The Scientific Indian

He switched up his little gadget as Val stretched out sleepily, upsetting a framed photo of their parents on the side table.

“No, there are no references to anything of this sort.”

“Hmm. Let’s get back to the diary, san.”

Mey Smythe’s Diary – Brussels - 2 Feb 2132
No wonder politics is a pit. More accurately, it’s a snake-pit full of these career politicians.

The “Ark-ive” exercise has degenerated into a maelstrom of name-calling and backstabbing which I did not foresee at all. My faith in our so-called philosophical maturity has turned out into a bag of hot air, punctured by the first pinpricks. Oh, what I’d give to string these myopic lepers upside down over a pack of hungry pigs.

It all began with a little verbal skirmish during one of the ‘Ark-ive’ discussions in the Senate a couple of days ago. We were drafting the policy on how access to the ‘Ark-ive’ would be provided, at first to academies and state organizations, and eventually to the general public. A member, with a pronounced religious view, wanted to ban any queries that would directly or indirectly be related to the religion he claimed to represent. He said it would amount to religious interference and insult the leaders of his religion, past and clear. Being deliberately vague, it was hard to tell what his argument was! Still, it was sufficient to get a member of a rival faith riled up. Accusations regarding the respective provenances of their religions were tossed around. Each informed the other that one look at the ‘Ark-ive’ would settle things once and for all.

Till now, I had not seen any religious considerations affect the working of the Comity. What can I say, we have been very extraordinarily naïve.

The session adjourned amidst the increasing bedlam. When we resumed the next day, both the warring parties seemed to have come together. It was no surprise when they tabled a proposal to strike down all ‘Ark-ive’ queries of any religious nature. Clearly, they’ve decided that, rivalries apart, opening up their own religions to scrutiny may jeopardize not only the fundamentals of their religions, but also their own standing as leaders of their faiths.

It was not a compromise of my choice, but I was ready to take it, though reluctantly. But there were some who’ve gone on the warpath against these mega-religions. It includes a bunch of particularly strident atheists, but mostly, it’s made up of members of some 2nd millennium sects, who don’t have ancient holy books or prophets or divine earthly incarnations to defend, and have the advantage that their mythos is purely elemental or doctrinal. They demand open access, but for all the wrong reasons: just to unmask the mega-religions and fill the vacuum with their own brand of mindspace.

It looks like the clouds from some long-forgotten religious crusade have gathered above.