Alitheia 4

(Sequel to a review we got, we will attach a summary of the previous episode to a new one for ease of reading).

Last episode recap: Alitheia had her first lecture. She made an acquaintance in class, Olivia. We closed in on her discussion with Williams at the park. 

Williams and I kept in touch. We hung out frequently and stayed up late talking on the phone. He felt he had a best friend in me already, it was barely two months. Although everything about our interaction seemed to move at a fast pace, I tried to keep up with him. He would gush out about how wonderful I was. He told me deep secrets, which, according to him, he had never shared with anyone. He was quick to tell me he loved me, even though he mentioned it was as a friend, it still made me uncomfortable and short of words to reply. I adjusted to my school schedule quickly. I was either in lectures, reading at the library or my dorm, hanging out with Sophia, Williams or Olivia. During club fair, I joined the community service club and the photogeeks—it took some part of my time. 

Raven has turned out to be an okay roommate. She keeps her space. When she is not staring blankly into space, thinking, she is at her desk writing her theories. Sometimes she thinks aloud and I wonder at the thoughts, but I never engage her unless she does. 

Raven was moving from one end of the room to the other when I stepped in with Olivia. Olivia stretched out on my bed whilst I used the bathroom. When I got back, they were having a heated conversation. 

"No, that is not correct," Olivia was saying when I joined them. I looked from Raven to Olivia following the exchange. 

"What is your theory?" Raven asked. 

"I think science can confirm the facts of the bible. And you could even apply philosophical deductions and still arrive there." Olivia replied. She looked at me and I nodded in approval. Raven followed her gaze and returned to Olivia. "I feel your argument is faulty in that the theory explains the origin of the universe. It tells us it starts from a point and it expands. He is trying to sell us the idea that it came out of nothing." Raven went to get her notepad from the desk. When she was back on her bed, she wrote something down in her note pad. 

"You do well, I see your point. An origin story, but not the source." Raven tapped her pen on the notepad, she does this when she is thinking. "You do not accept that the universe came out of nothing?"

Olivia took out her phone. "I accept. The bible creation story tells us God created the world out of nothing."

"Hold on," Raven raised a finger, "why do you believe God created the world?"

"Well, science chooses to accept or rejects thoughts based on available evidence, it cannot totally prove or disprove anything. We know they say our universe suddenly came into existence and started to expand. But logically, is it possible for a thing to come out of nothingness?"

Raven nodded. "No."

"Nothing is non-existent and cannot do. Emphasis on do. It logically means that there has to be something with the ability to make something and it has to be existing outside of that nothingness," Olivia continued. The discussion was begining to give me a headache. Raven watched Olivia with keen interest, like the details Olivia was spilling will escape her if she looked away. 

"Accepted. How does that prove the existence of God?" Raven asked, this time she rested her back on the wall behind her.

"Look around you, what do you think of the earth?" 

Raven took a minute before she replied. "Well thought-out. Full of wonders." Olivia nodded in agreement. 

"Do you think it could be have come to exist by itself without a driving external intelligent being?" Raven did not respond, she wrote something in her notepad. I yawned. I thought of how to bring the discussion to an end. 

"Who is hungry?" I asked. 

"Not me," Raven replied without looking up.  

"Are you hun-" 

Raven interrupted me before I could end the discussion. "Olivia, if there is an external being, let's call it the First. What connects us to this being? And why do you think it is your Christian God?" 

I groaned loudly this time. "Enough with the science and religion talk, I am tired of hearing this conversation." Olivia and Raven turned to look at me. "Alright. Go on," I sighed.  

"An in-depth reading and along with historical research shows that the bible has answers where others fail. It tells us without doubt that the world was made by God. This God has power to create. A power that can give life." 

"And what is the proof of this?" Raven asked. I wondered how Olivia had so much to say about this. 

She replied with a question. "Tell me, why is physical death a possibility? Why does almost everything have a shelf-life beyond which they decay?" 

Raven wrote down something in her note pad. "Is that not because of the biological..." She paused. "Are you trying to say something cause something?"

Olivia laughed a little. "Exactly. Nothing exists in a vacuum and the bible provides answers. One is that, at the beginning God chose to create man. He breathed life into him and man was eternal. Man was just like God. Humans have creative abilities, not so? 

"We conceive ideas and bring them alive. It points to the source of our being. An intelligent being with creative powers. Anyways, my point is this. God in his will gave this man a rule. But when he disobeyed, he lost that life-giving power from God. And thus began our decay. Not just the beings, but even the rest of creation."

Raven raised an eyebrow. But it was soon down with a confused look. She looked deep in thought. "Olivia, you make a number of submissions."

"That are in fact correct," Olivia added. "Do you know any other book with accurate predictions of the future, even scientific discoveries. Do you know it was already in the bible that the earth had no visible support even before there were proofs of that? 

"Is that so?" Raven wrote in her notepad for the umpteenth time. 

"If you will give time to the right resources, you will find historical evidences that prove the happenings in bible." 

Raven was not having it. "Does that not make the bible just a book with historical events?"

"No. It records events that can be proven with historical facts, but it also contains truths about a future that is unfolding. By the way, there are so many things to human we are yet to comprehend. There is that part to life that is larger than us. 

"The fact that we lack knowledge of it presently does not invalidate it's existence. Of course there will be many theories, but at the end, it will point you to the mystery you can't disprove. God is waiting for you."

"I see what you did there," Raven smirked. "How come we never had this kind of conversation? I never knew you had interest in these topics. I still have many questions for you and I plan to take your points apart after my research." 

Olivia laughed, "Good luck with that, I hope you catch God on the way."

"I don't need luck," Raven replied. Typical, I thought. 

"Still hungry?" Olivia turned to me. I felt dizzy. 

"Nope," I turned in my bed and went to sleep.

To be continued.

New episodes every Wednesday. 🖤🖤

Check out previous episodes.

Episode 3

Episode 2

Episode 1