Quite often, I have heard people arguing that their beliefs are as certain as geometrical theorems and have realized that they are primarily trying to convince themselves. In CS Lewis' The Great Divorce, a man wanted proof after proof of survival after death, then he died and survived and had no purpose left because his only purpose had been to prove survival!
The prophetess, Veleda, expresses doubt:
"'You know I am foe to Rome, and why... But this talk of bringing it down in wreck - more and more, as the war wears on, I come to see that as mere rant. It is not truly what the goddess bade me say, it is what I have told myself she wants me to say. I must needs utter it again tonight, or the gathering would have been bewildered and shaken.'" (3, p. 500)
How do those who pray know what their deity bids them to say or do? Sometimes there are experiences as of seeing and hearing a deity but not for most people most of the time. (At this point in the text, we do not yet know that Veleda has seen and conversed with a time traveller whom she mistook for her goddess.) Veleda is honest enough to recognize what she has told herself that the goddess wanted her to say. A true fanatic would never have been able to realize that.
Heidhin does not want to forsake the gods but would that just mean forsaking power and fame? - Veleda asks. Are the "gods" just a way of talking about what is going on anyway? I saw a newsletter in an Evangelical church in which the vicar had written, "Remember how in our prayer time the Lord seemed to be telling us that -?" Did He or was that just group imagination?
Burhmund, the rebel leader, says:
"'...[Veleda's] fierceness is lessening. Perhaps the goddess herself wants an end to the war.'" (4, p. 505)
Is "The goddess might want an end to the war" just another way of saying that the sibyl now has doubts about the war? Burhmund clearly senses the effects of Veleda's doubts.
As an Andersonian touch, when Buhrmund acknowledges that he also has had his fill of strife:
"His sigh gusted in to the wind." (ibid.)
We can always rely on the wind.
2 comments:
Poul's arguing that women are less vengeful than men. I beg leave to doubt that. They're -trickier- about it, yeah.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Agree, women can be as vengeful as men, and sometimes cleverer about it. I recalled the implacable hatred Empress Elizabeth of Russia had for Frederick the Great of Prussia. If she had lived a few months longer Frederick would have been toast.
Ad astra! Sean
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