And then here comes Cormac McCarthy (RIP) to shit all over your idea of some benevolent god, to give you a real sense of how chaotically brutal the reality of life actually is, to question autonomy and the very notion of free-will, and to maybe, as a side-effect of literature, to make you think twice about everything you’ve assumed about the world.
Gonna miss that guy.
I don’t know why the Nobel asswipes didn’t give him the recognition he deserved.
My guess is that his work was too “American” for their tastes.
I was thinking more of “Blood Meridian,” but it’s definitely true that “The Road” tackles a lot of similar themes albeit on a more personal and isolated scale.
I think “No Country” also is a continuation of said themes, with Anton Chigur as a sort of modern incarnation of The Judge. He must own everything. Nothing can be allowed to exist or happen save by his dispensation.
He is an amoral archon, as is life and the universe itself. He is offended only by those who refuse to acknowledge and countenance the cruel and arbitrary nature of reality itself.
Decisions and random facts of chance have permanent consequences, none of which can or should be escapable. It’s offensive to The Judge/Anton Chigur that anyone might imagine otherwise.
In this situation, I could see it being done in order to announce that you have the power to alter reality on a whim, and really need people to get with the program.
So I would say it would depend on your other intentions, as if you have the creative power that is chested, you could easily bring someone back to life and place them in another scenario until they actually understand what you’re trying to tell them.
I don’t have enough information to ascertain whether or not the omnipotent being is evil or just a prankster.
No not really, my friends and I fuck with each other all the time, but we never do permanent harm or majorly inconvience each other.
If I could just snap my fingers and rewrite reality, I’d totally put those closest to me through a haunted mansion to be just by a serial killer, maybe even have them die a couple of times as a joke…
Then I’d bring them back to life and we’d go to the planet of nymphomaniacs to laugh it off over a few ambrosial liqours and impossibly large breasted company.
“You really had me going with the whole Saw trap, but then when I cut off my leg to escape the trap you changed my biology so that I could just re-attach it. Such a kidder.”
Why do you have to “announce” your capabilities to beings you designed? Why do you have to onboard them to your “program” at all? If you truly are omnipotent, simply make beings that already know, and are already with the program. Assuming that is indeed what you want, why would you do anything else?
Are you throwing in extra steps for your own amusement? Just as a prank? Why? You’re omniscient. You already know how it ends. What’s amusing about it?
You are either toying with beings you created to be non-accepting and deliberately presenting conditions that won’t convince them, or you’re lacking one or both of omnipotence or omniscience.
An argument straight from the edgy teen atheist textbook, sure, but nonetheless one I have yet to see a compelling rebuttal for.
Substitute the trolley for a tornado, the tracks for homes, the deity killing randomly with said tornado, and the survivors thanking deity for their survival (and their neighbors’ deaths).
Not a good analogy? Of course it isn’t. God doesn’t exist, and if he does, he’s perfectly happy killing you and destroying your family for no reason whatsoever, and your neighbors will thank him for doing so.
I mean, if evil always shoots itself in the foot, this guy’s off to a good start. Why would you get them to agree to blame you for putting them there, and then free them? Chaotic stupid.
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