The Golden Compass

[BBQ Platypus]

Ahem...once again:

Well, you see, the rationale is that Cthulhu's triumph is inevitable.  Worshipping Cthulhu will mean only finite pain, whereas NOT worshipping Cthulhu leads to infinite pain.  If Cthulhu does not exist, well...you've kind of wasted your life via self-mutilation and demon worship, but let's face it, anyone insane enough to worship Cthulhu wasn't going to have a very good life anyway.

Cthulhu's wager:

            C(E)   |    C(N)
C(W)      - 1    |   0
C(N)  -infinity  |   0

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Honestly, I don't understand how the whole "Cthulhu eats people" meme got started.

I've read a lot of Lovecraft, and not once did I notice a reference to Cthulhu eating people. Rising from the deep, yes. Dead but dreaming, yes. Laying waste to the world of man, yes. Ushering forth the great old ones and creating a new dark age where humans are freed from social structures and moral law and there will be lots of rejoicing and gibbering and biting each other, yes. Eating people, no.

I'm not sure Cthulhu even needs or can digest food in the way we understand it. Anyway, from a dietary perspective, it doesn't make much sense. It's like eating individual grains of millet, most of which are usually lodged in a silicate structure of disproportionate size, all of which move around a lot.

[BBQ Platypus]

Honestly, I don't understand how the whole "Cthulhu eats people" meme got started.

I've read a lot of Lovecraft, and not once did I notice a reference to Cthulhu eating people. Rising from the deep, yes. Dead but dreaming, yes. Laying waste to the world of man, yes. Ushering forth the great old ones and creating a new dark age where humans are freed from social structures and moral law and there will be lots of rejoicing and gibbering and biting each other, yes. Eating people, no.

I'm not sure Cthulhu even needs or can digest food in the way we understand it. Anyway, from a dietary perspective, it doesn't make much sense. It's like eating individual grains of millet, most of which are usually lodged in a silicate structure of disproportionate size, all of which move around a lot.

Fool!  Cthulhu has no need to devour physical flesh!  It is our ESSENCE that he consumes!  His "hunger" (for lack of a better term - quite frankly, to compare the Dread Lord Cthulhu's irresistible longings to our primitive mortal instincts is the very peak of absurdity) exists at a divine and terrible metaphysical level far beyond what our puny minds can grasp.  I lose sanity just thinking about it.