Sermon #1 - text

[raptura]

[Just a simple little post from username 'Bluemarine', but it's posted for everyone to see and the option to reply in any format you like is there, should you feel like it. Somebody sure has the burning desire to ask everyone a question (or piss off as many people as they can, depending).]

How many of you believe in an afterlife? Or...What I should ask is; how many of you understand that you're slaves to fate and destiny, no matter how unhappy yours might be?

You're welcome to try and change my mind on that front, if you think you have the intellect.

Comments

[raptura]

One can always argue that the soul is immortal, of course; given that, as long as you believe you carry one, then no one ends at all and the point is moot.

But that's neither here nor there, I suppose. For the sake of comparison, can I ask you to elaborate on your personal view of fate, if it doesn't match mine as worded in the original post? I'm intrigued, you see.

[jiyuujin]

But I wasn't speaking of souls. Immortal beings abound in my world. Some would call them gods but I can't claim to be an expert.

In my experience however, fate is inexorable. My kind deal in the business of time and in a way those two things are linked together. To use the words of a friend, time, or fate, is like a river. It may change course. It's banks may take new shapes. But these small shifts affect neither where it is coming from nor where it is headed. I'm sorry if this wasn't the contrast you were looking for though.

[raptura]

I shouldn't be surprised that someone could refer to immortality with such ease; I've definitely seen stranger, but not very often.

It's

Time is very important to the concept of fate, yes. I'm relieved to hear someone else of this viewpoint, if I'm honest with you. This post was intended to find like minds as well as contrast, after all.

[He's about two seconds from typing up a rapturous essay on the relationship between time and gravity and how gravity is fate, but that would totally blow his cover so he...Erases it all. Next time, maybe.]

[jiyuujin]

[Oh but that's something he'd certainly be interested in. Existentialism, like human existence itself, is such a new thing to him. Maybe next time...]

It's quite admirable that you are willing to consider both sides of the argument. Even if you have no intention of straying from your course, there is still value in those difference of opinion though they may only serve to confirm our own ideas.

I'm quite certain in my understanding of these matters as well, as I've witnessed it time and again in my own world. Though I suppose there's nothing to say the same would hold true in all others. Just as immortality doesn't appear to be such a concrete concept for you?

[raptura]

Exactly! I think it's interesting, and although I'd like to convert everyone to my way of thinking in an ideal world, that's not what makes life fascinating, is it? So disagree I will, and learn I'll continue to do. For example, you've taught me that immortality is more widespread than I'm used to in some worlds.

I've definitely seen it for myself, however. But there was only ever the one in my experience; there was a species close to humanity that could stay immortal if they stayed out of the sun, but the last few remnants were cruelly killed off some decades ago, so one and one immortal alone there is in the world. I don't know how I could handle a world with more than one person with that sort of confidence and lifespan, however!

[jiyuujin]

Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that you were able to have such an experiencing in finding yourself here. Surely you could never experience such self improvement to this degree, anywhere else? You'll have to forgive me if I presume too much however, as I realize all of our situations must be vastly different so whether one or another is an improvement remains relative of course. [As for him... he's obviously still trying to figure it out.]

It sounds as though such a person must be quite remarkable if a single one of them can make such an impression but if the others were killed off, how well can it be known that all of them were just like this one? Or was he a product of what happened to his kind. My kind deals in matters of history you see, so I'm often thinking about such things

[raptura]

Not to this degree, you're absolutely correct. My world seems painfully mundane against everyone else's, thus far; it's not an improvement, so much as a change of circumstances and thus perspective. That's still a blessing however, and so I'll take it as such.

The man I knew was indeed the most remarkable man to ever exist, however. I can say that with confidence, even knowing how infinite possibility is. As for the others, I only know third-hand of them, so I wouldn't be the expert to ask. All I can confirm is that they were humanoid, but different entirely. Different to my friend, even; he was made immortal through their technology, but wasn't one of them. So my research has told me, at any rate. But now you have me regretting not researching them more, and being born too late to have met one in person, so that I could know of their lost culture, their ways, their powers and weaknesses compared to humanity. An entire species, extinct...It makes me sad that so few know of them.

had a good laugh at Jojos being mundane thanks

[jiyuujin]

Then I'm glad you aren't facing something that is worse, at the very least. And I hope a path of return opens to us soon so that you can find the answers you're looking for. Is much known about them at all? In the absence of any concrete material I find legends are often a good place to start, if you know of any. Often there is a thread of truth that can be unraveled from them.