Ok--this bit is semi-related to my online comic, which will be (re!)starting up march 3rd. You can find the comic at godseeker.comicgenesis.com

It's part of that...ah...long story The God of Fire mentions.

Godseeker is not about the end of the world, however. it's just about gods.
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The old man stood on the mountainside at sunset. He had had a dream the night before and had roused his village and told them to follow him. He raised his arms and told them that his dream had shown him the end of the world. His booming voice crackled with authority and passion. He began…

“This is how the world ends:”

“Fire and quaking and billows of smoke. It has been foretold by the resurrected God of Fire as he stood over a valley. “

“Hear now, People—The world was begun by the Three, and the world will end by Their divine will.”

“Er”…a voice said in the prophet’s mind. The Prophet ignored the voice.

“In the Beginning, there was nothing—but the Three Elder Gods formed our world. Vain, beautiful Earth—“

“Earth? Earth is a great damn blacksmith and potter. She’s enormous. She’s not particularly beautiful…unless you like that sort of thing. And even then. She doesn't really care about human ideas of beauty.” The prophet ignored the voice again, raising his voice.

“Earth, the beautiful woman who was beloved of Sky—the great warrior, who rules over all.”

The prophet paused as the voice in his head started laughing uncontrollably. He glanced at his audience. They seemed to be confused by the pauses--and in anycase, clearly could not hear that annoying voice. He took a deep breath and continued.

“The great oceans were raised and populated by Sea, cold and mysterious and—“

“At least you got her right.” The voice seemed to settle a bit, and he got the feeling that the voice was joining the audience. This realization threw him and he momentarily forgot what he was doing; and that he had an audience of real, actual people.

“…Right. Myserious and...cold...Ah. Well. Where was I?”

“The beginning”

The old man was overcome by a feeling of pure embarrassment—theatrics only work if you’ve got confidence in them. He dropped his arms in irritation and tried to hide the blush he could feel spreading over his naken chest. He was afriad he sounded peevish and old.

“Yes. So, the Three worked Their will upon the world and created the plants and all the animals, and then they felt that the world needed creatures to adore and worship the world and the Gods that had made it. So, the Three brought together Their powers and created Man—and They watched over their greatest creation with joy.”

“You’re talking too fast—I can’t understand the story!”
The prophet paused. Nobody had spoken that out loud—it was the…he growled and wished he had someone to glare at.
“…right. I’ll be good. Go on. I like stories.”
The old man sucked on his teeth for a second, and nodded. The impudent, invisible voice seemed to have agreed to let him continue without interruption. He shook himself and modulated his voice back into story-telling mode.

“Man flourished, and roamed over the earth and became it's master and it's caretaker—But it cannot last!”

“In time, Mankind will forget the Three and started worshipping other Gods. They will start deforming the very earth and stripping the soil and raizing the trees. Man will forget his duty to adore our world and destroy it. He will pollute the perfect sky and defile the oceans.”

“The Three will be wrathful toward their greatest creation.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. Annoyed, Sure. Wrathful…Probably not. They don’t really—“
The prophet hissed, “Do you mind?”
“I’m just trying to help.”

“ANY-way. The Gods will shake the earth and send up fire and molten rock and the smoke will block out the sun.”

“The Gods will allow the world to die, and take mankind with it. They will punish us for our arrogance and—“

“See…there you go again. They just don’t care that much. They are just, um, artists. They are mostly just watching and seeing where their creations are going to go and what they will do next. You keep thinking they think like a human. They…ah. Don’t. I mean—sure; Humans will probably all die off—or at least a lot of you will all die off—when one of those calderas goes boom. That’s true enough. But it’s not malice or punishment. It’s…just how things work. Earth doesn’t care that much. She’s…uhm…a lot more practical then you give her credit for. It’s not like the whole planet will blow up—it’ll just kill off all the current life. Earth and Sea will just make more, and they’ll try something new. Hell, Sea’s got life that will survive the big boom, no problem. Sky will be the most upset—he really likes watching you all—“

The prophet paused. “Ok. Who are you?” He resolutely ignored the sudden bafflement and restlessness of his audiance. He concentrated on the unseen world. There was a slight rumble beneath him.

“Oh, heh. Sorry. I’m Kante. I used to be Earth’s Fire. Humans just called me Fire, though—but then I died…well, it’s a long story. I’m kinda more human now so I have a name—again, long story. I was nearby relieving some pressure in the earth’s surface and I heard you talking. You seem nice enough, so I wanted to make sure you got it right.”

“…you were in the area?”

“Oh. Yeah. I should tell you--the volcano is going to blow up any day now—you should probably leave. It’d be nice if you could warn the folks down in the valley, though. Hey!. I’m getting good at this caring about humans thing!”

The prophet felt Kante’s presence fade from his mind. He looked at his audience and back at the still mountain rearing up over his back. He looked at the confused faces of his people, and he sighed. He hoped that one of them would remember the words and not the confused bits, and he resolved to write the dream down. Maybe somebody else could tell it the way it should be told without the Gods coming in and messing things up. Maybe they would forget this embarassing little story never happened, and just remeber that he had gotten a visit from the Fire God--who warned him about a volcano.

If there was really going to be a volcano in this mountain in the next few days.

Part of him really, really hoped so. After all--then that is what his people will remeber.

He decided to just end it so they could get on with the process of leaving before they all died in this little apocalypse.

“Look—The Three Gods exist, ok? Don’t forget they exist, ok? Bad things will happen when people stop remembering that we have real Gods. Now. The God of Fire has just told me this volcano is going to blow up—so we should go tell everybody to leave this village.”

The prophet sighed and started toward the village. He looked back at the peaceful-seeming mountain and grinned quickly at his extremely surprised people.

“Call it…a warning.”

Apocalypse Class #1

"Let's talk about the pleasures (in a Schadenfreude kinda way) of imagining all the nonbelievers dead -- whether they don't believe the right stuff about God, or don't respect Mother Earth, or are complicit with the government, or simply haven't built a bunker in the woods (after you warned them)."

Ok, so here is where I jump right into a big ol' pond of internet bloggers and also put myself squarely in the midst of a major debate and possibly offend folks. I'm an atheist. I don't believe in God, god, gods, spirits, souls, reincarnation, or any kind of psychic powers. The Schadenfreude of religious beliefs (and I include anything that is taken purely on faith without the intervention of "reality" and "facts" to be religious) about the end of the world is....one of the most troubling and ultimately destructive forces inherent to religious beliefs.

This isnt saying that only religious beliefs cause this sort of pleasure in mass destruction--it's pretty much human nature. I'll wager that if global warming ends up destroying the planet--there will be a lot of scientists grimly saying "I told you so" and taking the little pleasure they can from it--but I AM saying that religion has this sort of mentality emphasized, enshrined and worshipped.

It's this idea that not only is it OK that when the end comes you will be safe and sound while the earth and all the poor schmoes that didn't get the message are dying in firey, painful, torturous doom--but that you'll be happy about it, and gleefully watching your fellows as they die horribly. More--watching your friends and neighbors die horribly is somehow moral...This is terrible. This idea, this schadenfreude...this is...arg. I can't even express the kind of fury and anger I feel when perfectly well meaning people tell me that this sort of inhumane behavior is more moral and more socially accepted then my personal philospohy.

This sort of subject comes up a lot with the published atheists--this schadenfreude about the end of the world, the idea that the end of the world is something to be looked forward to, worked for, and joyfully recived--and this belief is shared by people who have nuclear weapons...

Damn right, that's scary. And maybe it would serve the world right if people stopped being hypocrites and started acting according to their beliefs and...

heh...there I go. Human nature in reguards to other people; that gloating and smug feeling you get when you are "right." I'm no stranger to the grim sort of "I told you so" thinking that comes along with seeing people follow a path of destruction partying and waving and being accompanied by a big o'l brass band. that "I told you so" sort of thinking that comes after youve tried to wave your arms and get somebody's attention and point at the cliff the mass is heading toward--and being laughed at, been told that you are being immoral for pointing out the cliff. That the cliff has an awesome party on the bottom, if you can just get past the sharp rocks...

Oh yeah. I'll admit to sharing that sort of feeling. I also think it is a profoundly immoral (or at least amoral) thing to think.

This, I think is the difference between the really disturbing schadenfreude and the lesser sort of satisfaction that people feel when they are "right" or have "won" an argument. To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy: if you think that you should feel joy when others are suffering you might be a really awful person. If you think you deserve to feel joy amidst death and destruction you might be a really awful person. If you think it's your right to feel joy watching people you love dying by torture you might be a really awful person.

If you think that feeling joy when people around you are dying in a fire is awful or you feel guilty if you feel relived and happy that "it wasn't you"...that's not so problematic. I'd call it natural, and I actually take it further--

here's where some of you will probably get irritated with me. I'll posit that if you are a healthy, sane person--you will feel guilty about surviving while watching the world burn. You might even feel guilty NOW because you believe that your friends, nieghbors, classmates and people who've never heard of your particular religion will all be punished in some way when the end times come.

I'll also take that a step further and say that for the true believers--this is where the anger, the fury and the hatred comes from for people who don't believe what they believe. They DO feel guilty--and guilt is a terrible, awful emotion. Those unbelivers who are going to die horribly are making them feel guilty about something they have every right to feel--some even belive that this bliss will be forced on them, making the guilt even more irritating and awful.

I can't even imagine believing that a) the world will end horribly, b) that my loved ones will die because they didn't hear my message strong enough, because I wasnt good enough to "save" them, c) and that my God will ensure that I will enjoy watching them burn.

...I think I just talked myself into pitying some street preachers and a particularly evangelical family member. That chain of events sounds horrible. Like...something out of a nightmare. Seriously, no wonder people get mad at non-believers. They've got to think, at some level, that we will be subjecting them to that sort of hell--except that they obviously don't think it will be hell--which I personally feel might actually be worse--sort of an ultimate erasure of the self, since so much of ones identity is tied up in who they love and in their relationships. I mean...what if you retained some part of you that wasnt all blissed out? I think id be mad at us too. Oh, man. I've never been so happy to be an atheist. I'm so glad that the only thing that happens to us when we die is that....we die. That sounds so. much. less. scary.

...Now I will never sleep again 'cuase I've creeped myself out.

on the upside, I can probably write a damn good story off of that feeling so....boffo?

ewewew.

First Post!

Okay!

Hello, World. This blog is going to mutate and grow slowly so bear with me. To get me started and in the habit of posting to this blog, I will be posting my ramblings and writing prompts from my apocalypses class here. Later, I'll (hopefully!) start posting my own essays, thoughts and personal philosophy here.