Conflicting Views ~ Part 5

      William finally decided he had enough. “Allow me to hazard a guess, wise one,” interrupted William, struggling to contain his anger. “Would it be correct to say that your hope is to purify the constituent Aether of the Serpent Riders themselves so that they would see the error of their ways and become good?”

      “YES!!” squealed the alchemist. “This is the crowning goal of all my life’s work! How very perceptive of you, young sir! Don’t you think it would be a wonderful thing? And this is not to mention the many other evil beings that plague our world!”

      William took a deep breath. “Mr. Chang, I take no pleasure in contradicting others, but has it ever occurred to you that your ideas might all be wrong to begin with?”

      The harsh and extremely rude words struck Chang with such force that he stared at the crusader with an expression betraying total loss of comprehension, face sagging and mouth momentarily falling open with stupor. Thoughts of regret began to take shape in William’s mind, but he brushed them aside with a ruthless conviction that truth is truth and he had to stand on its side.

      But presently Chang collected himself and resumed his sanguine demeanor. “Such a statement would surely be extreme, honored guest,” he replied. “Limited — yes, as all theories inevitably are; but to pass upon them the verdict that they are wrong would seem to me unjustifiable in the light of such ample empirical evidence to support them. In any case, if I may venture to ask, what is it that prompts your suggestion?”

      “Perhaps I need to be more specific,” said William dryly. “For one thing, I would seriously question your view on the nature and origin of evil. I assert that evil is a fundamental affliction of our very souls, not a condition arising merely from the state of our constituent Aether. Your vain hope to rid the world of evil by working your magicks on the constituent Aether of evil beings will never materialize. We would do well to devise instead a means of simply destroying the Riders once and for all.”

      If Chang was upset by these words, he did not show it. “If I may raise a query,” asked the alchemist patiently, “on what grounds do you establish the validity of your views, and furthermore to the total and uncompromising rejection of this humble one’s views at that?”

      “They are not views, they’re the truth,” replied the crusader. “There is an all-powerful Father and all of creation came from Him, but we fell from Grace and have been separated from Him ever since. In any case no living being throughout history has ever proved pure and sinless enough not to be smitten by the fire of the Lightbringer, though the Savior would. By our mortal efforts we can never achieve such purity. Acceptance of the All-Father’s own Chosen and Begotten Son as one’s Savior is the only way to salvation, and even then we become truly pure only upon shedding our mortal coils.”

      “Pardon my extreme bluntness, young sir,” pursued Chang, “but just because something has never been so, why should it mean it never will either? Suppose we eventually do discover a means to effect such purity in all living beings? Surely there can always be a first time, can’t there? I may accept that there are inaccuracies in my theories which warrant being taken into account, but to draw such sweepingly dismissive conclusions as you have on the prospects for success of this line of research would surely be rash. Besides, think of the incalculable benefits for the world should we eventually succeed.”

      “That can never be,” insisted William. “It is stated clearly by the Savior in the Holy Book. ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Light; no one comes to the Father except by Me.’”

      “Please tell me, young sir,” asked the alchemist, “does the All-Father you speak of approve of good works and deeds?”

      “Of course,” answered William. “It goes without saying.”

      “And would it not be a good deed to cleanse the inner vision of evil-doers so that they would renounce their evil ways and tread the path of good thereafter? In which case what objections could the All-Father have against it?”

      “The All-Father has provided for us a way to Him, and it is the only way there can ever be. To seek by our own mortal efforts to chalk out another path on our own would be nothing short of arrogant; we would be plainly insulting the All-Father to His face by telling Him that we have no need of Him. Our presumptuous attempt to rid the world of evil without His help would therefore be itself part of an even greater evil. The Book is clear on this point. ‘Except the All-Father build the house, they labor in vain who build it.’ All that one can do is spread the Word of the All-Father and let Him do as He will. As for the evil-doer who refuses to repent and accept the Good News, and even blasphemes against the Father, perdition shall be his lot, as is the case with the Serpent Riders.”

      “This is plainly a mystery to me,” pleaded Chang. “Why must there be one way alone? Why wouldn’t your All-Father grant His approval to a plurality of different paths back to Him, if it means more of us will return to Him then, and especially if He is supposed to be the very Father of All, so that all beings — even the blackest of all evil beings — would then have to be His very own children? Would a father not be anxious to gather as many of his beloved children back into his arms as he can? And furthermore,” continued the alchemist after a brief pause, “being the omnipotent All-Father, one reckons He should surely be possessed of the power to effect a change in the heart of any evil-doer however hardened. So why is it the path He offered us should have failed so miserably in converting the evil-doers of the world, as it evidently has? What could there be to prevent Him from coming up with some more efficacious means of converting the unrepentant, given His omnipotence?”

      A moment of tense silence ensued; the crusader had found himself at a loss to answer Chang’s difficult questions. This is spiritual warfare, William told himself as he pondered on his possible replies with grim countenance: many indeed are the vile strategies of the forces of evil, not the least of them being unanswerable questions to shake the foundations of one’s faith. Chang in the meantime sighed and rubbed his brows, finding himself increasingly losing grip on his patience. In truth this was hardly the first time he had engaged in dialog with the crusaders of Blackmarsh, and their sheer obstinacy and inability to entertain the views and beliefs of others never failed to strain his patience for all his years of meditational practice. No, Chang told himself, he would not yield his position, not by a single hairsbreadth.

      Presently he took the initiative and broke the silence. “It is evident that you set much store by that Tome, honored guest,” he observed, motioning at the thick volume under the crusader’s muscled arm. “Why?”

      “Because the words contained in this Book are the very utterances of the Father himself. They are not to be taken lightly.”

      “You mean the All-Father Himself composed the Book by His very own hand?”

      “No, it was penned by men under the dictation of the All-Father, men of great virtue who had served Him all their lives and were therefore deemed fit to receive His words.”

      “And how would one know if those men were indeed under the dictation of the All-Father? By what criteria do you determine whether one is? Was the ancient mage Tyketto inspired by the All-Father, for example, when she authored the first Tomes of Power?”

      By now William was deeply wary of the turns of argument by which his host would again snare him in a position whereby he would again be incapable of any effective response, so he decided to appeal to a different sphere of discourse altogether, the sphere of the heart. Surely when it comes to matters of the heart, he reflected, mere intellectual arguments will lead nowhere.

      “Of Tyketto I know nothing,” he replied, proudly holding up his Book, “but that the men who wrote these words were indeed guided by the Spirit of the All-Father is self-evident to me from the power enshrined in the words themselves. I have no need of any criteria.” Even as he spoke, the symbols on the Book’s cover flashed brightly with power.

      “Well said,” responded the alchemist. “And by your answer you have granted unto me the license to assert likewise with respect to my views, for I likewise accede to their validity on the basis of the inner conviction of my own heart. Your condemnation of my views means nothing to me, my friend, if I am allowed to say it.”

      “You wouldn’t say this is a book of lies, would you?” protested the crusader.

      “No, but I may have my own understanding of its contents,” came the prompt reply.

      William was now almost at his wits’ end. “Tell me, Mr. Chang,” he appealed. “In the deepest recesses of your heart, do you not sense the presence of a Supreme Power governing our Universe? A Power to be held in the greatest awe?”

      “I would sooner have asked of you a most similar question!” exclaimed Chang, almost wanting to burst into laughter at the whole irony of the situation. The earlier earnestness had now returned to his voice. “Do you not perceive, as you plumb the depths of your heart, the presence of a Supreme Power residing in all things in the Universe — every dewdrop sparkling in the morning sun, every ancient spruce standing tall and proud on the mountainside — being in truth the very life of this boundless ocean of Aether which we call the Universe, knowing neither beginning nor end, ever creative? The entire Cosmos is suffused with this Supreme Power; this is what I’ve always believed, and this has always been the fundamental vision guiding my research —”

      “This is a preposterous vision!” barked William indignantly. “How can you utter such blasphemies against the Supreme Power by debasing Him in this way, by making this base, material and mundane Universe His dwelling place? Would you say He dwells in our excrement? He lives beyond the stars; His Kingdom is not of this world!”

TO BE CONTINUED!

If you have not read this story from the beginning and would like to do so, please click on the link below:
"Conflicting Views ~ Part 1"