Tuesday, March 07, 2017

         Choices - a Fable

By

John Riminton

Far away, in a different part of the galaxy, is a planet that some of its inhabitants think of as Here. Those inhabitants, whom we shall call the Fillibits, are a numerically small race of herbivores. They cannot speak, indeed their anatomy has no mechanism that would enable them to do so, but they have evolved a means of telepathic communication that allows them to share some quite complex ideas.

At a different level of existence, Here is also the home to a group of fractious, ego-centric beings that ancient Greeks on Earth would have thought of as gods. Struggling between themselves to control the elements of Here, most of these beings ignored the Fillibits as unimportant, but two of them had conceived the idea of worship. This was highly attractive to their egocentric mentalities and they had started to interfere in the affairs of the Fillibits who thought of these two as Fear and Awe.

Fear's approach was to plant the idea that it could dominate the Fillibits by creating fires and droughts that would destroy their food supply, or by earthquakes that would bury them in landslides and that these disasters would continued to be inflicted on the Fillibits unless they worshipped it. Fear also craved sacrifice as a balm for its ego but the herbivorous Fillibits had no concept of placatory sacrifice in their group mind.

Awe, on the other hand felt that gratitude was a surer way to win followers. It, therefore, set out to cooperate with the Fillibits and make life easier for them by bringing rain in season, mild nights and easy winters.

Confusion reigned in the group mind of the Fillibits. Some elements favoured trying to ingratiate themselves with Fear, especially when times were hard, while other elements longed for the easier life and favoured Awe.

The debate raged for generations, swinging from one preference to the other.

At last, after a particularly hard winter, the group mind concluded that the being that cared for them must do so for love and that this was very much better than the hatred that had to be assumed motivated Fear. From then on, Fear was banished from the group mind and Awe was treated with reverence, much to its gratification.

And the morals of this fable are:

  • That you must choose your gods with care and
  • That cooperation is always to be preferred to malice.        

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