Revival – A Philosophical Fable

REVIVAL – A PHILOSOPHICAL FABLE

There was a time when there was no religion. Then the Seer was born. She revealed herself in her thirteenth year but no one paid heed. Her words fell upon deaf ears. They were not ready. Wise beyond her years, the seer waited. In her sixteenth year, she once again revealed herself. This time, she held in her hands a sheaf of paper. In a loud clear voice she read. By the time she finished speaking, she had converted the world. 

The Seer’s religion was not really the first religion, but no one could possibly have known that. After all, there were very few written records from the Ancient Civilization. If only they had known about the Ancient Civilization, they would have been amazed to find, not only religion, but multiple religions. And they would have been equally amazed at how those religions died. The only thing the prehistorians knew was that a world war destroyed all civilization on earth. How long ago this happened was impossible to know. Nor could they know that the war that reduced the surviving remnants of mankind to pre-industrial conditions was a religious war. Or rather, the last in a series of religious wars. 

The first religious war was a decisive victory for the Hierarchy. In a single swift move they crushed the organized religions. Naturally religious belief went underground. However, the anti-religion education campaign gradually eroded the lingering religious beliefs of succeeding generations. Without houses of worship, without clergy, without scripture or art or ritual, religious ideas became nothing more than the senile whisperings of old women on their deathbeds. 

New religions did occasionally emerge. Those that were not politically motivated attempts to overthrow the Hierarchy were little more than schemes by charlatans promising to predict the future, communicate with the dead, and cast love spells. All were dispatched quickly, and in the case of the mere charlatans, usually nonviolently. However, there were a few more serious rebellions. One involved the Judeo-Christian Alliance. The Hierarchy had no mercy. They did to the traitors the same thing they had done to The Juggernaut. The Alliance had closely followed the tragedy of Tobago. Along with the rest of the world, they watched in horror as the Hierarchy discovered the headquarters of the Hindu rebels and incinerated the entire island. Undeterred by the fate of The Juggernaut, the Alliance made their stand and lost. Thus was Sicily removed from the map. Religion was finally dead.

For nearly a century the Hierarchy ruled. It was an era of order, progress, and reason. So it was ironic that the final war was provoked, not by religious rebels, but by a schism in the Hierarchy itself. Philosophical differences too subtle for the average citizen to follow split the Hierarchy in two and the war that ensued left the planet a wasteland. Leaderless and confused, the survivors of the holocaust struggled to rebuild civilization.  

Due to the advanced technology of the Ancient Civilization, nearly all the world’s knowledge was preserved in digital form. Even if scientists had suspected that the bits of metal excavated from ancient ruins were actually libraries they would not have been able to access the contents. The only written records that survived were fragments of paper books. 

Like every other schoolchild, the Seer learned about the ancient writings in her prehistory class. That they represented the knowledge of the Ancient Civilization. That the fragments made little sense, either singly or together. And that the fragments were on display in the Four Museums. On her sixth grade field trip to the Museums, she saw the Netherfield fragment. She was awestricken. From that day forth she devoted herself entirely to the study of the fragments. It seemed to her family and teachers that she would grow up to be an excellent curator, but little did they know that she was finding meaning in the seemingly meaningless fragments.  

To be fair, some of the fragments did reveal details about the Ancient Civilization. For example, the Netherfield fragment has this to say about the marriage customs of Ancient Civilization people: 

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little... [the next three lines are missing] ...one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let...” [the rest of the page is missing]. 

However, such facts about ancient people, while fascinating in and of themselves, contributed little to the field of prehistory.  

The Seer, on the other hand, saw wisdom in the fragments. Moreover, she saw a pattern. Alone, each was a fragment of universal truth. But together, they tore the veil off the mysterious universe.  

“Who has never felt lonely? Who has never wondered why we are here? Who does not fear death?” thundered the Seer. They were nonsense questions, but they spoke to something in her listeners. They reminded people of unspoken longings and half-remembered dreams. The Seer went on to answer the questions she posed. “The ancient sage tells us that we are not alone.” She recited the Milky Way fragment. At one hundred and three words, it was the longest extant fragment.  

...a terrific and resistless bolt came down out of the harmless sky eight years ago. Men frequently say to me, “I should think you would feel lonesome down there, and want to be nearer to folks, rainy and snowy days and nights especially.” I am tempted to reply to such – This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way? This which you...  

The Seer made sense of everything.  She explained the origins of man. About how the creators used a bolt of lightning to create life on earth. She explained how we are never really alone because the creators look over us from the star on which they dwell. She explained that our true home is with the creators – our distant Mother and Father. And it is to this home that we return after we die. So why should we feel lonely? This earth is but a point in space. Yet that is no cause for despair. Is not our planet in the Milky Way? When we feel lonesome down here – rainy and snowy days and nights especially – should we not look up, up to our distant Mother and Father, up to our true home on Yonder Star? 

The Seer’s religion brought great comfort to the world. There was still suffering. There was still death. Bad things still happened to good people and good things still happened to bad people. That had not changed. But something had changed. A measure of peace became part of their lives. A light in the darkness, even if it was but a glimmer. And the promise of Yonder Star attended their dying. The belief that distant Father would restore their bodies and distant Mother their life. As the Breath Fragment reveals:

...the bones came together, [line missing] the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy (?) unto the wind  [line missing] breathe upon these slain, that they may live...

The Seer grew to be very old and she grew even wiser with age. One day when the Seer’s life was nearing its end, she was visited by an archeologist. His team had unearthed a Fragment in the ancient ruins. It was almost half a page. The relic was brought to the Seer – that she might be the first to read the words. Since her great age had weakened her eyesight, the Fragment would be read aloud to her and that honor was bestowed upon the young archeologist who made the momentous discovery. 

...long ago, on the spot where the Wild Wood waves now, before ever it had planted itself and grown up to what it now is, there was a city – a city of people, you know. Here, where we are standing, they lived, and walked, and talked, and slept, and carried on their business. Here they stabled their horses and feasted, from here they rode out to fight or drove out to trade. They were a powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to last, for they thought their city would last for ever.”

“But what has become of them all?” asked the Mole. 

“Who can tell?” said the Badger. “People come – they stay for a while, they flourish, they build – and they go. It is their way... 

When the archeologist had finished reading, he reverently placed the Fragment in the Seer’s hands. A smile of infinite grace illuminated her wise old face. And then she went home.