Intergalactic Summit

Of course other religions are instruments of social control, too. What I'm saying is that the Amarrian religion does a better job of it than most of its rivals do. The perhaps most significant example of this is that God's existence is confirmed by Amarrian legislation. This essentially means that whenever and for as long as you are within the jurisdiction of Amarrian law, the Amarrian God actually does exist.

Few if any rival religions can make the same boast.

..well, crap. That actually made me smile.

What did your slaves think of it? Did you bother to ask? Do they believe in God? These are questions we want to know...

Farel, for God's sake, get a hobby. Or a pet. Or a boyfriend. Or anything else. Sheesh.

I too am unsure as to why Ava responded as she did.

I appreciated your response to Mr. Marellus statement.


Shockingly, when you consume large amounts of a toxic liquid, you feel bad afterwards. This is not God being mean; it's you being stupid.

You get hangovers? A capsuleer? Seriously? Are you afraid of modern implants, biomods or simple medication, or are you just a masochist?

Only the most destitute baseliners or the most hardline technophobes should have to worry about hangovers. What else do you suffer from? Scurvy?

Wow! Loving the hair, babe.



There are drugs to fix that if you don't want to use implants!

Dealing with the after-effects of your own drinking just isn't very chic, baby. ... Or maybe it's very chic! I'm going to buzz one of my area managers. Blowing up chunks and feeling like a bhaalgorn is now in!

Close, but not exactly. God didn't underestimate Man's capacity for stupidity and he isn't surprised by anything that transpires in the cluster.

God simply instituted punishments for stupidity. One of them being a hangover.

Precisely why the Gallentean stubbornness in promoting their own ideal of controlled populist concessions while denigrating our system of ethical and chaste living is so appalling and obscene. We're drawing from the same armoury of cultural warfare to spread ideals and promote ideas through symbolism and rhetoric. They're surely less moral than us and certainly too permissive but the aims are the same. Can't they see that the frothing, thoughtless democrat is as inane and tired an idea as the frothing, thoughtless preacher? A little more objective analysis on all sides would do us some good without resorting to this us-and-them game.

At the end of the day though, God is on our side, so...

Well, I can't deny that there are Amarrians who see things that way, but I can point out that those Amarrians are wrong. While different books of the Scriptures make reference to the Amarr as the "first before God" or His "Chosen" it does not mean God loves the Amarr. On the contrary it means the Amarr have a duty, an obligation to God, that in many ways is more burden than blessing. Further only the weak among the Empire allow themselves to shift blame away from themselves for their failings, and only the weak allow their own bias, opinions, and prejudices to guide them to improper or outright atrocious acts.



I touched on the self deception a bit already but this "praying hard enough" bit deserves some more attention. In my estimation it is certainly true that there are Amarrians that do not "pray hard enough." However, there are many forms of prayer and the stereotypical act of kneeling, praising, and beseeching the Divine for guidance is a poor substitute for the others. Multiple times in scripture we're told of the value of toil, of work, of suffering and bearing what can be born, and that is the stronger or purer prayer to be offered to God.



A very interesting belief and one that I would be glad to hear more about, so thank you for sharing it. I'm curious though, would you say Mir'mulnir is as unseen and unheard from as you suggest of the Amarrian god? It seems to me that one some level Mir'mulnir could even be uncaring, as she bestowed upon you her gifts and then left rather than staying to offer guidance in times of need. This notion that She is deserving of no thanks and no blame seems a bit odd to me as well, as you just said She gave you the gifts of strength, courage, and will. Surely on some level when you exercise those gifts for good or ill, She must bear some responsibility for giving them.

I should also point out that this belief actually has noticeable similarities to Amarrian belief. Even a cursory glance at The Scriptures is enough to show that God created the Amarr, and allowed them to stray for a time (demonstrating a gift of will), until one man found his way to God and was given a gift of wisdom. With that gift he lead others into the grace of God. Even after that there were others who chose turn their back on God, and had the strength to nearly destroy the fledgling Empire before it even took to the stars. All throughout The Scriptures it's rather easy to note instances of the Amarr having these similar gifts to those given by Mir'mulnir to the Matari.

Another similarity is notion of death followed by judgement followed by reward or punishment. Where you mention a cosmic sea free of fear and mortal failings, an Amarrian would mention Paradise in the eternal light of God. Where Mir'mulnir might devour those that squandered their gifts, God might cast out those who lived a life of worthlessness.