From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Scylla, Oreb and transmigrational chain yanking
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 02:16:22 -0500

hartshorn wrote:

>I won't comment on the Pharasees/Saducsees debate, but I will note one
other
>thing about Wolfe.   Apparently machines - computer, Taloses, Solders and
>chems - are themselves to be redemeed, and become children of God.

I know you are presenting what seems to be Wolfe's viewpoint, not your own.

First of all, redeemed from what, exactly? Original Sin? For a Christian who
subscribes to that doctrine (as all, I assume, must; otherwise what need of
a "Savior"?), that's a rather queer notion. I mean, the progeny of Eve, even
unto the nth generation, cut off from the Tree of Life and cursed to live by
the sweat of their brows, are all doomed by the nature of their flesh--the
perils and temptations and foibles attendant upon it--to live out their
lives as best they may, then to die. After death they are to be judged, and
rewarded or punished eternally, according to how well they acquitted
themselves while alive and in the flesh. That flesh is subject, by
definition, directly to Lust and Gluttony and, indirectly, to others of the
Deadly Sins. It is very hard, if not impossible, to "sin" in any way that is
not reducible, ultimately, to the animal nature of the species.

For a non-corporeal entity (never mind where the "soul" came from) to be
held to the same standards as one of flesh and blood, strikes me as, well, .
. . unfair, to say the least. It's easy to be a "saint" when it can't be
helped. Has your PC ever lusted after an iMac? Have you ever known a robot
who spent the rent money on wine, women, and the horses? Where is the virtue
of resisting temptations one isn't even subject to?

Look at Hammerstone; he had his basic, factory-issue value system changed by
an ignorant priest with a screwdriver! Talk about an epiphany! Did that
augur save that Iron Man's soul with his meddling, or doom him to hell when
he got some wires crossed?

-Roy


--