The Parable of the Unbelievers

Josh lives.  Josh walks.  Josh breathes.  Josh speaks. 

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, an asteroid was closer to the Earth than a weather satellite, and a meteor crashed into the Urals--is the Universe telling us something?”

Josh spoke thus:

A group of unbelievers was watching the sky.

“It can’t come,” the unbelievers told each other, “It is impossible.”

But it came, a giant fireball in the sky.  Then it was many fireballs, each as destructive as a drone strike.  The many fireballs spread out in trajectories that the unbelievers could not possibly predict.  

For the unbelievers, unpredicted destiny was retribution, but being unpredicted, it was unpredictable, and therefore its cause unknown.  Worse, its cause was unknowable.

It was a miracle, then, when the fireballs created craters of flame.  It was a miracle that a warehouse was gutted.  It was a miracle that a highway was split.  It was a miracle that a small wood was incinerated.  It was a miracle that a sports field was decimated.  There was miraculous noise, there was miraculous light, and there was miraculous shattered glass.

Miraculously, no people were killed.  Miraculously, no one was injured.  By some miracle, the area had been evacuated.  By some miracle, a group of believers had had the area evacuated.

The unbelievers feared the believers.  The believers, the unbelievers believed, did evil work.  The believers, the unbelievers believed, were deceivers.  The believers, the unbelievers believed, used trickery.  The believers, the unbelievers believed, were tricksters.

The unbelievers believed that the believers worshipped in temples of deception.  The unbelievers believed that the believers created architectures of dishonest geometry.  The unbelievers believed that the believers brewed poisons of untrustworthy alchemy.  The unbelievers believed that the believers believed they could master destiny.

The believers believed that the past stretched past the beginning of time.  The believers believed that the future was horizonless.  The believers believed that time was timeless, and that timelessness was constrained in time.

Now the believers had reached under their alter of trickery to auger a fireball.  

The fireball, the believers divined, would be many fireballs.  The many fireballs, the believers professed, would create craters of flame.   

A fireball would gut a warehouse.  A fireball would split a highway.  A fireball would incinerate a small wood.  A fireball would decimate a sports field.  There would be noise, there would be light, and there would be shattered glass.

“By what devilry can you know the unknown?” an unbeliever asked a believer.

The believer replied, “You do the math.”