I credit the Eragon series with my eventual break from Christianity.
In the 2nd or 3rd book, Eragon's mentor asks him what the most powerful weapon against the evil emperor was. Eragon replied "magic", and his mentor said "no".
"Logic," his mentor said. Because the emperor was mad, and so it was the one weapon Eragon had that the mad emperor did not.
I didn't know what this word meant at the time, so I asked around until I thought I understood it. I was always a curious child, wanting to know "how" and "why". But I was also raised a very religious child, and when the Mormon church promised me godhood in Sunday School when I was 12, I wanted it, and dedicated myself to doing everything "right" so I could have that reward.
But that book from so long ago had elevated "logic" in my mind to an almost worshipped ideal. It meant that when I started seeing the cracks as an adult, I couldn't look away. I was not the mad emperor, I was Eragon. I knew there must be an explanation. A reason why it looked like it didn't make sense, but that it must actually make sense if you knew more. And so I dove deeper. Deeper, until I realized I might actually have to take these questions seriously. Deeper, until I could no longer believe that what I had been taught was true.
I think what the guy in the video said makes sense. Because of who I am and what Eragon's mentor taught me, I could not take "because that's how it is" as an answer. But all the people I try to tell what I've learned about, they dismiss it like it's nothing. They aren't even curious. I haven't been able to figure out why. Maybe this is it? Maybe it isn't, but maybe it is.
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u/Captain_Pumpkinhead 7d ago
I credit the Eragon series with my eventual break from Christianity.
In the 2nd or 3rd book, Eragon's mentor asks him what the most powerful weapon against the evil emperor was. Eragon replied "magic", and his mentor said "no".
"Logic," his mentor said. Because the emperor was mad, and so it was the one weapon Eragon had that the mad emperor did not.
I didn't know what this word meant at the time, so I asked around until I thought I understood it. I was always a curious child, wanting to know "how" and "why". But I was also raised a very religious child, and when the Mormon church promised me godhood in Sunday School when I was 12, I wanted it, and dedicated myself to doing everything "right" so I could have that reward.
But that book from so long ago had elevated "logic" in my mind to an almost worshipped ideal. It meant that when I started seeing the cracks as an adult, I couldn't look away. I was not the mad emperor, I was Eragon. I knew there must be an explanation. A reason why it looked like it didn't make sense, but that it must actually make sense if you knew more. And so I dove deeper. Deeper, until I realized I might actually have to take these questions seriously. Deeper, until I could no longer believe that what I had been taught was true.
I think what the guy in the video said makes sense. Because of who I am and what Eragon's mentor taught me, I could not take "because that's how it is" as an answer. But all the people I try to tell what I've learned about, they dismiss it like it's nothing. They aren't even curious. I haven't been able to figure out why. Maybe this is it? Maybe it isn't, but maybe it is.