Battlestar Galactica getting rebooted (again) for NBS's streaming service
- Thread starter StCoop
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Again, the series doesn’t commit to them being right, but only manipulates events in ways that characters interpret mostly in religious terms, with hints of an alternate interpretation that could be explored in a different kind of show.
While I found the ending to be quite satisfactory it's always surprised me how many people complain about it all coming down to "god did it" rather than some sci-fi explanation. Especially when there's plenty of room for interpretation. After all "it doesn't like to be called that [god]". So maybe it isn't. Maybe its some super advanced alien species manipulating events through high level technology that's advanced enough to be considered magic by us humans. After all "any sufficiently advanced technology ..." (Arthur C. Clarke).
Not only that but if this God is so powerful why are Head 6 and Baltar wondering if we modern humans are going to make the same mistakes. Shouldn't they already know? I think the God tries to help humans in many ways like angels and visions but humans have free will and are not really connected to any destiny. God loves humans so much it keeps giving humans chance after chance to break their self destrutive cycle and we keep failing. This is where that,this has happened before and will again makes sense. Jason
I just interpreted that as meaning God had another, preferred name. After all, even the Judeo-Christian God has a name other than "God."
To me, if God is just a very advanced species, he's still God. Any species that can influence the survival of an entire species by sending them angels and manipulating events is so similar to God that it's just God. And that's a fine enough story, but the same story can be told in a more humanist way and be even more compelling.
We could do that (more or less) to a "lesser" species, does that make us God?
Yes
^ It could be viewed that way...
Let's assume we do "play God" and uplift another species to sapience. They know someone did it, though they may not know exactly who/why etc... They will most likely think of us as "God" from their point of view.
(So, what I said is true. From a certain point of view... Obi Wan Kenobi)
Let's assume we do "play God" and uplift another species to sapience. They know someone did it, though they may not know exactly who/why etc... They will most likely think of us as "God" from their point of view.
(So, what I said is true. From a certain point of view... Obi Wan Kenobi)
Unless we tell said species (or leave behind hard evidence that they can read/see/verify), how would such an uplifted species KNOW we did it? Sans any evidence, they could believe they just evolved naturally to sapience/sentience,
What if we talk to random people, but only over the course of a few years and we have them write a book about it? I think that would make us God, right?
Why? God is supernatural, whereas our "feats" would be performed using science. And we can't do a lot of stuff God can supposedly do. Would we be lesser gods, or would we just redefine what it means to be a god?
Let Picard answer this one:
NURIA: That is my home?
PICARD: Seen from far, far above.
NURIA: Yet we do not fall. I never imagined I would see the clouds from the other side. Your powers are truly boundless.
PICARD: Nuria, your people live in huts. Was it always so?
NURIA: No. We have found remnants of tools in caves. Our ancestors must have lived there.
PICARD: So why do you now live in huts?
NURIA: Huts are better. Caves are dark and wet.
PICARD: If huts are better, why did you once live in caves?
NURIA: The most reasonable explanation would be that at one time we didn't know how to make huts.
PICARD: Just as at one time you did not know how to weave cloth, how to make a bow.
NURIA: That would be reasonable.
PICARD: Someone invented a hut. Someone invented a bow, who taught others, who taught their children, who built a stronger hut, built a better bow, who taught their children. Now, Nuria, suppose one of your cave dwelling ancestors could see you as you are today. What would she think?
NURIA: I don't know.
PICARD: Put yourself in her place. You see, she cannot kill a hornbuck at a great distance. You can. You have a power she lacks.
NURIA: Only because I have a bow.
PICARD: She's never seen a bow. It doesn't exist in her world. To you, it's a simple tool. To her, it's magic.
NURIA: I suppose she might think so.
PICARD: Now, how would she react to you?
NURIA: I think she would fear me.
PICARD: Just as you fear me.
NURIA: I do not fear you any longer.
PICARD: Good. That's good. You see, my people once lived in caves. And then we learned to build huts and, in time, to build ships like this one. NURIA: Perhaps one day, my people will travel above the skies.
PICARD: Of that, I have absolutely no doubt.
This is getting blasphemous for the believers, and I apologize, but why does God need to be supernatural? It's just as possible that we just don't understand what he is yet. Or maybe He is so advanced that we will never understand.
Well that's kind of my point. If real, God would be supernatural because we can't explain his powers using science, whereas we can explain the science behind us influencing the survival of another species. I'm confused as to why the latter act alone would ostensibly make us gods.
It may be that I'm too stupid to grasp what you're getting at, and if that's the case I apologize...but I can only learn by asking.
It may be that I'm too stupid to grasp what you're getting at, and if that's the case I apologize...but I can only learn by asking.
We're all too stupid to grasp it. We're just hairless monkeys, barely out of the caves ourselves. The science of creating universes is a bit outside our wheelhouse, at present. If there is a Supreme Being, we have a LONG way to go before we grasp its true Nature, if we ever make it that far. Anyone who is arrogant enough to proudly boast "I know God" is either a bald-faced liar looking for money or has had a little too much of the LDS (double meaning fully intended here).
Clarke's third law.
As Myk indicates above, I think we're going for the Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology would be Indistinguishable from Magic thing. We can scientifically explain way we use advance technologies to influence an alien species, but to that less developed species, our science looks like magic, and we would come of as gods or at least supernatural beings to their way of thinking.Well that's kind of my point. If real, God would be supernatural because we can't explain his powers using science, whereas we can explain the science behind us influencing the survival of another species. I'm confused as to why the latter act alone would ostensibly make us gods.
It may be that I'm too stupid to grasp what you're getting at, and if that's the case I apologize...but I can only learn by asking.
My question though, was would it make us God? Isn't there a difference between "being God" and "appear as gods"? If the only feat needed to pass the test is the ability to influence another species, we really should have declared ourselves gods a long time ago. Or maybe we did.
And if that's the case, then why would anyone want a series that has nothing to do with gods? What point is a BSG show without people in it?
And if that's the case, then why would anyone want a series that has nothing to do with gods? What point is a BSG show without people in it?
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