Читать книгу The Book of the Die - Luke Rhinehart - Страница 6

What we think we know, we often come to believe is false. Having tiptoed from one error to another for half a lifetime, some of us come to feel that we are on firm ground only when we recognize that we are standing on quicksand. We do not know: of that alone are we sometimes sure.

We humans are not alone in our uncertainty. We must imagine that the Gods, yes even the Gods, suffer as we do from not knowing their origin, their powers, the extent of their freedom or fatedness. Just as we occasionally brood about whether we have created or been created by the Gods, so each God comes sooner or later to consider His own origin. Is He Himself the Supreme Creator, or is He only a creation of another God? Or, worst of all, is He merely a creation of the very human beings which He usually believes He Himself has created? We may imagine that the Gods, like us, must struggle to find their place in creation, each hoping that He Himself is the very Centre, but knowing that the evidence, unfortunately, points everywhere. It’s not always easy being a God.

This note is being written because it is the ignorance of the Gods which explains to us the otherwise inexplicable adventures of Whim. Few any longer deny that Whim embodies a Force beyond that of most humans. His life has become a mystery primarily because men have assumed that their God knows the Ultimate Truth and knows what He wishes to communicate to mankind. The idea that a God could visit human beings in order to learn from them is one most humans are not willing to consider.

We, however, standing firmly on our quicksand, make no claims to having the final truth about Whim. We know that he was born, lived and (perhaps) died. We know that an incredible number of events difficult to explain – accidents, coincidences, miracles, we must each choose our own word – followed him like seagulls after a garbage ship.

Parables about his life seeking for Ultimate Truth and then trying to help others who seek for it are part of The Book of the Die. This Prologue in Heaven explains Whim’s appearance in our realm.