"Mortal Gods”
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Cruel Miracles by Orson Scott Card


Wolran Kim, Feb.2011
Read & Respond



Willard Crane, living alone as an old man, lost his wife, and half a foot from Vietnam War. Crane thinks "Happiness is boring as hell," which makes it seems he is looking for trouble. One day he just walked in the church which he used to watch in the distance. He talked to an alien—Author calls theists like this—and it was full of back-talk about human beings, worship, death and the absolute being. But the alien said, "Death is the foundation of all that is great about humanity." Crane said the reason to come the church to alien, "Not to mock you. To envy you." The people, who are living with absolute faith in God, are blessed, to say nothing of God's presence. After a few months later, Crane chose the church to be the place where he breathes his last breath.

The hope of devotees is not in vain even if human beings created God as a means of fiction. Consolation from religion is a great deal—much more than life insurance. The word, "errors" does not exist in believers' words although there are errors—from limit of mortal perception--in the Bible. The following definitions are from the devil's dictionary.
* Irreligion: The greatest faith among all faith of the world.
* Religion: This is a great tree, but all sinister birds build nests. This is a daughter who was born between hope and fear, and she explains all nature of inconceivable to ignorance.

Our greatest fear in life is death. More than 50% of world population—Muslim, Catholic, Christian, Buddhist, and others—believe in the existence of the afterlife. And both theists an atheist accept nearly the existence of the soul. Some say that the flesh is up bound lane and the soul is down lane. If we compare the life with a coin, the front is the life and the back is the death. Our body perishes, and the death is an immutable fact. So death might be just wearing new clothes after taking the old ones off. Actually, there is no one who can prove afterlife. Therefore, death is a comma, not period, and this is a new beginning, not the end. Death links this life to the world beyond just like sleep carries us today to tomorrow. Therefore, death could give the same comfort as sleep. There is no reason to lament or fear if we accept death as a comfortable rest which guides us to another new world. For that reason, Crane, who went back to the church for his last moments, looks more beautiful to me.