My Trip in Time Read online

that said, what did I want to talk about? After all, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

  As I tried to gather my thoughts I looked around the observation station, and I marveled at how awe-inspiring and yet ordinary the setting was. Sure I was on a space station on the fringes of time and space, and that of course was awesome. But as I watched the tour groups walking or floating by, I couldn't help but be reminded of all those field trips I took as a kid in school. Many of the teenagers were goofing off, or acting like this was the lamest place in the universe, while the younger kids ran about and pointed excitedly out the window. They seemed so ordinary, that it was almost laughable.

  As I studied them, an idea began to form in my mind. The people in the future maybe literally light years ahead of us in the 21st century, but in some ways they were no different than us and maybe not as advanced in others. Perhaps mankind in the 41st century had simply been blinded by their many achievements, and needed a little dose of 21st century practicality. Maybe I could be the spark from the past that could ignite the fires of enlightenment, which would lead them to the obvious conclusion that God is a myth that man invented so that we could sleep better at night.

  “OK,” I began. “You make some valid points about the size of the universe and suffering. However those are all beside the point. The real question is why do people in the 41st century still delude themselves into believing that God really exists? I mean come on, isn't it obvious that mankind, throughout our entire history, has been looking for someone to protect us from dangerous beasts, nature, disease and of course, from each other. Mankind invented the concept of God as a security blanket to allow us to think there was something in this universe that could protect us from the cold harsh world. The belief in God is no better than a small child pulling his blankets over his head to protect himself from the monsters under the bed.”

  “In the 41st century,” Aaron replied. “We commonly referred to this argument as the Great Delusion. And not much has changed in the last 2,000 years. As you stated, there is no definite proof in the existence of the divine. So it is possible that when you die you are not reborn, there is no afterlife – you cease to exist, period.”

  “Yes,” I agreed and not wanting to lose momentum, for as I learned on the debate team the best way to win an argument is to attack, attack, attack, I added. “And no offense, what confuses me is, well…I thought people would be a lot smarter in the future. I mean, I know you can fly, move stuff around with your minds, and absorb energy from the sun, but…”

  “Why do so many people delude themselves into believing in God?” Aaron continued, with a grin. “Well I completed my doctoral thesis on this exact subject.”

  “Doctoral thesis?”

  “The educational standards of the 41st century are a little more advanced than in your time,” the Professor replied. “In the 41st century, a young person achieves the equivalent of a PhD when they graduate High School.”

  “High School?” I replied, incredulously.

  “Oh yes,” the Professor continued. “Of course since everyone gets one, we don't go around calling people Doctor, like in your day. But the term doctoral thesis has carried through the centuries, and the course work is equivalent to your time, actually probably a little higher. So Aaron here, at age 18, has a PhD in Psychology and Jacob a PhD in Physics. By the time they graduate from college, they will most likely have anywhere from 4 - 6 PhD degrees.”

  Well, in the grand scheme of everything else I learned about the future, everyone having multiple PhD degrees wasn't really that surprising – especially compared to the ability to fly.

  “OK, so as I was saying,” Aaron continued. “I completed my doctoral thesis on whether or not the concept of God was created by man's subconscious. The most famous proponent of this theory is of course Sigmund Freud, who speculated that mankind's belief in God was a delusion created by our subconscious need for a supreme Father figure.”

  This of course, I knew. Freud's views on religion were often quoted by some of the atheist blogs that I read. Not to mention my old college roommate, Stan, loved to quote Freud.

  “However the reason his theory is so famous is not due to its acceptance by psychologists, but because Freud is arguably the most famous psychologists in the history of mankind. Ironically, Freud's theory is widely rejected as the reason mankind believes in God, but it is accepted as why many people are atheists. And Freud himself is sighted as the stereotypical example.”

  “What?”

  “Well,” Aaron continued. “The notion that mankind created the concept of a divine being, or beings, to serve as a father figure, sounds good, but is not historically or scientifically supported. Not to say that man's desire to have life mean something, and for life not to end at death, doesn't reinforce a religious mindset – it is just not the cause. For example, in your time the majority of people are born into a religious belief system. They don't just make it up. And the origins of mankind's two largest religions, Christianity and Islam, are historically well documented – and clearly not the result of a need to create a supreme father figure. Even when you look at the earliest religious practices, many did not center on a specific divine presence, but instead on a desired behavior. In fact, you can argue that most religions share a common trait on how mankind should behave. Some theologians have argued that this is indeed proof of a divine calling. As the famous author of your time C.S. Lewis, wrote…”

  “C.S. Lewis was a little before James's time,” the Professor interjected.

  Which was true, but I had seen a couple movies based on his books.

  “Oh, sorry,” Aaron replied. “Well anyway, C.S Lewis argues in his book, Mere Christianity, that it is the divine calling that causes mankind to search for God and establishes the moral law that we all seem to inherently know.”

  “Moral law?” I asked.

  “This is the theory that everyone is born with the inherent knowledge of right and wrong, and that in many cases it is not what we would like to do,” Aaron replied. “C.S. Lewis argues that a powerful person may desire to take his neighbor's possessions, but inherently knows that this is wrong. Not to say that he still wouldn't do it, but if he does, he would make excuses on why he was justified to do it. As C.S. Lewis observes, when you study the different cultures through mankind's history you find the same moral themes in their stories, art and religions. Like greed is bad, charity is good, and etc. C.S. Lewis argues that this repeated moral theme, a theme that at times everyone finds inconvenient or impossible to follow, is indeed proof of a divine call. Many also argue that this divine calling is why nearly 90% of the population believes in a divine presence.”

  I have to admit that was an interesting argument, and I had never really thought about it before. The human notion of fair play and the golden rule were in fact counter evolutionary behavior, meaning that such actions didn't promote the propagation of the smartest and strongest of the species. However I still didn't really get how Freud's theory applied to atheism, and I asked just that.

  “Well,” Aaron replied. “In general, you can break atheists into four basic groups: the pure-atheists – sometimes called the religious-neutral, the anti-religious, the religious-skeptics, and the ego-atheists. The pure-atheists, or religious-neutral, are individuals who arrive at their beliefs through an un-bias observation of the facts. In layman terms, this simply means they are not carrying around emotional baggage that is influencing their beliefs. Most atheists would classify themselves in this group, but many are not. In fact, someone with this mindset is much more likely to be agnostic, than an atheist.”

  “The anti-religious atheists,” Aaron continued. “Are people who, for a variety of different reasons, view religion, or the notion of God, in a negative light. Freud, who was vehemently anti-religious, is the stereotypical example of this group. As the famous 22nd century Psychologists Cora Vivian wrote, the greater their vehemence against religion the more likely
their belief is a sub-conscious response to a negative set of events in their lives. In the case of Freud, who wrote that he disliked his father, and was a Jew watching the rise of anti-Semitic behavior in Germany, he would understandably have a subconscious predisposition against a supreme Father figure. Clues to this type of atheists are in their writings and behavior; if they make angry, derogatory comments about religion, then there atheism is most likely the product of conscious or subconscious bias.”

  “The religious-skeptics are generally classified as people whose atheism is driven by a subconscious fear that a divine being may not exist. So in short, they give up on God before God can give up on them. This is a psychological disorder that most people suffer from, to varying degrees, and often has no impact on their theistic beliefs. As Dr. Vivian wrote, sometimes we all find that it is easier to just give up on something, than to live in fear of it giving up on us. Dr. Vivian also wrote that many people who are raised in a particular faith will go through a period of religious skepticism as they transition from adolescence into adulthood. Per Dr. Vivian, it is very common and normal for young adults to question, and even reject for a time, many of the values and