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...why am I actually sitting down and coming up with a plausible way that the Ori could possibly conquer Earth? Because I don't think they'd nuke us from orbit, because they get their power from worshipers. (At least, as I understand it. I might have to go back and rewatch s10.) From what I understand of the 'gate-verse, Earth apparently has a population orders of magnitude larger than most other planets. The Ori would have to be not only stupid, but failing at the basic survival techniques. I kind of find that a bit hard to believe.
DISCLAIMER: Yes, I am going to be talking about religions. This will be in a purely theoretical sense. There might be some analysis too. Please do not think I am hating on your beliefs or anything.
The main problem is that, simply looking at the major religions of the world, most people who believe in something believe in it without proof. That is fundamentally different than what it seems like the rest of the galaxy takes as its status quo. The Goa'uld masqueraded as gods. A real, physical presence. For the majority of people, there was no reason not to believe. The reason everything kind of fell apart was because the Tau'ri have a history of not requiring proof for faith. The gods of the Tau'ri are largely unseen, and people still have faith. (Yes, I know I'm painting in hugely broad strokes. I am purposely making a broad generalization here to prove a point.)
The Ori seem to have largely stepped into a power vacuum left by the Goa'uld. Everyone else wasn't used to not having a very physical manifestation of whatever they believed in. You can make arguments about the true meaning of faith and whether or not it requires proof here. (If I were a theologian, I might. I'm not. I'm an engineer. If anyone wants to tackle that, feel free.) It's kind of a fundamentally different scenario, though, than Earth.
So, how would they do it? Having nations and governments surrender would count as a win nominally. But Earth has had countless wars over religion, and probably will have many more. Faith seems to be rooted in something different, and harder to dissolve. Conversion, true conversion, is hard.
Destroying major religious centers like Jerusalem (Judaism, Islam, Christianity), Rome (Christianity, specifically Catholicism), and Mecca (Islam) would get people's attention, but would probably serve more to piss them off. (Oh hai thar, Crusades.) The friend I was discussing this with suggested book burnings: theological and holy texts right along side science texts. It's an interesting thought. Also, a dismantling of a lot of the communications around the world. Keeping people from easily communicating with each other would help towards insuring that the knowledge that's being destroyed stays that way.
It's an interesting thought exercise. And the more I look at it, the more I see how bloody hard it would be. (I suppose you could scale this down to see why resistance groups always seem to be so very hard to root out to any opposing force.)
DISCLAIMER: Yes, I am going to be talking about religions. This will be in a purely theoretical sense. There might be some analysis too. Please do not think I am hating on your beliefs or anything.
The main problem is that, simply looking at the major religions of the world, most people who believe in something believe in it without proof. That is fundamentally different than what it seems like the rest of the galaxy takes as its status quo. The Goa'uld masqueraded as gods. A real, physical presence. For the majority of people, there was no reason not to believe. The reason everything kind of fell apart was because the Tau'ri have a history of not requiring proof for faith. The gods of the Tau'ri are largely unseen, and people still have faith. (Yes, I know I'm painting in hugely broad strokes. I am purposely making a broad generalization here to prove a point.)
The Ori seem to have largely stepped into a power vacuum left by the Goa'uld. Everyone else wasn't used to not having a very physical manifestation of whatever they believed in. You can make arguments about the true meaning of faith and whether or not it requires proof here. (If I were a theologian, I might. I'm not. I'm an engineer. If anyone wants to tackle that, feel free.) It's kind of a fundamentally different scenario, though, than Earth.
So, how would they do it? Having nations and governments surrender would count as a win nominally. But Earth has had countless wars over religion, and probably will have many more. Faith seems to be rooted in something different, and harder to dissolve. Conversion, true conversion, is hard.
Destroying major religious centers like Jerusalem (Judaism, Islam, Christianity), Rome (Christianity, specifically Catholicism), and Mecca (Islam) would get people's attention, but would probably serve more to piss them off. (Oh hai thar, Crusades.) The friend I was discussing this with suggested book burnings: theological and holy texts right along side science texts. It's an interesting thought. Also, a dismantling of a lot of the communications around the world. Keeping people from easily communicating with each other would help towards insuring that the knowledge that's being destroyed stays that way.
It's an interesting thought exercise. And the more I look at it, the more I see how bloody hard it would be. (I suppose you could scale this down to see why resistance groups always seem to be so very hard to root out to any opposing force.)
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Re: excellent points, good sir.
I think part of what we're supposed to think is "oh look, the Goa'uld don't know everything (ie, Teal'c lied to Apophis while First Prime), so therefore they can't be gods."
*Daniel* of all people should know that, even on Earth, there have been exceedingly few religions where *any* god claimed to be all-knowing.
Re: excellent points, good sir.
You know, if we take the idea that the Goa'uld either took on the aspects of mythological figures, or that they were the mythological figures, the argument against omniscience holds even less water. Nearly every mythology mentioned in the show had gods who were flawed. Flawed to an astounding degree, and most certainly were not all-knowing. *Daniel* should know THAT.