Comments | pfarley: Robert Anton Wilson: January 18, 1932

pfarley

Robert Anton Wilson: January 18, 1932 - January 11, 2007

Jan 11, 2007 23:09

"A worse idea, which has terrified millions, claims that some of us will go to a place called Hell, where we will suffer eternal torture. This does not scare me because, when I try to imagine a Mind behind this universe, I cannot conceive that Mind, usually called 'God,' as totally mad.... The idea that the Mind of Creation (if such exists) wants ( Read more... )

Comments 21

digitalcmpnents January 12 2007, 09:07:08 UTC

X-Posted elsewhere, but I thought of you first, Patrick, when I started writing this earlier this evening when I was blocks away from St. John's Lodge #1 in NYC and first got the news. Sad day ( ... )

digitalcmpnents January 12 2007, 09:09:44 UTC

Ran long, had to split it.... ~nyc ( ... )

RIP Robert Anton Wilson Part 3 digitalcmpnents January 12 2007, 09:10:16 UTC

What any of this means, I really don't have a clue, but I do know that ( ... )

orsolyakavot July 16 2008, 23:24:48 UTC

I don't have any evidence that a God was involved, but I don't see how it could just "happen". Of course it's possible, and I'm not going to make any claims when I don't have any evidence.

sixteenbynine January 12 2007, 13:23:26 UTC

I don't know if I liked Robert Anton Wilson or not. But I can't deny the man had an influence on me when I was younger, if only to compel me to embrace atheism and skepticism later on. He was an irritant, but I don't think he would have wanted anything any other way.

I hope his estate gets at least some chump change from the new Jim Carrey movie. If they didn't, someone's getting boned.

tiffanynowyh July 16 2008, 04:21:11 UTC

Probably not, but old athiests like me can hope. Qz65m0 June 8th, pm Insidious ignorance once more rules the day.

wuggly_ump January 12 2007, 15:38:39 UTC

What a wonderful quote. He does have a point. Thank you for posting!

greyaenigma January 12 2007, 16:33:14 UTC

I wrote "He" instead of the fashionable "He or She" because only male Gods appear to have invented Hells. I can't think of a single Goddess who ever created a Hell for people who displeased Her

Hmm. Well, there was the Norse goddess that I think gave us the English word of "hell".

RAW, specifically Illuminatus! certainly did have a strong influence on me back in my college days.

zwol January 12 2007, 19:30:38 UTC

Hel, goddess of the dead, and her hall at the edge of Niflheim, also called Hel.

It wasn't a place of torment, though. Everyone who wasn't chosen to go to Valhalla went there, and it was thought to be cold and boring and generally unpleasant, but nobody was being punished. Furthermore, RAW specifies "created", which Hel did not do; the cosmos was set up by Odin, Vili, and Ve, all of whom were male. Hel got stuck with being goddess of the dead because she was half-giant, Loki's daughter, and not pleasing to look at (being that half of her body was dead - ya rly). The Aesir didn't want her around so they gave her a crummy, but necessary, job out in the middle of nowhere.

greyaenigma January 12 2007, 19:42:05 UTC

Yep, that's who I meant.

juniper200 January 12 2007, 18:29:57 UTC

You knew him somewhat, didn't you? I'm sorry for your loss, and the loss to the world. Illuminatus! contributed to one of the most fantastic fever dreams of my life a few years back.