Hi Richard,

I also think we should talk about more subjects. The "God" aspect of this forum has been for the most part ignored. Not that there's anything wrong with axioms, they can be quite fun sometimes, but there's a lot more to life.

Just this weekend I was having a conversation with my brother on the subject of the end of times. He said he thinks it's a matter of fact that the world will end, and he believes there's good reason for us to think it's going to happen soon. So I reminded him that since the beginning of civilization humans have always thought the end times were near. It seems to be a universal feature of human psychology, this anxiety about the future.

He replied that now it's different, that we are as close to the end as we can possibly get, with atom bombs, environmental degradation, and the like. But I told him that was not true, that in the past people thought that the end times would be brought about by gods rather than man. Anyone must concede that to be threatened by the gods is a lot worse than being threatened by men so we're not really closer to the end times but actually farther than our ancestors. If the gods failed to destroy the world how could we possibly achieve it?

OK, people might read that and think I'm just playing with words (I already have a reputation for being good at that), but it's not so, I really mean it. In the place where the battle for the end of the world is happening, gods do have more power than men. In my opinion the end of the world happens for everyone, it's just a metaphor for our death. So it will happen to all of us, and it will be the gods who will bring it about, but it's not going to happen to the world per se, only to our individual worlds.

The scriptures, as always, are right and wrong at the same time.

• Weak god or gods - yanniru - April 3, 2002 - 23:04 UTC