{"id":3352,"date":"2015-05-06T19:34:21","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T00:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/?p=3352"},"modified":"2015-05-06T21:17:34","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T02:17:34","slug":"what-is-the-measure-of-a-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/2015\/05\/06\/what-is-the-measure-of-a-god\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the measure of a god?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been a sci-fi fan for as long as anyone\u00a0can remember, but it is probably a sign of my advancing age that I seem to enjoy rewatching old favorites at least as much as new series these days. And at the top of my watch\u00a0list is a little show called <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stargate_SG-1\" target=\"_blank\">Stargate SG-1<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3355\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3355\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/files\/2015\/05\/IMG_20150506_190453_rewind.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3355\" src=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/files\/2015\/05\/IMG_20150506_190453_rewind-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Gaze upon my complete boxed set, ye mortals, and despair\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/files\/2015\/05\/IMG_20150506_190453_rewind-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/files\/2015\/05\/IMG_20150506_190453_rewind-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/files\/2015\/05\/IMG_20150506_190453_rewind-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/files\/2015\/05\/IMG_20150506_190453_rewind-50x50.jpg 50w, https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/files\/2015\/05\/IMG_20150506_190453_rewind.jpg 1413w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3355\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gaze upon my complete boxed set and despair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SG-1 may well be the only television show founded on the idea that humanity must someday\u00a0rise up and destroy the gods. This is such a recurring motif in the show that after\u00a0the protagonists finally defeated the gods known as <em>Goa&#8217;uld<\/em>\u00a0(which the franchise inherited from the original <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stargate_%28film%29\" target=\"_blank\">feature film)<\/a>\u00a0the writers invented new and frightfully more powerful deities called <em>Ori<\/em> which posed much more of an intergalactic threat. (Add to this, if you like, that the ancient and godlike\u00a0enemies of the\u00a0Ori have noninterference with humankind\u00a0among their prime virtues.)<\/p>\n<p>If there is any single\u00a0moment that sums up why I will always love this show, it is the speech in which Teal&#8217;c explains to Gerak why no amount of raw power can ever make someone worthy of worship. I happened across it on the YouTube today, so here you go:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Stargate SG1 s09e11 The Fourth Horseman Part.2\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PgFdeg7hDYM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Gerak<\/strong>: You were not the one who was chosen. You did not witness the wonders I beheld.<br \/>\n<b><br \/>\nTeal&#8217;c<\/b>: Did they raise the dead? Heal the sick and wounded? Destroy their enemy with but a wave of their hand?<br \/>\n<b><br \/>\nGerak<\/b>: The Goa&#8217;uld deceived us. The Ori&#8217;s powers are pure.<br \/>\n<b><br \/>\nTeal&#8217;c<\/b>: And what is the measure of a god, Gerak? Is it the scope of their power, or how they choose to wield that power? Would a god who is prepared to lead us on the path of enlightenment so contradict this divine benevolence by destroying all those who refuse to believe in him?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If this\u00a0isn&#8217;t a subversive injection\u00a0of pure freethought into our popular culture, then I really don&#8217;t know what\u00a0would count. It is worth noting that the criticism levied at the Ori here works just as well for\u00a0the god of the Torah, the\u00a0Bible, and the Quran. Better, in fact, for the Ori only destroy\u00a0people once, rather than torturing them forever\u00a0in the hereafter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been a sci-fi fan for as long as anyone\u00a0can remember, but it is probably a sign of my advancing&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":3308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheism","category-freethought-in-popular-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}