007 - alive

Rocky used to believe there was no soul. People just were. A brain, a chunk of meat, what reason was there to believe there was anything further? Somehow the switch got flipped on, and a spark was put into our brain. If nothing went wrong, Rocky figured, most people have got about 80 years or so, till that spark runs out, the engine stops, and that's it. Like a dead car on the side of the road, people die.

Then Rocky started reading more. He stood on his infallible position, built on science--knowing that he was right. There is no soul, there is no God, there is nothing beyond this right here and right now. Look, we have the proof, we understand everything in this existence, and there's no reason to believe in anything beyond what you can experience yourself.

But Rocky continued to read. The moral high-ground started to slip. The world used to be flat. People didn't believe the world used to be flat--the world used to be flat. That is what there was. The earth went from one end to the other, and at the edges it dropped off into nothingness. This is what the world was. There was no reason to think anything further, they understood everything in their existence.

The world isn't what we see, Rocky realized. There's nothing more supremely ignorant than to think that everything is understood. Humans, meek creatures, self-professed chunks of meat as Rocky readily admits, somehow claim to understand the world around them now. It's all figured out now, we are soulless, just like it was all figured out then, when we were flat.

These days Rocky still thinks there's no soul. He speculates and postulates, debates with others, and in general feels comfortable with his beliefs. He doesn't, however, have a high-ground now, that acts as a defense from all other thoughts. Instead, his belief exists, amidst others, and the gates never close. Thoughts and opinions are just that. He exists in a world of humility, not of extreme arrogance that only sets him up for a greater fall.

These days Rocky thinks. These days, Rocky never knows.