A Survivor's Guide to Eternity(13)

“Your argument makes total sense to me, Sam. However, proving it one way or the other isn’t the only point. To my knowledge, the question of the existence of God doesn’t even come up in the Buddhist doctrines.”

“Well, for me the doctrines of any faith can create a direct conflict between personal morality and philosophy on the one hand, and a belief in an all-powerful master dictating a specific set of rules, on the other. With this we give up a degree of freedom and start to think of reward or punishment, guided more by fear and compliance than by a natural desire to be good and morally honest people. I prefer good for good's sake. It doesn’t make me a Buddhist or a believer in god, but rather a belief in good. An extra ‘O’ and such a different meaning.”

“Yeah, anyway, at least it’s easier to become a Buddhist if you’re a tortoise. You don’t have any choice in the matter regarding clinging onto worldly possessions.”

“There is that,” replied Sam as he bent his head back around to nip at an unsuspecting flea on his side.

“What do you mean exactly by personal morality?” enquired Ed.

“I’m not an expert but I’d be inclined to say that it’s the ability to imagine the consequences of actions upon another as if it were happening to oneself and then build a code of conduct based on this.”

“But what about people who couldn’t care less about this code?” asked Ed inquisitively.

“Maybe there’s some sort of brain malfunction or short circuit?

“It’s not only about not hurting or not inflicting suffering on others though? That’s really just altruism isn’t it?” enquired Ed.

“To a degree, but a whole load of stuff gets bundled in there with religion which doesn’t come from any personal morality that could ever occur naturally. Don’t masturbate, for example. Why not just make people with shorter arms and solve the problem at the design stage? The only person who could possibly benefit from that is the person that cleans the sheets. Beyond that, why come up with something like the seven deadly sins and then programme people to be tempted? Either have the sins and consider them as ‘OK’ or else remove any instinctual desires mankind might have in that direction.”

“Ha ha! There’s another angle though. Maybe these religious doctrines have the positive aspect of creating a better social structure and a degree of harmony in the community? If everyone believes in the same thing then they’ll get along just fine.”

“True enough. I guess I was more of a rebel than that. I didn’t like having sets of rules and regulations imposed upon me.”

“Do you see faith and belief as totally negative then?”

“No, I just don’t see them as the bedrock of good they are made out to be. You can’t have faith or belief without some degree of doubt. In my book, something is either a fact or it’s not; you either know or you don’t know. To me, having faith is no more than having hope, and belief is no more than hope, or passive acceptance of unproven speculation.”

“Incredible really, Sam. I’ve never really thought deeply about this. You seem to have thought it all through,” replied Ed, dragging his cumbersome body around to the left with his oversized chubby reptilian legs.

“A bit. I was quite interested in philosophy as a student, and since being in this whirlwind of a conundrum, I find it helpful to get a deeper understanding.”

“I’m with you there. Like I said before though, my belief did give me some comfort, However, I was also confused as to how the world could get into such a state. It did cast some doubts for me.”

“That’s understandable.”

With this Sam manoeuvred himself upright, stretched his front legs out in front of him, gave in to a massive yawn and stretched his lengthy body to the maximum. Ed looked on, marvelling at the size of the proud fox.

“You know, for a minute there I’d forgotten I was a tortoise.”

Ed twisted his head and neck from side to side and moved forward slightly before continuing, “I’m assuming from my last movements that tortoises can’t yawn?”

“Can’t help you with that one, my friend,” replied Sam as he settled back down into his comfortable recline, reaching his head down the side of his body to bite away at some fleas with his sharp, white teeth. They sat silently for a while, digesting their conversation.

“Anyway, there’s only one important question right now, and that is how the hell did we end up in this mess? Is it something to do with our beliefs or is there something else at work here?”

Ed looked at Sam as inquisitively as a tortoise possibly could.