Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

On a recent trip, I read Terry Pratchett's Small Gods.


Small Gods

Pratchett's Discworld is probably the most popular humorous fantasy series in English. (I do mean "English", as opposed to American.) As the series overview in the books themselves says, despite taking place in a completely different universe, they often comment on real Earth issues. That's my complaint about some of them, that they're too on-the-nose and read like inexpert Swift essays, rather than funny novels with a point.

That does not apply to Small Gods.

I found Small Gods funny and involving both. The novel deals with the empire of Omnia, which might be the answer to the question, "What if the Borgia Popes had ruled the Roman Empire?" It's a purely religious state run by high priests, divided into dioceses run by bishops, and so on, and it's aggressively monotheistic. Our Hero is a lowly perpetual never-promoted novice. Without giving any of the plot away, the story is about the travails of the god Om, and his followers, when worship stops being about the actual god. There are memorable characters, memorable settings, really thrilling adventures, and it's really funny. You can't beat that for the cost of a paperback book. I've only read eight or so, but to date this is my favorite Discworld book.

If you're curious, you could, you know, buy it from the link above. Not that I'm crass or materialistic or anything.

When evidence doesn't matter

Did you know that civilization is over 100 trillion years old? Well, some Creationists want that put into California textbooks.

Sound wrong? Well, they're extremist Hindu Creationists.

To all you Christian Creationists, a thought: if you manage to mandate the inclusion of religious doctrines in science and history texts, how will you exclude other religion's doctrines? Can a billion Hindus be wrong?

Found on Pharyngula. Pharyngula is one of my favorite blogs.

Nitpicking: the blog

So, I'm a Lotus Notes developer, and a user interface perfectionist. Obviously I have some criticisms of Notes, but I'm not as angry as "Lotus Notes Hater". Click here to see his site. (Warning: opens in a different window.)

He's a funny guy. Not just about Notes. I read several dozen pages of his site before I got one of his jokes. See that banner across the top, of people screaming and writhing in frustration? Except ... that woman on the far right apparently is having a lot more fun than the rest. What's funny is how well she blends in.

The war on Christmas

What's with so many Christians, over the past couple of months, talking about a "War on Christmas"? Aside from the way, way over-the-top metaphor, Christmas isn't even a Christian holiday. It celebrates the Roman god Saturn and the Germanic god Wotan/Odinn. Sure, the name refers to the crowned king of the kingdom of Israel, but the date and customs have nothing to do with Christianity.

Crowned king of Israel? Yes, Christ is from the Greek christos, "annointed with oil". It refers to the ceremony by which a man became king of Israel, in which olive oil was poured over his head. Of course, there's no evidence that Joshua even spoke Greek.

Joshua? Well, yes, or maybe "Yeshua". "Jesus" is a Greek distortion of the man's real name. After all, he was a Judean, what we now call a Jew, why would he have a made-up Greek sounding name? Thing is, the Gospels were translated into Greek, and those versions were what most Christian bibles are based on. Greeks thought a man's name should end in "-us".

Spoke no Greek? Well, no. Joshua was a dissident, anti-Roman rabbi, a very common type in Judea in that era. He despised Gentiles (non-Jews, for all you Gentiles reading this), as is clear in the story of the Greek woman, who had to plead and beg for her children to be healed, while Josh compared her and them to dogs. No Gentiles were permitted to be Christian until after Joshua's death, when Saul "Saint Paul" of Tarsus, a Roman citizen of Jewish descent, totally reinvented the movement, abandoning its Jewish nature and founding a new religion.

So anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. "Christmas" is an invented holiday, since history doesn't record when Joshua was born, except that it was definitely the Fall, not any time in December. It was scheduled to prevent Christians from attending the Saturnalia, the Roman solstice festival. Later it absorbed the "decorated tree" idea from Odin worshippers. Many of the stricter Christians have always refused to celebrate, or banned the celebration of, Christmas, notably the Puritans and Pilgrims. Maybe Fox News would like to declare "war" on them?