I have been reading Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods" and finding myself either laughing outloud or reading protions outloud to anyone within earshot. What a great, funny, truthful indictment of religion and the messes it gets us all into. Go out and buy a copy, you won't regret it.
I keep thinking I should post some passages on this board. So, tonight I will. Blame it on that damned third glass of wine!
This scene is a group of sailors who have just been killed by a rather stupid sea goddess. They suddenly find themselves on the "other side," still on their boat, and the captain says to the mate:
"Where shall we go now?"
The mate scratched his head.
"Well cap'n, I did hear as the heathen Klatch have got this paradise place where there's drinking and singing and young women with bells on and....you know...regardless."
The mate looked hopefully at his captain.
"Regardless, eh?" said the captain thoughtfully.
"So I did hear."
The captain felt that he might be due some regardless.
"Any idea how to get there?"
"I think you get instructions when you're alive," said the mate.
"Oh."
"And there're some barbarians up toward the Hub," said the mate, relishing the word, "who reckon they go to a big hall where there's all sorts of eat and drink."
"And women?"
"Bound to be."
The captain frowned. "It's a funny thing," he said, "but why is it that the heathens and the barbarians seem to have the best places to go when they die?"
"A bit of poser, that," agreed the mate. "I s'pose it makes up for 'em...enjoying themselves all the time when they're alive, too?" He looked puzzled. Now that he was dead, the whole thing sounded suspicious.
End quote.
And then this:
"Gods are not very introspective. It has never been a survival trait. The ability to cajole, threaten, and terrify has always worked well enough. When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency toward quiet reflection and seeing-things-from the-other-fellow's-point-of-view is seldom necessary.
Which has led, across the multiverse, to men and women of tremendous brilliance and empathy devoting their entire lives to the service of deities who couldn't beat them at a quiet game of dominoes."
Ah, get this book!
S4