A) Creation - Part One

CREATION - Part One

The old cleric hurried across the temple yard, pursuing urgent
business. A dry, warm wind stirred up the dust around him, sending it
swirling into the arid air. He shielded his eyes as he twisted and
turned through the bustling market-place that dominated the square.
When he finally reached the other side he stopped at a door. He looked
around suspiciously, fearing that he had been followed, spied on by
other clerics who would dearly love to beat him to his objective. There
were no other holy men around, and everyone else was intent on driving
a bargain in the market.
He knocked the door with a light, sharp tap and waited. It creaked open
to reveal another person about as old as he was.
'Is everything ready ?' asked the man inside.
The cleric nodded once.
'Good, let's see what we can do!' he stepped out into the dusty air.
Tall and thin, a permanent thoughtful look on his face. This was the
philosopher.
They both marched out of the temple yard and re-entered a few minutes
later with yet another person. Smaller, fatter and balding. The
scientist.
All three moved with purpose back to the temple, disappearing into a
narrow, dark alley that ran down the side.
Two market traders watched them. A fishmonger and a money lender.
'Way they were scurrying you'd think they had a secret.' said the
fishmonger, none too impressed.
'Yeah, doing a book on the history of the world ain't they ?' asked the
money lender.
'That's right.' the fishmonger agreed. 'Think about it - ya got a guy
that forever asks questions, a guy forever trying to find answers and
the other quite happy with the way things are and blaming someone else
anyway.'
'Can't see it ever working out.' Sighed the money lender.
'Well,' the fishmonger concluded, ' you can guarantee that they ain't
gonna mention the likes of me, though if money's got anything to do
with it, which it usually does, you should come out of it
alright.'
Customers appeared at both their stalls and that was the end of that
particular conversation.

The three educated men sat at the table in a room at the back of the
temple. There were no windows so candles provided the only
illumination, scattered randomly round the room so that the light was
as even as possible, a few extra on the table brighten the area of
work.
'Where would you like to start ?' the philosopher asked the
cleric.
'Well, at the beginning of course.' He replied.
'But what do you call the beginning ?' the philosopher queried, then
smiled at his habit of probing for answers.
The cleric shook his head slowly and smiled back. 'With the creation of
the world of course !'
The scientist had something to say now. He stood up and unrolled a
parchment from a secreted pocket. 'I have been doing my calculations on
this and I work out this was a very long time ago. Is this going to be
a big book ?'
'It's going to be the biggest book ever made.' the cleric stated.
'Then I shall need some more ink for my working out.'
The cleric shook his head again. 'It's not going to be a big book in
volume, but it's going to have a huge influence if we can get it right
between us.'
'Oh !' said the scientist. 'Well I'm still going to have to do a lot of
working out. I mean the history of the Earth is a huge project.'
'I think we should simplify it,' the philosopher interjected. 'If it's
going to be for the lay-man we shouldn't get too technical. Make it as
simple as possible and catch them with a good opening line.'
The cleric nodded his head this time. It seemed to be on an almost
permanent swivel between shaking and nodding. 'Yes, I have an idea. I
think it's a great idea, will have them hooked from the first couple of
lines.'
The other two leaned in, listening intently for the next words.
'I want it to start in complete darkness and then explode into
light.'
The scientist scoffed at this, though he wasn't too sure how the Earth
had came into being, a great explosion sounded rather fanciful. His own
theory had bits floating together until they fitted. He had reached
this idea because he had noticed at public stonings how the rocks that
got picked up and thrown fell back to the earth after they hit the
victim. If they were attracted to the ground then it seemed fairly
sound that that is how it all started.
'An explosion, interesting,' mused the philosopher. 'The world would
appear as the result of destruction.'
The cleric felt like he was losing his audience. 'It's just a
light.'
'Must come from somewhere,' stated the scientist.
'Something before the Earth,' muttered the philosopher, lost in deep
thought.
The scientist was almost as thoughtful as he pondered the idea. 'Must
have been a big bang !'
'Are we agreed that we can carry this forward ?' an exasperated cleric
asked.
'Well, it'll certainly catch the imagination !' nodded the
philosopher.
The scientist agreed, somewhat grudgingly. 'Until I can find evidence
of my theory it'll have to do.'
'Okay, so if I read this first line,' said the cleric, clearing his
throat loudly. 'Goes something like this - "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the Earth&;#8230;.'
He looked around for approval.
'Sounds kinda catchy,' said one.
'Apart from one bit,' agreed the other.
A pair of eyes stared at the other two. 'What ?' the cleric demanded
irritably.
'As a scientist I have to find more motivation than the God thing
!'
'As a philosopher I find it difficult to believe in something or
someone external having influence over the universe.'
'But you said to keep it simple. This is as simple as it gets !'
'So this is going to be a God thing, this book of ours ?' the scientist
asked.
The cleric tried dodging the question fired at him by ruffling some
parchments.
The philosopher smiled a little. 'Does it matter ? Until science has
all the answers people are going to believe in a deity. I'll go with it
but there had better be plenty of philosophical argument in this book
!'
'Sure I can fit some in somewhere,' the cleric muttered.
'Okay, I'll go with it too. But there had better be some kind of
science stuff shoved in there !'
The cleric nodded his ever moving head and mumbled darkly, 'I'm sure I
can fit some science mumbo-jumbo in there somewhere.'
'So what's next then ?' the philosopher asked. In a room with no
windows it was hard to work out what the time was, but his stomach told
him it was dinner time.
The scientists' stomach agreed, rumbling loudly.
'I shan't keep you much longer,' said the cleric, trying to hide his
own audible signs that food was needed.
'Let's just re-cap where I got to. "In the beginning
blah-de-blah-de-blah, and that was the first day.'
'Whoa, whoa, whoa !' the scientists' eyes almost popped out on stalks.
'It's bad enough expecting us to believe that God created the Earth and
it was made by an explosion, but all in one day !'
'I'm on his side.' The philosopher moved his hand in acknowledgement
toward the cleric.
The cleric felt somewhat relieved that he actually had someone on his
side for once.
The philosopher continued. 'It's actually quite philosophical really. I
mean you have an eternal amount of time. Day can be used as just an
expression. Could be thousands of years in reality but none of us was
around. The cleric has a God who's immortal. The question is - how long
is an immortals' day ?'
The cleric was confused and hungry. He felt as if the whole thing had
been hijacked and made a mental note that God should be mentioned at
least once on every page if he could help it.
The philosopher felt quite pleased with himself. This book would be one
of the greatest philosophical pieces ever written.
The scientist had a few ideas too. He had some theories that would
dumbfound scientists centuries down the line.
'Can't wait for what we're going to do for the second day !' stated the
philosopher as they pulled themselves up from the table.
Dinner and a late night beckoned.