Universal Warfare

Chapter VI - What Sin?

Many people consider religion outdated, archaic, extravagant, and in some cases obsolete; but have you ever wondered what sort of human behavior rules and contracts have been installed in its place? The Golden rule included in most of the main religions of our species "Treat others the way you would like to be treated", I'm not saying that everyone who has ever been involved with religion has lived by these words, you only need to take a look at the cases of pedophilia in catholic schools for those with impaired hearing for example; but wouldn't it be nice to at least have this collective sense of responsibility to strive for such ideal, instead of following politicians and false prophets who pretend to lead us into a victory only they can achieve against an enemy we can't see but from which only them can keep us safe.

Growing up they taught us that the best way to pray was singing, but given the nature of our God - one that all religions claim to see but on whose name they have massacred millions throughout history - it became increasingly difficult to imagine a fully mature God who made us in his image and cares for us all. It became easier for me to imagine an immature being as our god, a child whose time in the sandbox led him to create something magnificent without a specific intention, whose creation had to be understood up to its main root for it to be taken care of properly; after spending most of my childhood getting dirtier than was tolerable in the backyard of my parent's house in Tel Aviv, trying to get everything I could under a microscope, it was impossible to understand at that age what a privilege it was to grow up in that house in Neve Tzedek only a few blocks away from the museum. On highschool chemistry class seem the perfect opportunity to obtain the most important tools I would need to understand everything around me, chemical engineering at the Israel Institute of Technology seemed to offer be the natural step after that after completing my military service of course; my mother had always wanted to be an architect herself, she would always see my drawing and think I could become one. My father, after having dealt with many Architects in decade long projects as a Civil Engineer, wanted me to follow a passion with a less frenetic lifestyle; he would check the mail every day waiting for that letter from Technion, one day it arrived, the smiles in our faces were enough for mom to put the dream of having an architect in the family to rest and treasure our collective happiness above any possible vision she had created in her mind. My parents were the most lovable people I had the opportunity to meet, as the years passed it became evident how most of the things that angry me about them would be almost impossible to avoid making my children resent me for; nevertheless going to study to a different city away from your parents house was not something many women could do Worldwide at the time, it was hard to ignore the added bonus.

After my first day it seemed clear they had planned for me to continue the path I had been on during all these years, moreover, they wanted my experience to be holistically rehabilitating; it would all start with a deep analysis of my sense of importance, my attitude when confronted with the utopian nature of my ambitions which don't necessarily correspond with my truest desires, the irrational fear derivative of a lack of instruments to measure the magnitude of importance certain aspects of life should truly have in my daily life.

Religion doesn't often offer introspection without guilt, that was something they had found flawed in my thought process, something we would constantly debate during the next weeks; but for that night all that could be good for me was some sleep.

"Good morning V1!" Then I understood they were referring to me as V1, so far I had figured it was just part of the name of the city, First version of Vinylon maybe.

"Good morning Mirmind" Had never seen her, but either she was the kindest AI ever, or she was actually a nice human. Maybe there are other humans outside of Earth? Or maybe we were not the only ones taken by that crew? just the only ones affected by strange matter? Hard to say. In any case, so far she had provided me with a wonderful afternoon and evening the day before, there was no reason to be impolite to her.