“We have found a strangeness in your world that we cannot quite reconcile. During our study time, before we reached out to you, we learned much of your history and culture and religions, particularly the one claimed by a majority of the American people. The religion teaches that the purpose of man is to worship and adore and praise God, and those who do not do so will probably be punished. Is this correct?”
The SOS said guardedly, “Some religionists teach that, yes.”
“Ah. But you have countries ruled by despots who demand that people worship, adore and praise them. They put great pictures of themselves upon the walls, like icons, and those who do not adore are often killed or disappeared or tortured. There was one called Mao, one called Stalin. One now, called Hussein. Isn’t this true?”
The FL nodded, warily.
“Ah. Your nation, however, wishes to be a goodnation, and it therefore despises despots, regarding them as evil and rejoicing when one of them is overthrown. Is this so?”
The FL put down her fork and took a deep breath. “Yes. This is so.”
“Ah. Now to our confusion. If a person torturing and killing people is evil, why are gods who torture and kill people called good?”
The SOS patted her lips with her napkin and said to the FL, “Don’t look at me.”
The FL glanced along the table, catching Benita’s eye.
“Do you have an answer for our guest?” the FL asked.
Benita thought for a moment. “I can quote something I’ve read. Some professor of history wrote that cultures define their gods when they’re young and primitive, when their main concern is survival. They endow their gods with survival characteristics like omnipotence and authoritarianism, belligerence and suspicion, and that’s what goes into all their myths or scriptures. Then, if they survive long enough, they begin to develop morality. They examine their own history, and they learn that authoritarianism doesn’t accord with free will, that belligerence and suspicion are unhealthful, but this newly moral culture is stuck with its bigoted, interfering gods, plus it’s stuck with people who prefer the old bloody gods and use them as their justification for doing all kinds of awful things.”
“Ah,” said Indira. “I am glad our morality has been with us since early times, preserved for us indelibly. I would hate worshipping a god I could not respect. Why do you?”
The FL was regarding Benita with some surprise. “This is a paradox,” she said. “It’s not one we’re going to solve tonight. We have other problems that are perhaps more solvable. For example, there is the continuing problem of drugs, not only the issue of addictions and consequent criminality, but also the consequent economic and political issues . . .” She went on to give a description of the war on drugs, focusing on drug trafficking and profiteering and keeping well away from the subject of religion. She concluded: “Legalization would drive prices down, crime would stop, then we could take care of the addicts . . .”
“And you do not do this because of … politics?”
The SOS said, “The war against drugs is big business. Thousands of people are on the payroll. The people on the payroll don’t want the problem solved, though they can’t say that out loud or, perhaps, even admit it to themselves. Instead, they continue to take a moral position that requires them to punish people. Punishing people is always considered moral.”
Indira shook her head. “It is like the Pursnyp people on the planet Middle. They built an enormous wall to protect them from the marauding tribes of nomadic Flizz. Half the population worked at maintaining and garrisoning the wall. Then a plague came, and the Flizz were almost wiped out. The Pursnyp people sent aid to the Flizz, and when we asked why, they said if the Flizz died out, the wall would not be needed, and there would be no more work for the Pursnyp.”
“Like fox hunting in England,” remarked Chad. “They say they hunt the foxes because they’re vermin, but they’re careful to preserve plenty of foxes so they never have to stop hunting.”
At the other end of the table, Benita heard Lara ask, “What problems do you have in this country, General Wallace?”