Analog SFF, April 2009
Page 21
However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an “adult” means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today's fashions or the latest novelties."
Certainly, a vague Nietzschean philosophical egoism seems popular today. People talk about “your truth” and “my truth” as if there were no such thing as truth. That way ultimately lies the death of science. “I just choose!” is the battle cry—and that way lies the death of rational debate, and even of reasoned acceptance of one's own beliefs. After all, there is the tolerance that recognizes the dignity of other beliefs, and the false “tolerance” that holds them all equally worthless. Joseph Bottum, an editor over at First Things, had this to say about the remarks:
[Ratzinger's] difficulty is this: How can you argue in favor of argument with a people who childishly begin by arguing against the possibility of any universal truth? ... This is a theme Ratzinger has taken up before. In his 2003 collection of essays, Truth and Tolerance, for instance, he describes John Paul II's 1998 encyclical on Christian philosophy, Fides et Ratio [Faith and Reason], as concerned most of all with restoring the place of truth “in a world characterized by relativism.” He insists that Jesus Christ—the Logos, the Word made flesh—"assures us of the rationality of the world, the rationality of our being, the divine character of reason, and the reasonable character of God, even though God's rationality surpasses ours immeasurably and appears to us as darkness.” Thus “Europe must defend reason"—for “Rationality has been the postulate and the condition of Christianity and will remain a European legacy.
It was in fact the Christians who held that much of the moral law could be discovered by reason. So when you state that nonbelievers can also behave morally, you are spouting Christian dogma regarding what they called the “natural law,” and saying no more than Paul said in Romans 2.
You also mentioned the Easter prayer that Benedict reinstated “for the ‘enlightenment’ (read ‘conversion') of the Jews.” The actual text of the prayer runs thus:
Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men. (Let us pray. Kneel. Rise.) Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fulness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
It is a prayer for salvation of “all Israel,” not for the conversion of individual Jews. John Paul II's declared that the Old Covenant never has been revoked, so Catholics pray for “all Israel"—the “Israel of the flesh” and the “Israel of the Spirit” [i.e., Jews and Christians]—to become one once again, healing the rift within the family of Israel itself. This does not seem especially intolerant.
But if it seems odd that Catholics wish Jews to be saved, consider the Aleinu of Jewish services, prayed three times daily:
Therefore we put our hope in You, Hashem our God, that we may soon see Your mighty splendor, to remove detestable idolatry from the earth, and false gods will be utterly cut off, to perfect the universe through the Almighty's sovereignty. Then all humanity will call upon Your Name, to turn all the earth's wicked toward You. All the world's inhabitants will recognize and know that to You every knee should bend, every tongue should swear.Before You, Hashem, our God, they will bend every knee and cast themselves down and to the glory of Your Name they will render homage, and they will all accept upon themselves the yoke of Your kingship that You may reign over them soon and eternally. For the kingdom is Yours and You will reign for all eternity in glory as it is written in your Torah: Hashem shall reign for all eternity.And it is said: Hashem will be King over all the world—on that day Hashem will be One and His Name will be One.
This says essentially the same thing. Nothing wrong with Jews hoping that all people are saved, either.
The Crusades were not about imposing any beliefs on the Muslims; and the whole “cuius regio, eius religio” thing was actually an Age of Reason notion. But entire books could be and have been written about them, and this letter has already gone on too long.
Mike Flynn
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You're quite right that religious tolerance and moral relativism aren't quite the same and don't always go together, and that there's more to what the pontiff said than I quoted. (I especially like, and endorse, the part about the importance of a faith that does not follow fashions.) However, my object was not to critique that or any other speech of his, or the man who gave those speeches. My topic was the rather widespread thought expressed in the sentence I quoted, regardless of who holds it or in what context—and his was the most recent published statement of it I'd seen.
I agree that denying that there is any such thing as truth would lead logically to the death of science—but I still don't think I've met many people who actually make such a denial (hence my “straw man” comment). Part of the problem is that “moral relativism” is such a slippery concept and the term is used very differently by different people. If it's taken to mean “Whatever I choose to believe is right,” as it sometimes seems to be, that's hard to defend. If instead it means that different rules are valid in different circumstances, that's hard to deny, unless you define your rules very broadly, with lots of corollaries and contingency clauses to cover all possible eventualities. For a prosaic example: “Traffic must stop at all intersections” is valid in a town where all intersections have four-way stops, but could cause a lot of mayhem if followed in a town where some intersections have those, others have two-way stops, others have “push-to-cross” buttons, and still others have traffic lights. You can write a rule that covers all those cases, but it's big and unwieldy: it's called the traffic code (and you still have to decide what to do in an emergency where somebody else violates it!).
Nothing wrong with anybody hoping for all people to be saved. What bothers me about both those prayers is that both wish not only for other people's salvation, but specifically for their achieving it by “becoming like me.” Sure sounds like conversion to me, whether or not they advocate proactive efforts to make that happen.
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Dr. Schmidt,
I have just finished Part II of “Wake” and continue to find it the best I have ever read. Robert Sawyer has been my favorite writer ever since “Hominids” and this one delights me even more. I can hardly wait until your next issue, particularly with your odd 35-day spacing. For the first time ever, I went back and re-read both parts, which added to my appreciation of his skills.
The serial is pleasing on four levels: One, it is a crackling good story. Two, he has kept four separate threads moving along (which we hope will coalesce at the end.) Three, the number of interesting references he uses is astonishing. And four, he has introduced the exciting new concept of an entity developing within the Web. What more could you ask from a science fiction story?
I hope you will tell Mr. Sawyer how much I am enjoying it.
I just noticed that your 13.5 % increase in page size has resulted in a 22 % reduction in the number of pages. Comparing word count was not practical, but I was pleased to detect a slight increase in font size, which is a benefit to my tired old eyes.
Regards,
Bob Stanton
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Since each page now has about 17% more words, the overall reduction in content of an issue is much less than 22%.
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Dear Stan,
I've been reading Astounding/Analog for more than 50 years.
In the past several years, many technical errors have appeared in the stories. I concede that it's hard to catch all of them due to the limited time and staff you have available.
However, your editorial in the December 2008 had one that surprised me when you referred to “Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.” The title “Cardinal” is attached to the last name, not the first so that the name should be “Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger” as with John Cardinal Kroll.
Just because many people use the title incorrectly doesn't make it correct.
It's the same as when improperly referring to Alfred Lord Tennyson as Lord Alfred Tennyson.
In any case, I enjoy reading the magazine.
Gene Pallat
Euclid, OH
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Dear Stanley,
On receiving December's Analog, I went back November's to read “Wake,” part I, but paused to re-read your “Great Rush Forward.” Before rushing forward to “Wake,” I want to answer your Hat Question. It is related to the somewhat more obscure Clocks-on-Socks Question: British public school boys were once forbidden to wear socks with clocks, which they were expected to know is an ornamental design at the ankle. Nowadays that question doesn't arise: they are simply told to wear plain socks of a specific color, as are troops in the military, and for the same reason: hats or socks, uniforms spell uniformity. Another way of putting it is that coverings don't just cover: they also send signals. The wearing of a hat indoors, the banning of which you thought bizarre, once signaled that the wearer was armed (and dangerous); it still does in the US Armed Forces.
“Those service members in a duty status and wearing side arms or a pistol belt may only remove headgear indoors when entering dining, medical or FOD hazard areas or where religious services are being conducted.”
—US Navy General Uniform Regulations 1101.4, Headgear: c. Indoor Wear.
But, ever since civilization began, the great rush forward has left in the dust lessons of the past, so we are condemned to learn them all over again.
Now, on to see what I can learn in “Wake.”
R. Lee Montgomery,
T.Tadthong A.Meuang Yasothon,
Thailand
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The “Hat Question” really has two parts; I was mainly concerned with one and you've addressed the other. Part 1 is: Why do individual men and boys remove their hats indoors? The answer, as I said, is because the “phantom tyrant” tells them to. Part 2, for which you've provided one of several answers I've heard, is: Why does the phantom tyrant tell them to do that? The answers, several of which probably have at least some basis in fact, are historically interesting, but peripheral to my observation that people do things because “everyone says I must” when in fact few if any individuals comprising “everybody” may hold that belief.
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Dear Dr. Schmidt:
In perusing an alpha-by-title list of all the stories published in Analog during the Schmidt Era (an excellent era, for the most part), I have noticed a surprising number of duplicate titles. That is, two identically titled stories by two different writers, published sometimes as little as two years apart. (I have attached a complete list.) You have even bought and printed three different stories entitled “Chrysalis". No law against it, of course, but I think this practice inevitably causes some confusion and should be avoided if possible. This might be accomplished by encouraging a writer to try for another title if his story that you intend to buy has a title identical to one already used.
Other than that, no particular complaints. The slightly larger page format is a welcome reversal of the “shrinking” trend that has afflicted SF magazines since the late 1940s. Keep up the good work.
Marc Russell
Los Angeles CA
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In some cases we will make such a suggestion, but it's not a very high priority. Title plus author should almost always be enough to uniquely identify a story. Besides, we've published about 2,000 stories since I've been here, so I don't always remember a duplication.
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Reader's Department: IN TIMES TO COME
Adam-Troy Castro is back in our May issue with “Among the Tchi,” a sneaky bit of satire that I suspect will ring a bell with lots of readers. It has a great variety of company, with stories by Tom Ligon, Alexis Glynn Latner, Robert R. Chase, Shane Tourtellotte, and Steven Gould featuring an invigorating mix of adventure, alien worlds, and a touch of romance, among other things—always including, above all, imagination and thought-provoking entertainment.
Richard A. Lovett's science fact article has a very long title, beginning with “Geology, Geohistory, and ‘Psychohistory,'” but the essence of it is the perennial debate between “uniformitarians” and “catastrophists": scholars who see history in terms of broad, long-term trends and those who see it in terms of sudden pivotal events. As usual, such a dichotomy is an oversimplification, and the truth is more like this....
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Reader's Department: UPCOMING EVENTS
by Anthony Lewis
24-26 April 2009
Odyssey Con 9: Year of the Cow (Madison area SF conference) at Radisson Hotel, Madison, WI. Guests of Honor: Emma Bull and Tobias Buckell; Fan Guest of Honor: Georgie Schnobrich. Membership: $35 [$25 student] until 10 April 2009; $45 [$35 student] at the door. Info: www.oddcon.com; oddcon9@oddcon.com; (608) 772-4455; Odyssey Con, PO Box 7114, Madison, WI 53707
30 April-3 May 2009
2009 Eaton Science Fiction Conference (Academic SF conference) at University of California, Riverside. Theme: Extraordinary Voyages: Jules Verne and Beyond. Presentation of the Second Eaton Lifetime Achievement Award to Frederik Pohl. Membership: $125 for 3 days, $55/day, $25 student-checks payable to UC Regents. Info: eatonconference.ucr. edu/; eatonconference@ucr.edu; Special Collections, Rivera Library, UC Riverside, PO Box 5900, Riverside, CA 92521-5900, attn: Sarah Allison; (951) 827-3233.
22-24 May 2009
ConQuesT 40 (Kansas City area SF conference) at Hyatt Regency Crown Center, Kansas City, MO. Guest of Honor: John Scalzi; Artist Guest: Oberon Zell; Anime/Media Guest: Jerry Gelb; Fan Guest: Ed deGruy; Toastmaster: Ellen Datlow. Membership: $30 until 1 January 2009; later to be announced. Info: www.conquestkc.org/; ConQuesT 40, P.O. Box 36212, Kansas City, MO 64171
22-24 May 2009
OASIS 22 (Orlando area SF conference) at Sheraton Orlando Downtown, Orlando, FL. Writer Guest of Honor: Peter David; Special Guest Writer: John Ringo; Editor Guest of Honor: Toni Weisskopf; Artist Guest of Honor: Johnny Atomic. Membership: $35 until 30 April 2009, $40 at the door. Info: www.oasfis.org/oasis; OASFiS, PO Box 592905, Orlando, FL 32859-2905.
5-7 June 2009
SOONERCON 2009 (Oklahoma SF conference) at Oklahoma City, OK. Guests: Eric Flint, Selina Rosen; Artist Guest of Honor: Brad Foster. Info: www.soonercon.info; info@soonercon.com; SoonerCon, c/o Atomic Comics, 6006 S Western, Oklahoma City, OK 73139, (405) 632-2848.
6-10 August 2009
ANTICIPATION (67th World Science Fiction Convention) at Palais des congres de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Guests of Honor: Neil Gaiman, Elisabeth Vonarburg; Fan Guest of Honor: Taral Wayne; Editor Guest of Honor: David G. Hartwell; Publisher Guest of Honor: Tom Doherty; MC: Julie Czerneda. Membership: until 31 December 2008 (see website for latest details): CAD/AUD 215, USD 190 GBP 110; EUR 130; JPY 23000; supporting membership CAD/AUD 55; USD 50; GBP 25; EUR 35; JPY 6000. This is the SF universe's annual get-together. Professionals and readers from all over the world will be in attendance. Talks, panels, films, fancy dress competition—the works. Nominate and vote for the Hugos. Info: www.anticipationsf.ca/English/ Home. C.P. 105, Succursale NDG, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4A 3P4
4-7 September 2009
North America Discworld Convention (conference dedicated to Terry Prachett's Discworld books) at The Tempe Mission Palms Hotel, Tempe, AZ. Guest of Honor: Terry Prachett; Other guests: Esther Friesner, Diane Duane, Peter Morwood. Info: www.nadwcon.org, info@nadwcon.org, (480) 945-6890, North American Discworld Convention 2009, c/o Leprecon, Inc., P.O. Box 26665, Tempe, AZ 85285.
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