CYNIC -- Good evening – and are you awake or dreaming?
AFTERLIFE RESEARCHER -- Wide awake!
CYNIC --Then why are you wasting your time searching for
proof of an afterlife? Can’t you see? – it’s against the
interests of humanity.
AFTERLIFE RESEARCHER -- Against the
interests of humanity? To prove
that death is not the end? That
the universe is open for adventure? That the miserable majority on earth may
hope for a second chance? Is hope bad?
More life bad? A chance to perfect
what we start here elsewhere -- can that be bad?
CYNIC -- I’ll tell you what I think is bad. You’re helping to rationalize acts of terrorism! You justify every religion-inspired murder of
innocents. You make it easy for fanatics to blow themselves up in the hope that
heavenly rewards await them postmortem.
AFTERLIFE RESEARCHER -- Psychopaths
use religion to justify their criminal behavior. And you’re blaming me? How can I influence these moral monsters?
CYNIC -- I’ll tell you how. It’s your duty to preach
annihilation after death. Those prepared to give their all for the faith must
see that nothing awaits them after death but extinction. They must learn to see that their
religion is a cruel deception that ends in pointless suffering, followed by nothingness. Hammer home the liberating idea of
afterdeath extinction. It will cure
them of their religious psychosis.
AFTERLIFE RESEARCHER -- I prefer to
hammer home the alternate but liberating idea of infinite consciousness. Don’t
you know, you old Cynic, it’s bad for your health to be so narrow-minded!
CYNIC Sorry, I
agree with Spinoza. He said a wise
person should meditate on life, not death.
AFTERLIFE RESEARCHER -- Spinoza
was right. The research is on life after death, not death after life. The soul, if it’s not already dead,
craves life, more life, infinite life.
And by the way, your objection is misguided. Fanatics won’t be influenced by reason and evidence,
in any case. Survival research
could do nobody harm. It could,
however, be helpful. I’ll meet you
again on this corner some time and we’ll discuss it further.
CYNIC -- Possibly.
AFTERLIFE RESEARCHER -- In the
meantime, we can agree to disagree.
CYNIC --Forever.
AFTERLIFE RESEARCHER -- See ya, you grim
old Cynic
CYNIC -- I doubt it, you fond old dreamer.