The variability of gods

[TMA_1]

Some might say this needs to go to the politics and religion thread. I say no to that for a few reasons.

One, this post will deal largely with Paul, Alia, Ghanima, and Leto II.

Two, though the prp board is much better than it has been, I dont want this post ruined by argument.

In the Dune universe, Paul was almost deified, looked upon as a messanger, and if not that, then even an incarnation of a higher order. All of this was because he could be in many places at once. Notice something important though, he could NOT be in all places at once. He was not omnipresent. He had limitations because as one views a hill from a dale, you cannot percieve beyond your bounds no matter how powerful you are. Paul discribed time as a sea of sorts. Waves and fluctuations made it impossible at times to see all futures. Paul also missed something very important. He was stuck on the idea that time was linear, much like the bene gesserit thought. This influence may very well have come from his bene gesserit training, and the lack of a point in the past to immitate like Leto the Second could do. Through all of this though, mankind elevated him and came up with largely false stories that turned to legend.

When Leto and Ghanima came, they saw things in a larger picture than Paul. They also could see Paul's faults and mistakes, correcting them as they went along. Once Leto took the path to enlightenment so to speak, he went further than paul because of this. So when finally he took the water of life, he could see much deeper than Paul. This also has to do with the further progression of genetic advancement by paul mating with a suprisingly powerful genetic specemine, Chani.

When finally Leto took the sandtrout suit, he went even farther beyond, so far that even paul might not fully understand the powers that leto recieved. Ofcourse these powers were a curse as well as a gift. But because sandworms are sandtrout, and the sandtrout's waste is an unrefined spice product, Leto was literally drentched in the stuff. Becoming a sandtrout-filled body enabled the waste of the sandtrout to constantly fill his body with the normally toxic melange.

This kind of thing gave power to leto beyond reckoning. This is why Leto was truly deified, and became a truly worshipped god.

This brings up the point though, what is a god? There are many gods that have existed, and real ones at that. Humans that ordered others to worship him or her. Look at certain emperors and leaders that demanded worship, they themselves were small g gods because they had a worship base. A small g god can be anything. Even the bible calls satan the god of this earth, because satan is worshipped by many, and is a being of superior pwoer to all other creation. Still though there is a rift between a god and a God.

There is a difference between being many places at once, and being in all places at once, undeminished by it. There are many places where the atreides paul and leto admit their human natures, and say they arent Gods. But there is a sort of silent reverance,a nd even open statements at times that seem to point to a Big g God.

What is a god though? and what makes leto and paul so unsure of their own godliness? could it be that they understand that they are just puppets, and could this point to an idea that they undrestand that there is a difference between the small g god, and the large go God?

what do you guys think?

[Andrew]

Well, I'm just going to take some points from my essay, as I know that best, and don't have time to go through the articles (got exams).

LetoII might not see himself as a God, but THE religion.

"A martyr they can control." is what the priesthood wanted to accomplish by killing Paul and overthrowing Paul's government (O'Reilly 151).

Leto II demonstrates that "depending upon gods for salvation" is not the way for humans to be and "thereby to force humans to rely upon their own abilities." (McLean 150).

http://www.dune2k.com/?page=community-articles&show=dunepoliticsreligion and yes there are some mistakes in it.