From: "Ori Kowarsky" <orik@sprint.ca>
Subject: Re:  (urth) mankind
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 21:54:13 




Alex David Groce wrote:

>Ori, the best argument "justifying the ways of God to man" in BOTNS is not
>a quick quotation I can pluck out--although Severian, whose meditations I
>do not ignore while reading the book, says some pithy stuff.  This strike
>me as the Dave Barry version of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV: "Dear reader, is
>there a God?  -Fyodor"  Gene Wolfe wrote 5 books, not a brief essay
>solving the problem of evil.  Wolfe's a great writer, but he hardly
>managed to "justify the ways of God to man" in 100 words or less (or even
>in the whole thing--conclusive arguments are generally not the work of
>fiction).  Where in BOTNS does it say "Don't make no theological
>interpretations of all this, folks?"

In other words, you have no proof.

I am genuinely disappointed, Alex,  as I was hoping you'd come up with
something imaginative or at the very least interesting to buttress your
point of view.  If you are unwilling or unable to suport your opion with any
actual evidence from the book then all you are doing is making bald
assertions of fact where the facts are absent.  It's a great thing to have
certain beliefs about TBOTNS, but if you cannot back up these beliefs then
these discussions quickly start generating more heat than light.

Ori


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