From: "Colin J. Wynne"  <WYNNE.C@fs.sciences.WLU.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Gods (my, what a presumptuous argument!!)
X-Gated-By: The Black Marble Wombat@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
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Organization: University of North Texas
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Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 17:43:14 GMT

OK, Jim, let's take another tack...

Basically, we're talking about quantum Many Worlds interpretation,
whether anybody wants to call it that (a rose, by any other name,
would still smell as sweet, with a probability of .8364532).

Now, that theory provides for one creation, which, for simplicity's
sake, we'll call the Big Bang, or BB.  From the BB, there is one
track, but as soon as a quantum indeterminacy is resolved, you have
two tracks (electron spin up, and electron spin down), and then four,
eight, sixteen, and so on, with continued branchings.

This is, of course, some 10^-22 seconds into the universe
(infiniverse, whatever), so, by current time, we have basically
infinite branches to things.  And, I would postulate that the more
current quantum branches there are, the more current possibilities
for futures exist.

Now, eventually, some of these universes will die, or collapse back
into a monobloc, or be conquered, or whatever else happens to snuff
them out, and end their branches, until there is only one track left.
It will either head back into a monobloc, and start the cycle anew,
or it will end in heat death -- in which all possibilities are
pointless anyway.

Either way, this gives us a track that starts with few possibilities,
expands to countless, indeed, infinite, possibilities, and then
funnels back down to none.

Earth, obviously, is in the middle of that track, and that's why we
are simply glutted with P-energy.  Now, how does this all fit in?

Let's take Jim's 'worse than Ords' gods.  They have lotsa p-points,
and lots of power.  Their interaction with their various cosms is
limited, of course, by spiritual axioms.  But, Spectacular divine
invocations exist, and could be called down by the faithful.  So, why
don't they just come and squash out this Gaunt Man dude?

Jim suggests a certain predetermination, a necessity of confronting
the Apocalypse as it is fated.  This obviously means that they are
being funneled down that branching track already.  They have power,
but as the end approaches, their abilities are more and more confined
by the limited possibilities of the situation.  They have free will,
but predestination exists, to an extent, due to circumstance.  The
gods' hands (or whatever) are tied.

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Here is my view of the situation, though.  The Wars exist on two
levels, mortal and immortal.  We, the SK's, fight the battles on the
earth, against the HL's, who are (as yet) mortal.

The gods rally against immortal threats -- gods of Apeiros vs. gods
of the N.O.  Mortals can occassionally take part in the greater
conflict, as in Rec Stalek, and the gods can help out in the mortal
conflict (miracles and invocations).  But, for the most part, the
battles are parallel and separate.

Not quite as metaphysical, but a little easier situation to
understand, and I think it makes just as much sense.  The gods *are*
doing what they can, but, hey!, they're gods!  Nobody says we have to
be able to understand what they do!

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==  Colin J. Wynne                      wynne.c@fs.science.wlu.edu  ==
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