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Suppose I were to tell you about a neighbour of mine. (I should point out in the interests of full disclosure that while I may indeed have such a neighbour, I'm not privileged to know her personally. So this is, in fact, a work of fiction on my part.)
On Mondays, I would say, she makes cakes for a bake sale in aid of cancer research. On Tuesdays she does shopping for old and housebound people. On Wednesdays she visits blind people and reads to them. On Thursdays she helps out at a school for children with learning disabilities. On Fridays she does duty at a shelter for the homeless. Saturdays she spends at home, but she's on call for the Samaritans. You see the trend shaping up here.
And then I mention that on Sundays she goes to church.
Apparently you would be right to be incensed and outraged at me for misleading you, for cheating you, for making you think I was telling a story about a good, kind and charitable person. You would be right to expect that I should make it clear from the outset that this person has no free will and only does what she does because her God tells her to, because that somehow changes the nature of everything I've told you beforehand. You would be right to assume that because I mentioned church, the story was in fact horrible subversive Christian propaganda masquerading as harmless fiction.
And if I were to mention that it seemed to me that the fact that the mention of God was more important to you than everything that had gone before might be taken as indicating that God was in some ways at least as important to you as to my neighbour, if not more so...well, I would be completely wrong, wouldn't I?
(Yes, I've encountered a situation somewhat akin to this, and it bugged me so much I had to post about it. Not linking to the original post. Believe I've been honest in my retelling or not, as you wish.)
On Mondays, I would say, she makes cakes for a bake sale in aid of cancer research. On Tuesdays she does shopping for old and housebound people. On Wednesdays she visits blind people and reads to them. On Thursdays she helps out at a school for children with learning disabilities. On Fridays she does duty at a shelter for the homeless. Saturdays she spends at home, but she's on call for the Samaritans. You see the trend shaping up here.
And then I mention that on Sundays she goes to church.
Apparently you would be right to be incensed and outraged at me for misleading you, for cheating you, for making you think I was telling a story about a good, kind and charitable person. You would be right to expect that I should make it clear from the outset that this person has no free will and only does what she does because her God tells her to, because that somehow changes the nature of everything I've told you beforehand. You would be right to assume that because I mentioned church, the story was in fact horrible subversive Christian propaganda masquerading as harmless fiction.
And if I were to mention that it seemed to me that the fact that the mention of God was more important to you than everything that had gone before might be taken as indicating that God was in some ways at least as important to you as to my neighbour, if not more so...well, I would be completely wrong, wouldn't I?
(Yes, I've encountered a situation somewhat akin to this, and it bugged me so much I had to post about it. Not linking to the original post. Believe I've been honest in my retelling or not, as you wish.)