Hey Brutha, can you spare a belief?: Terry Pratchett's take on religion in Discworld

My belief compass spins on the following cultural cosmic points: personal experience, Michaelangelo's vision of the Creative Spark (to be expounded on in a future post on "The Agony and the Ecstasy"), resilient mental residue of parental/professional mentors' advice, and Terry Pratchett's take on faith. On paper, I'm religiously scattered: Catholic school, fundamentalist Christian Sundays, Buddhist maxims, and Oprah. In my heart, it's just the good ole Golden Rule: do unto others...well, you get the drift. Don't tase me, bro and all that jazz.

Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods" was my mind's window into religions explained, set in the seemingly ridiculous scenario of a world carried on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant turtle swimming through space. This is Discworld, the finest, craziest fantasy setting since C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.

"In a chaotic universe there are too many things to go wrong."

Brutha, a devout Omnian (take one part fundamentalist Christian, one part Tibetan monk), has a prodigious memory. He remembers scripture word for word, with all their connotations.

He also remembers tortoises aren't supposed to talk.

But one does - to Brutha as he works in the garden, claiming divinity. In fact, the tortoise was the great God (with a capital G) Om. And oh, by the way, Brutha's the Chosen One."And it came to pass that in time the Great God Om spake unto Brutha, the Chosen One: `Psst!'"

Of course, communing with G(g)od isn't that easy when pesky things like huge church institutions and ideological wars come into play. Enter Vorbis, the head of the Quisition (excuse the inevitable Monty Python imagery), who uses the simple-yet-spongey lad to kick start an invasion into opposing territory. Inevitably, the story's plot leads to Vorbis' defeat, Brutha's acceptance of his place as the reforming (and more humane) Eighth Prophet, with Om learning a bit more about H(h)imself as super dooper deity. "When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency towards quiet reflection and seeing-things-from-the-other-fellow's-point- of-view is seldom necessary."

So why do I like this book so much? Yes, there are the talking creatures and fantasy situations of course. But Pratchett's gorgeous satire, those gentle pokes from his pen open tiny breathing holes for the mind...and the spirit. He takes on th ancient Greeks, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism and popular bumper stickers with equal aplomb. It's everyone's truth...and everyone's doubts about organized religion.

"Now we've got a truth to die for!"
"No. Men should die for lies. But the truth is too precious to die for."

There are small gods everywhere in Pratchett's universe, yearning for a little belief so that they too can incarnate and mean something to someone. To think that faith, wherever it's directed, can create - the opposite of most monotheistic religions in this world - it's an intriguing thought, perhaps heretical in this world...but hey, in Pratchett's zone, Death has an apprentice, witches inexpertly fly on brooms for house calls, and belief isn't about how many angels are dancing on a pin...rather, it's how you react to a tortoise claiming to be the Almighty in your garden. Whether you gently nudge H(h)im on this way, scream or start talking notes...well, that's your business. "Small Gods" is about belief in the human spirit, one of the few "stand-alone" books in the Discworld series I heartily recommend for anyone who's in need of a bit of comic relief from your day-to-day Universe.