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]

Truly? Goodness, I thought that most civilisations had a concept of fate, even if it's not named as such...We really are a mish-mash of worlds and peoples, aren't we?

Fate is what draws us onwards and together. The people you meet, the experiences you have, the choices you make, they are all fate. You were supposed to experience this life, because it's uniquely for you, a path set out for you at your birth. Your negative experiences test you and make you stronger, and your positive experiences reward your mettle.

It's how I adjust to being here instead of home. I'm here simply because I'm meant to be, and I have to be. There's no point in fighting it and making myself miserable, so much as working hard to do what I can before I leave again. Does this clarify things?

[epistemically]

It does. I appreciate you explaining it to me.

Our culture is, for the lack of a better term, dead. We've been in space so long we have no semblance of what we used to be -- so concepts like fate may have been lost to time. Death, however, has remained a constant theme in our lives. You either overcome it as long as possible or die without dignity to your name.

I suppose that is not too much different from your concept of fate.

[raptura]

I'd offer my sympathies, but they'll probably ring hollow. Still...Lost cultures genuinely break my heart a little. So much lost, even if to uphold tradition can be more bad than good.

Having death so prominent in any culture, however, isn't so strange. Sad, perhaps, but not uncommon. I hope that living somewhere that doesn't require it to be the forefront can allow you to experience life at a slower rate, and see the beauty in the things around us. At any rate, you're right about death and fate; fate ends in death for the majority, it just conducts the in-between as well. But different perspectives will see it as they will, of course; people see it as a chain, as a burden, and I see it as comforting and necessary.

[epistemically]

Does everyone find comfort in fate so readily?

This is certainly enlightening. Is this more of a human trait or have you encountered the concept with other races? I suppose with how the Empire spread there was no need to pay attention to other beliefs or cultures. I wonder how many believed as you do.

[raptura]

Quite the opposite! I think that it's more seen as either a thing that you accept, or a thing you fight, and believing in it at all is more old-fashioned. I've only met one non-human, however, and he was the one who influenced my own beliefs on the subject. It really depends on the culture as much as their own life experiences, at the end of the day.

I wouldn't count on meeting many people who would hold to fate so fast, all the same. Expect the younger people here to laugh it off, especially if they've dealt with death a lot. It's a controversial little topic!