Funeral

This evening, we watched a reshowing of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. I am interested in the ways that society finds to mark the passing of people regarded as important. This practice will continue in future even if everything else changes: who is regarded as important and how their passing is marked. The practice is represented in Poul Anderson's Technic History when Kossara Vymezal lies in state in St Clement's Cathedral in Zorkagrad on Dennitza near the end of A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows. Probably every aspect of life, and death, is to be found somewhere in Anderson's works.

Christian funerals refer to a hereafter. How is it known that there is a hereafter? And, if there were one, how would any particular individual's destination be known? Skeptics attending funerals listen with respect and interest but remain skeptical. We are united by the accepted custom that everyone except a few sectarians attends weddings and funerals of friends and colleagues irrespective of denomination or tradition. When the Pope announced that it was OK for Catholics to attend family weddings etc in other churches, he merely acknowledged what anyone with any sense was already doing. Vox populi vox Dei.

Dominic Flandry effectively prays to his dead fiancee, Kossara, but does not think that he receives an answer. Mormon missionaries (scroll down) advised me to ask God for the truth about religious matters so I did. But I have to interpret whether I received an answer.

Gratillonius And Corentinus

Gallicenae, VII, 3.

The Christian hermit, Corentinus, to the Mithraist, Gratillonius:

"'Look around you at God's world and ask yourself how it could have come to be and what this life is all about. Think.' He paused. 'No, I'll not ask that you pray for guidance. You couldn't, if you're as true a worshipper of Mithras as you seem to be. I do ask that you open your mind. Listen. Think.'" (pp. 151-152)

My Comments

"God's world" begs the question - which Christians tend to do.

Modern scientific cosmogony helps us to understand how the world came to be.

Questions about the value of human life can be addressed without reference to Corentinus' beliefs.

I took the advice of Mormon missionaries to ask God the Father in the name of his Son for the truth about religious matters. (What answer I received, if any, is between me and God.)

We should all open our minds.

Thought alone will not lead to Christian belief.

My most recent thoughts on God and the One are here.

Gratillonius is impressed with Corentinus and will later have him appointed as the Christian minister in Ys.

Some Trivia

In The Shield Of Time, the list of Tor books by Poul Anderson ends with Tales of the Time Patrol, asterisked as "forthcoming." It forthcame as The Time Patrol. Thus, the full list of Time Patrol collection titles used or unused becomes:

Guardians Of Time (4 stories)
The Guardians Of Time (5)
Annals Of The Time Patrol (7)
Tales Of The Time Patrol (unused)
The Time Patrol (9)
Time Patrol (10)

As previously argued, I think that, if the Time Patrol series is to be collected in two long volumes, then Volume I should be nine stories with a revised order so maybe another slight title change would be appropriate? Also, "The Time Patrol and The Shield Of Time" sounds good as a diptych.

I will be strongly tempted to stop at 140 posts for this month, thus making the 1st post of September the 901st of 2015. I find round numbers more satisfactory. Meanwhile, the next post is usually being mentally drafted.

Ketlan's other daughter is visiting with her family this week so we will drive with them to the Lake District tomorrow. A good day but a desert for posting.

Americans, you export to the UK good sf, comic books and Mormon missionaries. I find that young Mormons listen to what I say. By proselytizing, they learn about alternatives.

New Ideas

"The Three-Cornered Wheel."

The Ivanhoan theocracy has had no new ideas for so long that it no longer has any built-in resistance to them. Martin Schuster does not challenge beliefs but does make suggestions and ask questions. He will overthrow the regime.

This is my basic approach to Mormon missionaries. They need to hear new ideas and they at least listen. They are not Evangelical Christians with whom dialogue is impossible. They should at least learn by meeting members of the diverse British and European populations.

A couple of them have advised me to ask God in the name of His Son for the truth about religious matters, so, the next time I get into a conversation, I will be able to tell them that I have now done that. They are active here as are Witnesses, including Polish converts with literature in their own language, but I had to go to Birmingham to meet Muslim street propagandists. All of these groups are different and it would be very wrong to put them all in one bag.

When a gaunt man shouts of an obscure salvation on a street corner in Centauri on Avalon, which group does he belong to or is he trying to found one? (See Exotica And Mirrors.)

An Answer To A Prayer

"Star of the Sea," 3.

Should the rebels sacrifice a Roman prisoner?

Veleda (see image):

"'I have spent this while mutely calling on Niaerdh. Does she want yon blood or no? She has given me no sign. I believe that means no.'" (p. 500)

I agree. If we pray, then it is down to us to interpret the answer, if any. Mormon missionaries told me their way to learn the truth about religious matters: ask God in the name of His Son. So I did, one evening before meditating. There was no visible or audible response. This means either that there was no answer or that the answer was, "Continue as you are, at least for the time being."

I have been as honest as I could with a couple of Mormons. (I usually find that they are willing to listen. Presumably, their missionary activity is a learning experience, bringing them directly into contact with every other world-view.)

It may seem strange to jump from first-century Pagans to twenty-first century Mormons but we must each respond to life and to our fellow human beings as we find them here and now.

Ideological Contamination

 

"Margin of Profit."

The Borthudians press-gang spacemen from Technic civilization because:

"'Pride, and a not unjustified fear of ideological contamination, prevents them from sending students to Technic planets, or hiring from among us: and they have only one understaffed astronautical academy of their own.'" (p. 151)

But travel, meeting students who have also traveled from other places and exposure to new ideas are all part of higher education. Universities are "universal," even more so an interstellar scale. Adzel studies planetology on Earth where he converts to Mahayana Buddhism. Ythrians travel to the University of Nova Roma on Aeneas. I am sure that Mormon missionaries learn more than they teach simply because they travel. A part-time checkout assistant in a Lancaster shop is a Lancaster University student from Liverpool.