I have to begin by saying that I loved (most of) the stories this week.  ‘God’ seemed to be a prevalent theme throughout them all, which I enjoyed.  I think there’s a certain idea that follows notions of God that suggests that God punishes the bad and rewards the good.  With the exception of the Weyr tale, these stories try to suggest otherwise.  What makes us think that our creators, our rulers, will share our conceptions of morality?  And, furthermore, what kind of god creates misery to make miracles?  Is it truly a miracle if it’s brought others suffering?

I was particularly struck by the potential for the star of Bethlehem to be a dying star because it exemplifies this; our perception of blessings is entirely contingent upon perspective.  Once we zoom out, we see the full price others had to pay to bring joy to us.  I noticed this in “I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream” – the suffering of AM seems to be so blatantly ignored because the machine serves human needs.  Though it’s mentioned briefly, it must’ve been devastating to function as a slave of sort: no autonomy, no mobility, and any attempts to negotiate for its own desires or dreams is treated as negative manipulation.  I even saw these themes present in Ender’s Game – morals are relative, we almost always think we are right, and a win (i.e. blessing) is a win regardless of the havoc it might create for someone else.

For those of you interested in this topic, please read Ted Chiang’s “Hell Is The Absence of God” because it really explores this at length while still allowing for the existence of a higher power.