This week I read God's Debris and The Religion War by Scott Adams. They were, to put it lightly, fun books for those of us who like to make our brain spin and philosophize endlessly. In fact, God's Debris is available as a no-strings attached, free ebook. Go, download it and read it if you haven't. It's short enough to be read in one sitting but the ideas -- that range from the practical to batshit insane -- are enough to keep you thinking about it long after. The sequel is a more straight forward in terms of plot as it applies the character's philosophy to an impeding war he is trying to avert. If God's Debris is a Socratic conversation, you could say The Religion War is the companion parable.
At the end of both books the author gives his email address and encourages us to share our comments. So, of course, I did. Now I share that email with you guys. If you haven't read the books but intend to and are adverse to spoilers look away now! If you don't intend to read the books, maybe my thoughts will give you pause to reconsider. And if you want to talk about them with me, please leave a comment! I'm dying to talk about them (duh).
Here's my email:
Hi,
These books were a blast. Some comments. Excuse any incoherence, but the books inspire me to think in a stream of consciousness. I do hope you make it to the end!
In God's Debris, I gotta say, the general philosophy is my philosophy: the idea of questioning everything and that our minds fill in the gaps with delusions. Which I saw far more compelling than any specific view of reality.
The evolution argument was interesting to me. It's kind of a great magic trick the old man pulls on the guy. The "dishware evolution" argument presents a compelling reason as to why evolution could be wrong but does not actually say evolution is wrong. In fact, you could argue that his dishware evolution theory is not wrong, from a certain point of view, and thus the theory of our evolution is correct as well. It's a fun little puzzle.
But, hey, I find no arguments with his view on relationships. Goddamn if that's not how it goes!
The Religion War was a perfect companion piece. The first thing that struck me was his conversation with the guard at I-Wing. It was a mini-recreation of the first book, with the added bonus of being inside the old man's head. That chapter read to me like an explanation of what you were doing to the reader in God's Debris. I had a good laugh.
And evolution comes up again. The delivery man-turned-old man asks the same question the original old man had asked him, "how come we haven't seen changes?" Only whereas the original old man used that to plant the idea that it's because, perhaps, evolution isn't real, the new old man has a specific answer to it. That happens more than once in this book. You revisit ideas from God's Debris that were used to illustrate the old man's view of reality then change them up on us.
Which is why I keep circling back to my original interpretation of God's Debris: it's not about what reality is but how to approach reality.
I find the end of The Religion War compelling. The War had to begin for the events that would end it to be put into motion. See, the way I read it, the old man was very much like Cruz and al-Zee in that he believed God was on his side and thus he could not fail. He was on the precipice of essentially dropping down a level and leaving the world without an Avatar.
The Avatar is the pinnacle of self awareness. But he is human not God and if all humans create delusions to fill in the blanks then he, by definition, does the same. So if he's fully self aware then he knows he's got at least some delusions. Which in turn means he knows he's not fully self aware. This is the paradox of the Avatar: being the Avatar means knowing there is no Avatar. That's the kind of software loop that would shut down a computer.
Oh, hey, the Avatar's brain shuts down and only then does Mackey release the GoD program and Stacey assert her Prime Influencer power. It's as if the only way for the Avatar to be correct would be for him to not be conscious. If he is no longer conscious then he is no longer delusional either and thus the Avatar paradox is resolved and he can be correct.
Yeah, I had a blast with these books. Thanks!
Best,Rolando
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