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Chapter Thirty-Eight: Even if They See
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The lecture hall was nearly filled; the speaker walked up to the microphone and said, "Good evening, and welcome to the Campus Skeptics' first meeting this year. My name is Nabal, and this first meeting usually draws a large crowd -- usually from hecklers who believe that what we are saying is false, but somehow never manage to prove it. I claim that there is are no supernatural forces and never have been, that all of the interaction of nature can be explained by science, and that there is nothing that science can't explain. To prove it --"
Taberah was aghast. He elbowed Aed and said, "Aren't you going to say anything?"
The speaker reached into his backpack, and drew out a pliers, a sheet of paper, and a cigarette lighter. He continued, "I have a sheet of paper and a lighter, and I am going to light this paper on fire. If there is anyone among you who has any kind of faith or magic, let him stop it from burning."
Taberah elbowed Aed again, and said, "Well?"
The speaker held the paper up, silent.
Aed found himself saying, "Nabal."
The speaker said, "Yes? Are you going to stop this paper from burning?"
Aed ignored the question. He said, "Do you know physics?"
The speaker said, "Yes. I am a senior with a double major in physics and mathematics."
Aed said, "If you know physics, then you know that physics says that the electrical charges in that piece of paper, if separated an inch together and released, would create a spark over a hundred times as powerful as a lightning bolt. Is that correct?"
The speaker said, "Yes. Actually, it's a bit more than a hundred."
Aed said, "Very well. If you know physics, separate the particles and let's see that spark."
The speaker did not reply to this comment. He said, "Are there any other comments or distracting rhetoric -- perhaps to conceal that the supernatural is not real?"
A young woman said, "I don't know if God will grant my prayer, but I am praying that that paper won't burn -- as you would fight in a battle you would rather lose than not fight at all."
Nabal said, "Any other comments?"
Taberah was trying to think of something to say, but he was at a loss for words. The speaker tried to ignite the paper; the lighter sparked several times, but produced no flame.
The speaker walked over to the table and said, "My apologies for the coincidence. Does anyone have other lighters?"
A young man with a large Afro flamboyantly tossed a golden Zippo to the front of the room and said, "Try this, brother."
Nabal took the lighter and struck it. It produced sparks, but no flame.
He adjusted the lighter, and struck it again. A large yellow flame shot out, and began to lick up the side of the paper, to turn orange, to grow stronger, hotter. Nabal turned away from the flame and looked at the eyes around him -- some smug, some saddened. The flame died out, became a thin stream of smoke, vanished. Nabal grinned and asked, "And now, where is your God?"
He continued to look, puzzled by the expressions he saw on the gathered faces. Then he looked down, and dropped the pliers in shock. The paper was not burnt to ashes. It wasn't even singed.
Aed looked at Taberah, and saw the one face in the room that was not speechless. He grabbed Taberah's arm, and said, "We need to go. Now." They slid out, leaving behind them sputters of "Chemicals and charlatanism can do a lot."
Taberah said, "Why did you leave? They were about to acknowledge something supernatural."
Aed said, "Taberah, I don't know how you did that, or what was going on, and I don't need to know. But do you remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus? Do you remember how it ended?"
Taberah said, "'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not listen even if a man rises from the dead.' Yes, but --"
Aed said, "Taberah, a man did rise from the dead, and those who killed him still did not believe. C.S. Lewis wrote that he knew of only one person who had seen a ghost, and she was positive it was a hallucination. The wind of the Spirit cannot blow where the cracks have been sealed; this age has exerted monumental effort to seal the cracks. You heard them speaking as you left. They are positive it was somebody's sleight of hand. George MacDonald, before Lewis, said, "Seeing is not believing. It is only seeing." Even I, who believe in a supernatural God, am filled with doubts over what I just saw -- half of my mind is saying that it was an illusionist stunt. Even in the Bible, seeing miracles did not make people believe."
Taberah said, "I don't understand."
Aed said, "I don't understand either. Maybe you'll figure something out -- oh! I just remembered a joke."
Taberah said, "Yes?"
Aed said, "The wars in the Middle East will only be solved by a political solution or by a miracle -- by people working out an agreement, or by God telling people to get along with each other. The political solution would be God telling people to get along with each other, and the miracle would be people working out an agreement."
Taberah listened and laughed. "So you're saying it would take a different kind of miracle, a greater kind of miracle, for people to believe."
Aed said, "Yes. And a kind of miracle that doesn't just happen, even in the Bible. A kind that God only gives, if ever, as a blessing on hard human work. Prayer does not annihilate human roles. Maybe God only chooses to work the greater miracles through humans."
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Chapter Thirty-Eight: Even if They See
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