[Video]

[motivenotfound]

[Wow, another perky teenage Japanese(?) girl! What a novelty. Here in a setting where everyone is by default generically Japanese, and there is an entire participatory subcategory of youths in the local lifestyle-sport that is just called 'miniskirt.' And yet here she is! No one could have seen this one coming!]

He-llo! I hate to be a downer, but I just got here, and I was wondering if anyone could prove that we're not dead. Not that death seems very likely, given what I know about it, but I tried asking the locals and the nonsapiens life about it anyway after I found out what was going on, and all I learned is that for some reason they didn't really like the question.

That being the case, any evidence in either direction would be useful! And this is just a formality, so anecdotal evidence is okay, too.

By the way, since I have your attention, I'm sure you won't mind telling me how long I have to walk on order to be able to buy some new clothes that aren't what's in my bag, right?

Comments

[motivenotfound]

What.

Give me a moment to read all of this.

Okay, got it.

You really like to explain yourself, huh? That's not a bad thing, but if you're actually trying to explain why I need to stop examining my own internal experience, then you're explaining that to the wrong girl.

Especially if your point is predicated on the idea that humans can't know the nature or face of God, or themselves--individually or as the collective known as humanity. That's actually wrong. In fact, it's so wrong that I'm going to have a hard time picking a place to explain from.

Understanding ourselves and each other requires us to examine and try to understand the world, and giving up on that simply because of the scope appears to dwarf the finite power and knowledge of your individual self is self-defeating. Of course the whole is going to be way beyond you! You can't freeze up just because something is too big for you to see or understand all of it.

Also, what you're calling gods and mortals isn't really what you think you're explaining.... but I don't think I should explain the world to you. But know that the world isn't going to reveal itself to you just because you asked, and it's not going to do that because you gave up, either.

In other words, even if you don't find any answers, you should still try to ask more questions while you're still alive to ask them. Okay? That's just a little advice.

[vrdantwind]

Mm...I think there's a misunderstanding here.

For one thing, I'm definitely not telling you what to do or how to live your life. I'm just talking about the conclusions I've come to personally. Besides, if I've learned anything from being here, it's that I can't presume to know your circumstances, or even your limits. I've chatted with immortals whose ability to understand things, and their very perceptions of things like time and mortality, are completely beyond what a mortal can hope to have, because they're shaped by experiences a mortal never can have. So it'd be kind of crazy for me to act like what I do would be a good fit for you, especially when we've only just started talking. I don't know the first thing about you, beyond that you're obviously intelligent.

But more than that...I wasn't suggesting giving up seeking understanding, even of things considered to be beyond human comprehension. A blind man groping in the dark may not be able to map the whole world, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to get a feel for any of it. I more meant that there are questions here that may downright lack any kind of logical answer at all, so trying to find an explanation for them is pointless. I mean, as I said, if the answer to "how is this thing possible?" is basically a godly voice booming "BECAUSE I WILLED IT", well...what good does that answer do you? What practical use can a person put an answer like that to? There really isn't any. A much more instructive question, for instance, might be "why did you will this?", because that answer might illuminate something.

There's a whole lot of things in this world where the 'how' of them seems to be so inexplicable and arbitrary, with the explanation of their being at the whims of a god being so likely, that those questions and their answers just seem like a waste of time I could spend asking better ones. After all, I wouldn't call shifting the focus of a guy's inquiries to be 'giving up'. A lifetime's only so long, and as you acknowledge, there's too much to know! You have to triage what's worth your time and what isn't. And that's a pretty subjective decision, isn't it? If you've going to tell me my efforts are wasted because you don't personally agree with where I'm directing them, because you think you should get to dictate what's important to me to learn, well...that seems simultaneously short-sighted and high-handed.

I do appreciate the advice, and the spirit in which it was given, but trust me, I don't need it. My curiosity's kind of a watchword with the people who know me. I'm never going to not ask questions. So believe me, we're on the same page as far as that goes.

[motivenotfound]

Subjectivity is in the eye of the beholder, buddy. If being told to broaden your scope is insulting to you, you should find out why that bugs you so much. I mean, I'm not even saying the questions you're asking are bad! 'Why' is pretty good!

What I am saying is, don't be too quick to cite your curiosity as sufficient just because you've got a lot of it. You can ask all the questions you want and still not ask the right ones for the desired answers, you know?

If something is an act of God, and I'm trying to understand why, I'd want to know where God came from.

[vrdantwind]

That just makes me wonder if you're asking the right questions. Do you think we're talking about a singular god here? Or any god you're familiar with? Because I can promise you we aren't. I've chatted with humans here who are, as it were, temporarily embarrassed gods, since everyone gets knocked down to a standard human upon arrival no matter what they were before. So one thing I already know is that gods come from all different places, and work in any number of different ways.

That said, a lot of gods are considered the genesis of everything - the only exceptions I know of are when you've got a pantheon of gods, where only one gets to claim the loftiest title. But for that highest god, or a monotheistic god? Nothing and nowhere existed before them. So in the cases of a lot of gods - assuming they are indeed the genesis of their reality - asking where the god came from is a nonsense question with no answer. There was no where, or when, or what before them for them to come from. And yet, they are. Isn't that a fairly standard feature of a god? Being able to defy any logic, any requirements, any standard form of progression? To make something from nothing? At best, you'll end up with an answer like "god came from god", because there was nothing else to come from. You're looking for the origin of the origin - like asking the waves where to find the ocean. The question is your answer.

And the specific god most likely responsible for all of us being here is definitely a genesis god. If we're going to lecture each other on what questions we should be asking, though, I might say that you could have started with asking about the god that might be behind this - the one you presumably don't know the first thing about yet? You're never going to get answers to the big questions if you're too busy to even ask the small ones.