Episode
The Frigid Reason God Doesn't Answer | Non Serviam
- Podcast
- Quinn's Ideas
- Published
- Jul 21, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1246
- Processing state
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- https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG2401031180.mp3
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Summary
I recently read Stanisław Lem’s short story Non-Serviam, and what’s interesting about it is that it doesn’t actually argue about whether God exists. It asks something much more uncomfortable. What if God is real, reachable, and perfectly capable of explaining himself, and simply chooses not to.This particular short story can be found in his collection of short stories titled A Perfect Vacuum. Which consisted of reviews of nonexistent books. Non Serviam appears towards the end. Lem presents the story as a dry, fictional academic review of a book on personetics by a man named Professor James Dobb. Personetics, the science of creating sentient beings called personoids within machines. Stanisław Lem himself was not religious and he was openly skeptical of the idea that morality requires a transcendent authority. That position is not hidden or ambiguous in this short story. Lem approaches God as a logical proposition under uncertainty, not as a being owed obedience, love, or gratitude, and he carries that stance straight into the story. When the personoids’ refuse to ground ethics in fear of punishment or hope of reward this to me is Lem’s way of showing his own conviction.👽 Please consider supporting this channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ideasoficeandfireor PAYPAL - https://paypal.me/QuinnsIdeas?locale.x=en_US🎨 Art: https://foundation.app/mint/eth/0x3B3ee1931Dc30C1957379FAc9aba94D1C48a5405/101786🎵 Music: https://www.youtube.com/@JamezDahlMusic📚 Get These Books! Affiliate *https://amzn.to/4a5chwkQuinn's Discord: https://discord.gg/uGx4WsjVCZFOLLOW QUINN ON TWITTER: Twitter: https://twitter.com/IDEASOFICE_FIREI NOW HAVE A SUBREDDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/IdeasofIceandFire/Quinn's New Graphic Novel: https://www.quinnhoward.net/theliebehindthestarBuy Quinn's Comi…