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[StarryNight]

[UPDATE] Quirky Acuity June 12th - Adventures Part II

[toongoon]

Yet another carrot on the stick....

[POTUS]

[tanner]

so kurt has been and joined and been babtised -- dodgy move IMO

given?? oh err -- Gyvann

[Mikeyj]

[Leeravitz]

I'm still trying to work out what this may (or may not) indicate to us about the Recon's actual beliefs. Notice, for instance, that they believe in initial (seemingly Cube derived) 'construction', so is Reconstruction some kind of eschatological term? Do they expect to utilise the power of the Cube to literally rebuild society from the bottom up? Does this imply that the arrival of the Cube had something important to do with developing the Perplexian society that flourishes today? It's starting to sound like some kind of matter converter or molecular reassembler to me now!

In addition, it seems important that the antique key that's been stolen gives out a signal...even if it is little more than a glorified telephone, I guess this helps confirm the importance of electromagnetic utilisation within Perplexian technology for at least the past forty years, as we've sometimes hypothesised might have been the case.

I have to say that this is a bit more like it! Slow moving, yes, but now we've got the promise of the files yielding something, and I appreciate the fact that this post appears to be informative without giving away anything overt. What's great about it is that these sorts of tacit hints are just what we want: bits to piece together so that we can gradually tease out the likelihood of how the Cube functions, what the Recons believe in etc. Are you taking notice, Mind Candy?? More of this stuff, please. It's what I got into the game in the first place for.

[Mikeyj]

[Leeravitz]

I agree it's odd...unless there's some kind of weird religious Reconstructionist propensity to see the Cube's *purpose* as relocating at regular intervals - as if they're thinking ' It has done its wondrous work here, now it must go onwards to spread its Ultimate Cubiness elsewhere.'

That reminds a bit of the Ethiopian traditions that surround what happened to the Ark of the Covenant (supposedly) - it sort of got fed up with the ancient Jews, and decamped to the Ethiopians because it felt it was needed amongst them now. It had a little assistance from King Solomon's Ethiopic son by the Queen of Sheba as well, of course. It's not worth getting into

Anyhow...

I can't work out whether or not Reconstructionism is a brilliant hybrid theology that has been imagined in loving detail by a keen expert on religion, or whether it simply smacks of having been introduced by someone on the MC staff who has no idea at all about how a real religion functions. This is peculiar. Thus far, I think we have seen a number of contradictory implications as to what Reconstructionism may embody...:

1. It has elements of standard Western monotheism. It's been pointed out, that in Earth terms, at least, there does exist a form of 'Reconstruction Theology', which is particularly associated with redefinings of Christianity. In characters like Gyvann, we have something of the mantle of the saints and/or prophets. Equally, the way the Cube is worshipped as some kind of supreme artefact might imply that it approximates to a single Godhead.

2. The Reconstructionists also have something of the splinter group cult about them. They are reminiscent of many different associations of primitivist, fundamentalist groupings of this sort. They operate out of their own compounds (something like Survivalist sects, like the Branch Davidians), they shun modern tech (which is Amish like etc.). It seems to also be the case that they may well be willing to usher in a 'cleansing' of the corrupt society around them (Reconstruction?) which is reminiscent of groups like Aum Supreme Truth.

3. They appear to accept astrology as a viable system of prognostication, if their password encodings are anything to go by. This is distinctly non - monotheist, but reminiscent of ancient 'pagan' beliefs etc.

4. They speak of the influence of the Cube in possibly Monist terms - as if its influence suffuses all Creation 'Water is the Holy Light of the Cube'. This may imply some visualisation of the Cube in a distinctly non - Western way, not so much as a Creator *figure*, but as a crystalisation in physical form of some substance that otherwise generates the universe (akin to certain Hindu, Taoist etc. notions).

It might be guessed that these contradictions relate somehow to what Violet has told us about the Recons being a splinter group from wider groupings of Cube worshippers. Perhaps some elements of these beliefs are held in common by Recons and Cubists alike, but only the Recons ally certain more fundamentalist notions to their interpretation of the Cube's religious significance.

It might, indeed, be possible that some thinkers always associated the Cube with being a physical presence amongst them of something that otherwise remained abstract (I am put in mind of the Pythagorean/Platonic notion that there were, somewhere, such a thing as perfect gemoetric objects, of which mathematical representations on earth were merely imperfect 'echoes'), whilst others (the 'heathen academicians') saw it only as an physical object fit for dissection.

It is possibly also worth recalling that, sometimes, ancient Christians etc. visualised the form of the universe as being cubic (this was partly through a literal interpretation of the idea that the space - time continuum came in the shape of a tabernacle - i.e. it was ark shaped). No odder, perhaps, than the ancient Greek assumption that the Universe was circular, because it was the most 'perfect' of geometric shapes. Of course, in a sense the Greeks were right (as far as we know) because a lot of what goes on in the universe *does* revolve around circles, and you could even argue that there is something inherent in gravitational forces, etc. that conduces to make planets, orbits etc. circular, which is more than you can adduce to support the theory that the universe is cubic. I guess. Unless anyone would like to contradict me on this?? But I am suddenly reminded of the Whipsmart cow with his little E = MC cubed.

And I'm beginning to think I've got off the point, somehow...

[BrianEnigma]

Re: [UPDATE] Quirky Acuity June 12th - Adventures Part II

[toongoon]

Re: [UPDATE] Quirky Acuity June 12th - Adventures Part II