Yes this a Valuable Use of My Time · 3:57am Aug 19th, 2020
I thought, "Oh, it isn't fair that Toola Roola Paints a Picture, one of my best stories, is also my lowest rated. Maybe if I replace the Faustianism with Harmonisim, people will like it more."
Oh, but Faustianism is supposed to be a parody of/stand in for Christianity. Which almost makes sense because it's... monotheistic? Probably? Where as Harmonism is probably worship of a cosmic force or principal? Could Harmony get it's act together enough to create a rock too large for it to not move? Or would it just hand out some magic items to a half dozen rustic bumpkins and let them deal with the problem?
Anyway, the correct answer to Toola's question in the excerpt is 'Harmony could not create a rock she could not move unless Harmony changed the laws of physics' because otherwise Harmony would just create a rock so big it collapsed into a black hole, which she could then relocate by creating another, larger black hole.
Oh! I should have Dumb Ox say that.
I've always been both fascinated and depressed by the question of whether God exists. Fascinated because... Well, I'd like to know? And depressed because all either side really has is speculative arguments. There are no facts here.
Well, there are a few facts. For instance the universe is vast, chaotic, and almost all of it would instantly kill a human being. So. If there is a God, it is most likely indifferent or hostile to mankind. Mad, all powerful, sleeping, the universe is merely its dream. It is attended by pipers who play ceaselessly lest silence wake it and banish out reality like the bad dream it clearly is. 
Anyway, go read Toola Roola Paints a Picture. Or if you don't want to do that, downvote A Night in Shining Armor. That's a mediocre clop at best. Just enough to get it down below Toola in the rankings; no need to go crazy.
Sleep well.
If you're curious I actually can make an argument for, if not Christianity, than about as close to actual harmonism as you'll get in the real world. Either way it's quite a vexing question. Especially since even I'll acknowledge that while there are solid arguments the best evidence I have is experiential and that won't convince anyone of anything.
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With the caveat that anything you say might go in a story, sure!
Speaking as someone who's more or less subbed in Harmonism for Christianity in a setting, at least as far as the "dominant Western religion" thing goes, I can confirm that the details get muddied if you zoom in to any degree of closeness.
Also, it's on my Read Later shelf.
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Alright! So, sermon time. I’ll frame this as Harmonism for simplicity of translation.
People ask how you can believe in Harmony in the face of the evils of the world and harshness of the universe. My response is to ask how can you not, when the deck is so clearly stacked against evil?
This is a bold claim I know. But I think it is one that has solid support. Consider how very hard it is to do the right thing, the Harmonious thing, without also doing the smart thing. Consider one of the most terrible human inventions, war. Why, in a war, should you behave honorably towards your enemies? Why should you take prisoners? Why should you spare civilians and keep your troops disciplined and keep them from torturing people for fun? Shouldn’t the side in a war willing to be most brutal and ruthless win? As it turns out, no. Even if you have no care for morality, in some of the darkest times possible, it turns out that choosing evil hurts you strategically. If your enemies can surrender then they won’t fight to the death. Protecting civilians means that you won’t need to struggle to keep them from rising against you. Disciplined troops fight better, and it turns out they’d rather not have sadistic bastards being the ones to watch their back. Go figure right?
I know that’s a dark example to start, but it’s true at basically every level across cuff across the board. Evil provides short term gains but in the long run is self destructive. This is why authoritarian Governments are so prone to collapse. For all their fearsome reputations Nazi Germany and the USSR were riddled with inefficiencies and corruption and infighting. And that’s a common trend, I only mention them for familiarity. You even see it in the Evil Overlord List, that alleged guide to pragmatic villainy. A trend quickly emerges once you know what to look for: to be a better overlord, be less evil.
History bears this out too. Over time we regularly see the world trend better, step by step. We have seen the end of slavery, the end of legal segregation, women’s suffrage, gains in queer rights... it hasn’t been an easy fight, and it’s still ongoing, and there have been losses and backslides. But it is hard to deny that it is a fight we are winning. And we have a very deep hole to claw ourselves out, with many systemic and direct efforts to maintain the status quo. A long uphill battle that you have been consistently winning tells you something about the quality of both your friends and your enemies.
This comes up in day to day life as well. Acting altruistically, harmoniously, and just generally as a good person has myriad benefits. Even if they don’t return directly. Something I have often said is that you have to live in the world you make. The more the social expectation is that people help each other, the more likely you are to get help in turn.
Even when we back away from people, and get into the allegedly uncaring world of nature. First and most obviously we see that altruism is beneficial even without any kind of thought or society being required. After all, some of the most successful animals in the world are ants. And it isn’t limited to insects. Herd animals, pack predators, flocking birds, schooling fish... it’s easier to find examples than exceptions. The most prominent one being, of course, humans themselves. In fact, evolutionary evidence suggests that we weren’t much smarter than our most immediate ancestors. The difference was communication, the ability to teach and learn and organize. The spark of modern humanity was not intelligence but Harmony.
But we can also see the had of Harmony in a more abstract manner, in the emergence of life and evolution. I don’t mean to suggest direct divine intervention, to be clear. Instead I mean something arguably more profound. That the capacity for life and self organization and improvement is built into the structure of the universe itself.
After all, what is the fundamental proposition of Harmony? That we are more together than we are alone. That the whole is greater than the sum of their parts. And we see this even in the behavior of atoms, spontaneously forming compounds with emergent properties that are far more complex than the atoms alone. That would be remarkable enough, but that simple matter spontaneously arises to structure and life due the laws of physics themselves.
In fact, you can also see the hand of Harmony in the evolution of the physical universe. Over time, despite the process of entropy, it has in fact gotten steadily more complex. From undifferentiated energy to the existence of simple matter. The formation of stars, and with them the forging of heavier elements that allowed complex chemistry. The emergence of solar systems, and from them life. And from life to technological civilization. We see Harmony in this. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts... and the number of parts increases over time. The fact that this all happens without the need for intervention is, itself, miraculous.
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Damn, that's good. I can't argue with most of that. Also I hate arguing so there we are. IDK if this will help Dumb Ox, but it helps... um... me?
Yeah thanks I needed that.
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The stories I would like to fix are not always fixable. :p
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XD No problem, glad to help. Here’s another great quote on the subject while I’m at it:
"But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses."
-Robert Audrey
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This statement conflicts with the Christian -- humans are supposed to have fallen and need a return to grace, you see? -- half of my brain, but the skeptical half is pleased.
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True but I’m not actually Christian :p If I was I would have shared the CS Lewis quote on immortality. I might anyway, I really like it.
It’s still reconcilable if you want though, what we have accomplished and how much closer we have grown to grace despite our fall.
“There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.
But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn.
We must play.
But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”