‘Try me.’
‘Even then, lots of his dupes still had faith in him. Their god could do no wrong, so he must have been framed.’
‘Framed?’
‘Sorry – convicted by faked evidence – sometimes used by the police to catch criminals, when all else fails.’
‘Hmm. Well, your swami was perfectly typical: I’m rather disappointed. But he does help to prove my case -that most of humanity has always been insane, at least some of the time.’
‘Rather an unrepresentative sample – one small Flagstaff suburb.’
‘True, but I could multiply it by thousands – not only in your century, but all down the ages. There’s never been anything, however absurd, that countless people weren’t prepared to believe, often so passionately that they’d fight to the death rather than abandon their illusions. To me, that’s a good operational definition of insanity.’
‘Would you argue that anyone with strong religious beliefs was insane?’
‘In a strictly technical sense, yes – if they really were sincere, and not hypocrites. As I suspect ninety per cent were.’
‘I’m certain that Rabbi Berenstein was sincere – and he was one of the sanest men I ever knew, as well as one of the finest. And how do you account for this? The only real genius I ever met was Dr Chandra, who led the HAL project. I once had to go into his office – there was no reply when I knocked, and I thought it was unoccupied.’
‘He was praying to a group of fantastic little bronze statues, draped with flowers. One of them looked like an elephant… another had more than the regular number of arms… I was quite embarrassed, but luckily he didn’t hear me and I tiptoed out. Would you say he was insane?’
‘You’ve chosen a bad example: genius often is! So let’s say: not insane, but mentally impaired, owing to childhood conditioning. The Jesuits claimed: “Give me a boy for six years, and he is mine for life.” If they’d got hold of little Chandra in time, he’d have been a devout Catholic – not a Hindu.’
‘Possibly. But I’m puzzled – why were you so anxious to meet me? I’m afraid I’ve never been a devout anything. What have I got to do with all this?’
Slowly, and with the obvious enjoyment of a man unburdening himself of a heavy, long-hoarded secret, Dr Khan told him.
20
Apostate
RECORD POOLE
Hello, Frank… So you’ve finally met Ted. Yes, you could call him a crank – if you define that as an enthusiast with no sense of humour. But cranks often get that way because they know a Big Truth – can, you hear my capitals?
– and no one will listen… I’m glad you did – and I suggest you take him quite seriously.
You said you were surprised to see a Pope’s portrait prominently displayed in Ted’s apartment. That would have been his hero, Pius XX – I’m sure I mentioned him to you. Look him up – he’s usually called the Impius! It’s a fascinating story, and exactly parallels something that happened just before you were born. You must know how Mikhail Gorbachev, the President of the Soviet Empire, brought about its dissolution at the end of the twentieth century, by exposing its crimes and excesses.
He didn’t intend to go that far – he’d hoped to reform it, but that was no longer possible. We’ll never know if Pius XX had the same idea, because he was assassinated by a demented cardinal soon after he’d horrified the world by releasing the secret files of the Inquisition…
The religious were still shaken by the discovery of TMA ZERO only a few decades earlier – that had a great impact on Pius XX, and certainly influenced his actions…
But you still haven’t told me how Ted, that old cryptoDeist, thinks you can help him in his search for God. I believe he’s still mad at him for hiding so successfully. Better not say I told you that.
On second thoughts, why not?
Love – Indra.
STORE
TRANSMIT
MISS PRINGLE
RECORD
Hello – Indra – I’ve had another session with Dr Ted, though I’ve still not told him just why you think he’s angry with God!
But I’ve had some very interesting arguments – no, dialogues – with him, though he does most of the talking. Never thought I’d get into philosophy again after all these years of engineering. Perhaps I had to go through them first, to appreciate it. Wonder how he’d grade me as a student?
Yesterday I tried this line of approach, to see his reaction. Perhaps it’s original, though I doubt it. Thought you’d like to hear it – will be interested in your comments. Here’s our discussion -MISS PRINGLE COPY AUDIO 94.
‘Surely, Ted, you can’t deny that most of the greatest works of human art have been inspired by religious devotion. Doesn’t that prove something?’
‘Yes – but not in a way that will give much comfort to any believers! From time to time, people amuse themselves making lists of the Biggests and Greatests and Bests – I’m sure that was a popular entertainment in your day.’
‘It certainly was.’
‘Well, there have been some famous attempts to do this with the arts. Of course such lists can’t establish absolute – eternal – values, but they’re interesting and show how tastes change from age to age.’
‘The last list I saw – it was on the Earth Artnet only a few years ago – was divided into Architecture, Music, Visual Arts… I remember a few of the examples… the Parthenon, the Taj Mahal… Bach’s Toccata and Fugue was first in music, followed by Verdi’s Requiem Mass. In art – the Mona Lisa, of course. Then – not sure of the order – a group of Buddha statues somewhere in Ceylon, and the golden death-mask of young King Tut.
‘Even if I could remember all the others – which of course I can’t – it doesn’t matter: the important thing is their cultural and religious backgrounds. Overall, no single religion dominated – except in music. And that could be due to a purely technological accident: the organ and the other pre-electronic musical instruments were perfected in the Christianized West. It could have worked out quite differently… if, for example, the Greeks or the Chinese had regarded machines as something more than toys.
‘But what really settles the argument, as far as I’m concerned, is the general consensus about the single greatest work of human art. Over and over again, in almost every listing – it’s Angkor Wat. Yet the religion that inspired that has been extinct for centuries – no one even knows precisely what it was, except that it involved hundreds of gods, not merely one!’
‘Wish I could have thrown that at dear old Rabbi Berenstein – I’m sure he’d have had a good answer.’
‘I don’t doubt it. I wish I could have met him myself. And I’m glad he never lived to see what happened to Israel.’
END AUDIO.
There you have it, Indra. Wish the Grannymede had Angkor Wat on its menu – I’ve never seen it – but you can’t have everything…
Now, the question you really wanted answered… why is Dr Ted so delighted that I’m here?
As you know, he’s convinced that the key to many mysteries lies on Europa – where no one has been allowed to land for a thousand years.
He thinks I may be an exception. He believes I have a friend there. Yes – Dave Bowman, or whatever he’s now become…
We know that he survived being drawn into the Big Brother Monolith – and somehow revisited Earth afterwards. But there’s more, that I didn’t know. Very few people do, because the Medes are embarrassed to talk about it…
Ted Khan has spent years collecting the evidence, and is now quite certain of the facts – even though he can’t explain them. On at least six occasions, about a century apart, reliable observers here in Anubis have reported seeing an – apparition – just like the one that Heywood Floyd met aboard Discovery. Though not one of them knew about that incident, they were all able to identify Dave when they were shown his hologram. And there was another sighting aboard a survey ship that made a close approach to Europa, six hundred years ago…
Individually, no one would take these cases seriously – but altogether they make a pattern. Ted’s quite sure that Dave Bowman survives in some form, presumably associated with the Monolith we call the Great Wall. And he still has some interest in our affairs.
Though he’s made no attempt at communication, Ted hopes we can make contact. He believes that I’m the only human who can do it…
I’m still trying to make up my mind. Tomorrow, I’ll talk it over with Captain Chandler. Will let you know what we decide. Love, Frank.
STORE
TRANSMIT INDRA