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Equation,” Father Jones began. “I was only a boy, of course, but my memory is clear
enough. Now, I’ve read enough bad literature to know how you would picture the
time.”
“A dark time,” she replied.
“In a way. Different, certainly. God was not a certainty, merely an object of belief,
and there were many different religions, following many different gods. Or no gods
at all in some cases. Even those who followed the Christian beliefs weren’t united,
and tens of thousands of people died quite needlessly in religious struggles. Physics
was just another specialist subject, like art, or sport. No, it’s true,” he said, in
response to her doubtful scowl. “I can remember hating it at school. Almost as much
as I hated math or chemistry. I think you feel the same way about cookery.”
She blushed.
“And did you know that the man who discovered the Equation wasn’t even
Christian?”
Martha shook her head, astonished, causing Father Jones to chuckle.
“The Authority doesn’t like people mentioning the fact, which is why they’re still
arguing over whether to raise him to the level of Holy Prophet or not. So you can
imagine what a shock it was when he announced his discovery.
“Scientists were a select group in those days, and he found it hard to gain credibility
for nearly a year. Imagine! An equation that proved the existence of God! It was
treated as something of a novelty by most people—a fanciful notion dreamed up by
someone with too much time on his hands. After the first year, however, other
scientists began to review the findings and found that they were scientifically
sound. Very few would admit it, of course, for fear of being ridiculed, and nothing
was announced by the media, but the work was steadily gaining a foothold. Teams
of physicists pulled it to pieces and analyzed it for miscalculations, but none were
found. Much as they hated to admit it, this piece of frivolous party science was
mathematically correct. God existed, and the laws of physics proved it.
“The findings weren’t officially announced for several years, but word got around, as
it always does. The various factions of the Church, many of which had been fighting
for so long they couldn’t even remember why they had started, began to put aside
their differences. Congregations, which had been on the brink of drying up
completely, began to swell again. There was nothing terribly dramatic, not like all
those awful holo-films you see, but the difference was profound, and it started to
snowball. Once the scientists finally decided to announce that God had been found,
the Churches banded together to form one Ecumenical Authority, and it wasn’t long
before whole countries began adopting its doctrines.”
Martha nodded. She knew scraps of this already, but had never heard it recounted
from a first-person perspective before. “Go on,” she said, fascinated.
“Well, founded on a scientific base that nobody was able to dispute, and with such a
large social influence, the Authority quickly became preferable in many people’s
eyes to the political parties that had controlled each of the individual countries until
that point. The accumulation of power seemed to come about quite naturally.
Within a decade and a half, the Authority was the one true, effective world power,
and it hadn’t cost a single life. The Quiet Revolution, as it became known.”
“Not like the holo-films,” Martha conceded.
“Not half as exciting,” he said. “But twice as interesting. Because the Authority was
quite unique in religious terms. It chose to embrace science, and physics and
mathematics were elevated to the status of Holy Orders, to be studied for the good
of God and the furthering of humanity. As the threat of war receded, scientists
were able to focus their talents on purely benevolent areas, such as medicine.”
He turned and indicated Deiniol’s Cathedral. “That’s why we are on the brink of
eradicating most fatal diseases today, and why our personal technology has become
so advanced in such a short space of time. The planet used to be polluted, and crime
was a normal part of everyday life. All that is gone now, thankfully.”
“So why do you ask me if I have faith?” she asked.
“I served the Authority faithfully for years,” he said, his reminiscence over. “I was as
happy as I thought any man should have a right to be. But then, one day, a new
thought struck me. Why did I have Faith? As you said, because the Equation tells us
that this is what is right. I went away and tried to satisfy myself with that answer,
but is that really Faith? My belief in God and the teachings of the Authority required
no effort on my part. There was nothing I could question or explore. I didn’t actively
go about believing things. I just knew them to be true.”
Martha remained silent.
“I suddenly realized that nowhere in my being, not to the very depths of my soul,
could I find a single drop of Faith.”
Peter Bell © 2009
enough. Now, I’ve read enough bad literature to know how you would picture the
time.”
“A dark time,” she replied.
“In a way. Different, certainly. God was not a certainty, merely an object of belief,
and there were many different religions, following many different gods. Or no gods
at all in some cases. Even those who followed the Christian beliefs weren’t united,
and tens of thousands of people died quite needlessly in religious struggles. Physics
was just another specialist subject, like art, or sport. No, it’s true,” he said, in
response to her doubtful scowl. “I can remember hating it at school. Almost as much
as I hated math or chemistry. I think you feel the same way about cookery.”
She blushed.
“And did you know that the man who discovered the Equation wasn’t even
Christian?”
Martha shook her head, astonished, causing Father Jones to chuckle.
“The Authority doesn’t like people mentioning the fact, which is why they’re still
arguing over whether to raise him to the level of Holy Prophet or not. So you can
imagine what a shock it was when he announced his discovery.
“Scientists were a select group in those days, and he found it hard to gain credibility
for nearly a year. Imagine! An equation that proved the existence of God! It was
treated as something of a novelty by most people—a fanciful notion dreamed up by
someone with too much time on his hands. After the first year, however, other
scientists began to review the findings and found that they were scientifically
sound. Very few would admit it, of course, for fear of being ridiculed, and nothing
was announced by the media, but the work was steadily gaining a foothold. Teams
of physicists pulled it to pieces and analyzed it for miscalculations, but none were
found. Much as they hated to admit it, this piece of frivolous party science was
mathematically correct. God existed, and the laws of physics proved it.
“The findings weren’t officially announced for several years, but word got around, as
it always does. The various factions of the Church, many of which had been fighting
for so long they couldn’t even remember why they had started, began to put aside
their differences. Congregations, which had been on the brink of drying up
completely, began to swell again. There was nothing terribly dramatic, not like all
those awful holo-films you see, but the difference was profound, and it started to
snowball. Once the scientists finally decided to announce that God had been found,
the Churches banded together to form one Ecumenical Authority, and it wasn’t long
before whole countries began adopting its doctrines.”
Martha nodded. She knew scraps of this already, but had never heard it recounted
from a first-person perspective before. “Go on,” she said, fascinated.
“Well, founded on a scientific base that nobody was able to dispute, and with such a
large social influence, the Authority quickly became preferable in many people’s
eyes to the political parties that had controlled each of the individual countries until
that point. The accumulation of power seemed to come about quite naturally.
Within a decade and a half, the Authority was the one true, effective world power,
and it hadn’t cost a single life. The Quiet Revolution, as it became known.”
“Not like the holo-films,” Martha conceded.
“Not half as exciting,” he said. “But twice as interesting. Because the Authority was
quite unique in religious terms. It chose to embrace science, and physics and
mathematics were elevated to the status of Holy Orders, to be studied for the good
of God and the furthering of humanity. As the threat of war receded, scientists
were able to focus their talents on purely benevolent areas, such as medicine.”
He turned and indicated Deiniol’s Cathedral. “That’s why we are on the brink of
eradicating most fatal diseases today, and why our personal technology has become
so advanced in such a short space of time. The planet used to be polluted, and crime
was a normal part of everyday life. All that is gone now, thankfully.”
“So why do you ask me if I have faith?” she asked.
“I served the Authority faithfully for years,” he said, his reminiscence over. “I was as
happy as I thought any man should have a right to be. But then, one day, a new
thought struck me. Why did I have Faith? As you said, because the Equation tells us
that this is what is right. I went away and tried to satisfy myself with that answer,
but is that really Faith? My belief in God and the teachings of the Authority required
no effort on my part. There was nothing I could question or explore. I didn’t actively
go about believing things. I just knew them to be true.”
Martha remained silent.
“I suddenly realized that nowhere in my being, not to the very depths of my soul,
could I find a single drop of Faith.”
Peter Bell © 2009
Excerpt From
"The Faith Equation"
by Peter Bell
"The Faith Equation"
by Peter Bell
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