Kalinara wrote up a post about how hard it would be for a person to be an atheist in the DC universe. She hauls out the standard that in a world where people regularly interact with divine beings, it should be impossible, or extremely difficult, to deny the existence of gods or God or other creatures of divinity. (I've used the word "divine" and its derivatives a lot this morning.) Denying those beings as you interact with them would be like standing on the beach in San Diego watching and hearing the surf roll in and out and smelling the sea breeze and denying that there was an ocean out there, right?
It's a classic thought and pretty logical. There's good reason why it's been around so long. For a while, I agreed with it. To pretend that something in front of you doesn't exist is just stupid. I don't think that way anymore.
I decided that just because something is in front of you, doesn't mean you shouldn't question it. Especially when you live in a fantastic world. And most especially when you live in a fantastic world that has tons of super science in it.
I understand that on a world like Middle Earth or Krynn or other such fantasy worlds where the gods and magical beings talk to regular people and no one seems to be out to explain how the universe works through science and mathematics it would be very hard to deny that a being who claims to be divine wasn't divine.
But the DCU isn't like those worlds. The DCU is full of aliens and strange creatures born from the depths of the ocean. Not only do the aliens bring super suits and power rings, but there are villains and heroes who make robots that absorb energies and pills that give people super strength. Hyperspace and wormholes and beams of energy are the normal ways for people to travel between stars and galaxies. Aliens, who look human, fly because their skin absorbs and converts solar energy. Men run faster than the speed of light because chemicals spilled on them as lightening struck. Women turn invisible by pointing a "black light ray projector" at themselves. And then there are so many people who get fantastical abilities because a gene, or combination of genes, becomes active through natural or artificial means.
Super science. That's what so-called gods and divine beings have to contend with. To be taken for what they say they are, they have to convince the people of the world that they aren't just guys and gals with a flight ring or spandex made out of an invulnerable fiber or who drank the wrong (or right, depending on how you look at it) soda and can suddenly lift a bus over their heads. How can they prove that they're magical or divine by summoning a feast when the US army has a transporter that can send a man to the asteroid belt? Hurling bolts of lightening seems less impressive when there's a guy out there who can summon hurricanes and blizzards by waving the mechanical wand he built*. When a robot can age or de-age a man by looking at him, when a group of explorers or a woman invents a ray that can heal all but death or a father can take his severely mutilated son and save his life with cybernetics, why should anyone think those who claim to be divine are?
In that kind or a world, could there be anyone who didn't doubt the existence of the supernatural and divine? Probably, but I think there'd be a lot less of them than there are on our world.
PS The strangest responses to her post were that some people decided that the atheists would probably be more like, "Sure, gods exist, but why should I worship them? What have they done that I should use my precious time and energy to tell them how great they are?"
I don't think a person who say gods exist is an atheist, but, you know, I like to go by the definition of the word.
* I know it's been retconned out, but fuck that.
3 comments:
Well I don't know what the DCU is but here's my take...
First off, an atheist is someone who, like me, does not believe in the existence of gods, not someone who feels no need to worship them. You're spot on with that.
As for the other question, it seems logical to me that in a society where loads of people have supernatural, quasi godly talents, it would be hard to believe in gods.
Of course that Jesus guy didn't have much in the way of supernatural talents and he's worshiped as a god now - though of course back then they just strung him up.
It's hard to argue with the existence of 'gods' when beings are touted as such by those with powers similar. Such as New Gods and the like. But does this make them Gods?
And, for the record, I think Jebus had some pretty kick-ass super powers...
Post a Comment