I love Sir Terry's work, and reading his account's last three tweets still made me cry. But his biblical cosmology is wrong here: In Christian cosmology, we were never angels, nor would we become...
I love Sir Terry's work, and reading his account's last three tweets still made me cry. But his biblical cosmology is wrong here:
“I’d rather be a rising ape than a falling angel.
In Christian cosmology, we were never angels, nor would we become angels with wings halo and harp if we'd been good. We are in fact rising gods. He was much closer than he'd realised.
If goblins and orcs and trolls could think, then why were they always just there to be slaughtered by the heroes? And if the heroes slaughtered sentient beings en masse, how heroic exactly were they?”
What if some beings (never humans), intelligently, willingly, obstinately and freely choose lies, murder and slander? The cruelty of the world of which Terry's writing was a bulwark against, mentioned further down, exists. Not in races of people, never people, but exists in a unified and determined way of life: to smear darkness upon the bright and to seek to extinguish it permanently. Is it heroic to resist these beings, or shrug and say ehh what you gonna do. Granted, in Tolkien's universe, the Balrog, Saruman, and Sauron (again, not mere mortals) chose their paths, while the uruk-hai armies and the uruk peoples in general I'm not so sure about. Grima Wormtongue chose his path, but even he wasn't beyond redemption. Surely humanists would agree that people aren't good by default either: we still have to choose it, beause we're capable of intentionally and knowingly choose evil.
I do see the opposite side though.
the simple but profound wisdom of Sir Terry’s great witch Granny Weatherwax, who asserts that the root of evil is when we start to see people as things.
For too long, and sadly still ongoing in greater strength today, people commiting acts of evil justify their own choices by hiding behind "well they chose x". This is why the conservatives (not just christian ones) keep asserting that homosexuality is chosen, and that kids are deceived into choosing their gender, and why ADHD / autism / allergies dont really exist, and obesity is a choice etc. The world is easier for their cruelty if people deserve choosing to be Oriental, choosing to not engage in capitalism, monogamy, heterosexual relationships, christianity, family values, whatever. It's easy to dehuman the opposition by simply saying they're choosing "evil" and we gotta get rid of them. To which I will only say that they're completely ignoring "for we do not war against flesh and blood". We don't do war on flesh and blood, we love them, lay down our lives for them, forgive them and bless them even if they decide to destroy our bodies. Well, we're supposed to anyway.
Long comment summary: I also find the humanist writing of Sir Terry deeply moving, and especially needed today. He's been a source of comfort to so many in this broken world, and I hope that his writing continues to speak peace and love and hope and Humanity to all of us today.
I love Sir Terry's work, and reading his account's last three tweets still made me cry. But his biblical cosmology is wrong here:
In Christian cosmology, we were never angels, nor would we become angels with wings halo and harp if we'd been good. We are in fact rising gods. He was much closer than he'd realised.
What if some beings (never humans), intelligently, willingly, obstinately and freely choose lies, murder and slander? The cruelty of the world of which Terry's writing was a bulwark against, mentioned further down, exists. Not in races of people, never people, but exists in a unified and determined way of life: to smear darkness upon the bright and to seek to extinguish it permanently. Is it heroic to resist these beings, or shrug and say ehh what you gonna do. Granted, in Tolkien's universe, the Balrog, Saruman, and Sauron (again, not mere mortals) chose their paths, while the uruk-hai armies and the uruk peoples in general I'm not so sure about. Grima Wormtongue chose his path, but even he wasn't beyond redemption. Surely humanists would agree that people aren't good by default either: we still have to choose it, beause we're capable of intentionally and knowingly choose evil.
I do see the opposite side though.
For too long, and sadly still ongoing in greater strength today, people commiting acts of evil justify their own choices by hiding behind "well they chose x". This is why the conservatives (not just christian ones) keep asserting that homosexuality is chosen, and that kids are deceived into choosing their gender, and why ADHD / autism / allergies dont really exist, and obesity is a choice etc. The world is easier for their cruelty if people deserve choosing to be Oriental, choosing to not engage in capitalism, monogamy, heterosexual relationships, christianity, family values, whatever. It's easy to dehuman the opposition by simply saying they're choosing "evil" and we gotta get rid of them. To which I will only say that they're completely ignoring "for we do not war against flesh and blood". We don't do war on flesh and blood, we love them, lay down our lives for them, forgive them and bless them even if they decide to destroy our bodies. Well, we're supposed to anyway.
Long comment summary: I also find the humanist writing of Sir Terry deeply moving, and especially needed today. He's been a source of comfort to so many in this broken world, and I hope that his writing continues to speak peace and love and hope and Humanity to all of us today.
May your memory be eternal. GNU, Terry Pratchett.