[TML] China Regulates Buddhist Reincarnation

[Richard Aiken]

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:37 +0100 (BST), Megan Robertson <
mcrobertson at cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote:
>
> According to the Bible, those who have the gift of prophecy (as in, one of
> the gifts of the Spirit) are probably more likely to actually manifest it
> as FORTHTELLING rather than FORETELLING - i.e., you say what needs to be
> said, telling it forth, rather than predicting things.


<snip>

Now, this forthtelling may be presenting God's teaching on something new,
> or it may be reiterating something that is already known but appears to be
> being neglected by the faithful. It's basically whatever God wants said at
> the time.


Ah.  So it's a distinction without a difference, in Christianity, because
there's no "official" end to prophecy.  But in Islam, you need to always
cite chapter and verse (or rather surrah) of what the Prophet said.  You
can't ever claim divine inspiration, as that would be prophecy.  Right?

If so, on the face of it, that *should* lead to logical, reasoned debate
rather than fanatical extremes.  All you could possibly disagree about is
the meaning of human words, no matter the Spirit behind them.  But then
again, the history of this list proves that its possible to disagree
violently on canon without ever claiming divine inspiration to support a
particular view. :-)


And as for Traveller... it can always be amusing when the average cynical
> bunch of characters run into someone who really, really believes the
> religion he is peddling.


Yep.  The Serenity rules I'm adapting have an advantage called
"Religiousity."  Your character can impress NPCs with his authority, both
directly and by making plot points spent on such efforts more effective.  A
second version - apparently used by many groups - adds the ability to use
the character's Willpower Attribute in place of any other Attribute for one
roll per session, with the same increase to plot point utility.  In either
case, the "religion" concerned doesn't have to be a church.  It can be any
system of belief, so you can mimic The Operative from the Serenity movie,
with his belief in the Parliament's program to better humanity.  For my
game, I'm calling the basic version "Cleric" and the Willpower version
"Faith" . . . with one "Faith" being "The Imperium is the best possible form
of interstellar government and every world should join."

 If you have a party who take passengers, giving
> them a prophet and his entourage as passengers can be really amusing.
> Perhaps he starts to make pronouncements about the characters: things he
> really could have no way of knowing about them (you need to be the sort of
> GM who normally plays very fair to get away with this!), or predicting
> something which comes to pass, like the precise minute you come out of
> Jump.


Isn't there a jump religion in canon?  IIRC, Mileau 0 has a skit featuring
them.  They're written as wild-eyed loonies.  Which would make it especially
appropriate to give them a New Messiah who's a very reasonable sort . . .
but happens to be a powerful psionic.

If they begin to moderate their actions according to what he says, you can
> then have a bit of fun when what he directs them to do conflicts with what
> is acceptable on the planet they have just landed on...


And there's none more fanatical that a recent convert . . .

Mexal.
>
> Disclaimer: I am a born again Christian and do have the gift of prophecy.


<I'm fairly sure this disclaimer is a joke, but not sure enough to risk
making Mexal angry with an . . . appropriate . . . reply.>

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein