons, therefore sometimes to thank them, so we interact in the same way with impersonal forces and thus the gods are born. But I still want to feel, if not grateful, then at least appropriately appreciative of aspects of actuality. 

But is it appropriate to thank "all gods" during a battle? Surely some of the gods will be on the other side, whether literally or metaphorically? If I were asked to pray in public, then the only honest prayer that I would be able to offer would be as follows:

"All gods, we ask your help. But, if not, we'll do it ourselves."

That might sound disrespectful but, in fact, it is as respectful as I can make it: 

first, by acknowledging that it is possible that I am mistaken to believe that no superhuman beings exist;

secondly, by affirming that we should not just pray (if we believe in praying) but should both pray and act. 

The gods expect action. Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra and urges his friend, Arjuna, to act in the world, not to withdraw from it. Theists and non-theists can agree on the necessity of action.

Twilight

We posted once yesterday but on another blog, here. The Jade Emperor is the supreme deity in the Taoist pantheon.

In Poul Anderson's Vault Of The Ages, four of the twenty chapter headings refer to gods:

10 Vengeance of the Gods

11 The Gods Are Angry

16 Defiance of the Gods

20 Twilight of the Gods

In addition, Chapter 19 is entitled "The Last Battle," an apocalyptic phrase. We do not expect literal gods to come on-stage but will there be a change in human attitudes to these "...great shadowy powers..."? I think that Wagner's "Twilight of the Gods" means the beginning of an Age of Men, as Valhalla burns in the background.