This is a story about Zaver, an atheist and scientist, and a strange journey. Zaver had to travel to another city to present a lecture on Natural Phenomena, a journey of about two hours from his home. As he boarded the train and took his seat, he started thinking about his lecture, trying to remember examples he could use.
As the train stopped at the next station, a man boarded and sat on the seat next to Zaver. "Good morning, Zaver," he smiled and said.
Startled, Zaver smiled and asked, "Do I know you?"
"No, Zaver, you don't. But I know you from the beginning."
"Ah, you must have known my parents then."
"Yes, I did. In fact, your whole family knew me well. I am a close family friend."
"Oh, you must be from the church. They were regulars at the church."
"Yes. I was in the church too. But I don't see you in church these days?"
"No. I am a scientist and an atheist. I don't believe in God."
"Oh? Well, I suppose scientists do have all the answers, but I'm just curious to know why you don't believe in God. After all, your whole family were very strong believers."
"Well, I think God is just a figment of our minds when we want to explain what we don't understand. Those incredible stories in the Bible are just that. Stories without any credibility! Take that one of the parting of the Red Sea. Come on... I bet that river was shallow and coincidentally there was a flash flood as the Egyptian army tried to cross. Then the story of a dead man coming back to life. Preposterous!"
"Ah, I see you really know your Bible. You really can explain things logically as well."
"Yes," said Zaver, "I was a regular at church and Sunday school till age 16 when I realized that the Bible was nothing but a book on the improbable."
"Oh, I see. But tell me, said the man, "how heavy is an airplane?"
"Why, it would be about 800,000 pounds or more. Why?"
"I was just wondering how an 800,000-pound object can fly in the air. You scientists and engineers really are brilliant."
"Well, to get an 800,000-pound plane off the ground and fly, you need jet engines and fuel and a lot of engineering. It's... complicated."
"Yes, it does seem to be. But tell me another thing, how heavy is a cloud?"
"A cloud? Why, at the very least about a million pounds, going up to about a billion pounds for a very, very large and heavy cloud."
"Then, Zaver, tell me how does a cloud, which is more than the weight of an aircraft, float and move around in the sky without any jets, or engines, or engineering, or any other visible means of propulsion? How come a cloud doesn't fall out of the sky?"
"Well, sir, that's nature. It's the vapor from the earth which causes heat, which causes the cloud to expand so that it becomes lighter than its surrounding air, and hence it can fly. It's complicated."
"Yes, I am sure it is. But you talked about the parting of the Red Sea. Just FYI, there is a scientific explanation for that as well. But just for you to know, science is another word for 'creation.' But creation minus justice."
"But about parting the Red Sea, it was done by a 'negative' storm surge caused by a Medicane. So you see, it was not all that improbable as your mind thinks it is."
"And as far as the clouds go, where does the vapor come from? Who created nature?"
"Now to answer a very serious question you posed - can a dead man become alive? You are a scientist and you must have read or heard about the delayed return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). Of course, this does not apply to a God. How about you get science to explain why Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valley shoots blood-red water into a river? Maybe it will explain Egypt. Remember, explain the why and not the how. Similarly, Hessdalen Lights in Norway, Catatumbo lightning in Venezuela, the glow worm caves, or stones that float and sail."
Zaver smiled and was about to interject when the man said, "Well, the next stop is mine. I hope you do well and all the very best for your lecture."
He got up and started to leave.
Zaver said, "I hope we meet again."
"Oh, I am sure we will."
With that, he got off the train as Zaver called out after him, "Sir, what is your name?"
The man looked back and smiled and disappeared in the crowd.
As the train moved on, Zaver lapsed into a thoughtful silence, his mind full of his strange encounter and what the man had said.
When he awoke, his station had come, and he got off to be met by his old friend Abe. They hugged warmly, and Abe said, "Zaver, you look great. Got a facial today, did you? Hope to meet someone interesting?"
"No," said Zaver. "Why do you say that?"
"You seem to have a glow on your face I've never seen before. But let's hurry or we will be late."
Zaver ascended the dais as he was introduced and took his position at the speaker's lectern. He opened his notes on "Social Constructionism" & began his speech. He stared at the paper and began speaking, without looking at his notes.
"Science, my friends, is nothing but an attempt of man to understand creation. The Big Bang Theory is a good explanation of how it all started, but it does not explain why it started and who started that first bang... recently, we discovered the world's oldest pyramid in Indonesia. It is perfectly sculpted, but, and here is the shocker: there is no evidence of human intervention. Who made that pyramid and why? How is not important. One day, science will find out for sure, but till then, my friends, we can only wonder and believe..."
As he continued his speech, he locked eyes with the audience, and especially one man, the man he met on the train, who sat in the middle, just smiling and nodding.
Zaver never referred to his notes again during his speech. He spoke as if in a dream as he continued, "...you see, there is no technology which has no single point of failure without duplication and redundancy. But, oddly enough, creation has no single point of failure and no redundancy. There has to be a creator of all this ... who engineered this world - from the tallest mountains to the tiniest bit of grass and gave each one a purpose in the creation. Science has maybe understood but 10% of creation. Who controls it and how? Can these creatures we know so well communicate? Some studies say they do. We do not know. I do remember a passage from some book which said, and I quote..."
"And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!'"
As Zaver went on, the entire audience sat spellbound, shocked by his thoughts and revelations. Only one man smiled through it all and then slipped away into the darkness of the hall.
At the conference lunch, Zaver was thronged by the attendees who had some serious questions. While he tried to answer them he himself had so many questions to ask, so many ideas and doubts. His head throbbed as if with some newfound discovery. He desperately sought the strange man but he was nowhere to be found.
As he left the hall, Zaver smiled to himself. He knew he would meet that man again and he looked forward to it. Suddenly he stopped. He just remembered from which book he had quoted that passage. It was the Bible.
Another passage wafted into his head, a memory from his childhood:
"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come".
Zaver then knew who he had met on the train and where he could meet Him again.
