needshumility | 1.1.01.01.016: The Ishihara test is final and cannot be reviewed, nor retaken

If the only way you could have total freedom within a society is to be literally invisible to that society, would you consider it worth it? If it took to technically not exist to be able to live by your own rules, would you want that?

Or would it be too lonely? Is there any point in that freedom when you can't share it with anyone, and you're left as an observer to a society where nobody else had any freedom at all?

[Wardens-Eddie-likes filter (doctors, Howie and other officious types excluded. George is in, though)]

There's... some concepts I'm not entirely sure of the meaning of, and after talking to my inmate, I think it's quite important to understand them.

God, and the afterlife.

I've talked to a few people, and no offence, they seem to have done their best to explain it, but it seems a little fuzzy still.

Is god a physical person? If so, why is he a god above everyone else? If not, why do people call themselves goddesses here? What's the difference between people who say there's one god, and those who say there's lots, responsible for different things? Which one's right?

Are both right? Are none right?

Is the afterlife just... something the Previous think happens after death, or is it something specific? Why would someone say this place wasn't the afterlife... when it's clearly, um, after life? For the dead people, anyway.

[Private, seperately, to Sveta and Martha - video]

[Eddie comes on screen.] Hi. I found something and... I thought you might be able to tell me what it was about.

[He holds up a copy of a Ishihara test]

We found this in the library, and me and Jane can see different things in it. Why might that be? What's the purpose of this?

[Kitchen filter]

Could you spare me a piece of meat, by any chance? You probably won't get it back.

[Lab staff-folks]

My inmate wants to do an experiment, and if I'm supervising and he wants to come in to do something, is that alright? He's not doing anything dangerous, and I'll make sure nothing's taken.

[Private to Victor.]

I've asked for some meat, for that experiment you wanted to do. You can have the day off from work to do it, so pick whenever suits you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So... God doesn't give your government rules to work by? But people who believe in god can make them... act towards those... rules?

[HE'S GETTING THERE. HOW IS BERTIE WOOSTER THE ONE WHO MAKES THE MOST SENSE?]

What would happen to someone if their state did decided spoon-making was immoral, and they made spoons?

Quite so. Politicians make rules for the government, but sometimes they use God's rules as guidelines to make their rules.

So if God said, "These spoon-whatsits are no good; I don't like them." and the politicians, hearing God's words, decided that spoons were bad for the moral well-being of the population and made spoon-making illegal, spoon-makers might be thrown in chokey or even given the noose, depending on just how bad spoon-making was to the soul.

And are all the rules that... stringent?

Is it the politicians deciding how bad the spoons are for you, or God himself?

Not all of God's rules are always followed. Fellows in Britain have mostly given up on the rules on not eating pork and stoning women for infidelity and the like. They dismiss them as God having an off century. And breaking some of the very minor rules might just carry a fine, but breaking the big ones, like "Thou shalt not kill," will put a person in the hottest soup.

[Bertie takes a while thinking about the second question.]

God decides that the making of spoons is bad. Then politicians decide to agree with God that spoon-making is bad, and create laws that determine whether the making of spoons ought to be punished on the same level as murder or theft or something else entirely.

So some rules are alright to break, or bend, but others aren't?

[he pauses and thinks]

Are there a lot of these rules from god?

[Bertie thinks about this for a while. It seems...not quite right, and yet obviously true.]

I suppose so.

God has all sorts of rules. The Ten Commandments are the highest of the high. Although Jesus' rules are up there, too. And there's a whole pile of them in Leviticus. I don't know how many of Britain's rules started out as God's rules, but I suspect it's a lot. And those that aren't God's rules were Roman rules.

The Romans didn't believe in God, though. Until later when they did.

So... you can change what rules and god you believe in?

Yes, people can, but there is only One True God, so when people believe in others, they're wrong. So the Romans were wrong about God, but had some dashed useful rules. And then they changed and became right about God and still had some dashed useful rules, which we borrowed and added to God's rules.

But... why believe it if they're wrong? Surely they think they're right like you think you're right?

Ah, but them thinking they're right does not make it so. [Bertie smiles and thinks he's just made a brilliant refutation.]

Couldn't someone say the same about you?

1.1.01.01.016: The Ishihara test is final and cannot be reviewed, nor retaken

Re: [Eddie-friendly Warden Filter] - this is cracking me up. eddie takes it deadly seriously.

[Eddie-friendly Warden Filter] - Me too. And Bertie thinks of this as Very Serious philosophy talk.

Re: [Eddie-friendly Warden Filter] - this reply took forever. eddie had to look up politician.

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